CES-MED financial experts met with the 9 affiliated cities in the Maghreb countries, covered by the project – Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, to examine opportunities for new investments in the region whereby Priority projects for funding were selected and project fiches were updated.

Following this selection, 27 potential financiers between the 3 countries were contacted and may be grouped in 4 broad categories:

1- Large multilateral organisations specialised in lending such as EIB, EBRD, AfDB, etc.

2- Multilateral organisations with specialisation in climate change, the WB bodies such as CTF/ FIP but also the GEF funds and the GCF and the UN bodies UNEP,UNDP, etc.

3- The large international bilateral organisations, GIZ-KFW, AFD-FFEM, DFID, JICA, etc.

4- The smaller international bilateral organisations with more limited budget such as SIDA, NORAD, DANIDA, NDF, Monaco, Region Wallonne.

Specific projects eligible for investment were identified as such:

Individual small projects may particularly interest categories 3 and 4. Category 1 and 2 are interested in more substantial projects.

In such case some conditions may facilitate large investment:

• Aggregate projects for a number of cities, in one sector i.e. urban lighting, PV installation, etc. Ideally to reach overall financing needs of the order of 20 to 30 million euros.
• Provide guarantee (e.g. from national government, EU, GCF, etc.)
• The financial counterpart would not necessarily be the city but a national public financial organisation, e.g. the “Caisse des Collectivités Locales” in Tunisia.

In conclusion, some factors to take into account for further developments are that:

• Part of the projects is to be financed directly by the city itself.
• Part of the projects may receive grants support.
• Part of the projects can be co-financed by the private sector.

The CES-MED project is an EU-funded regional initiative set up to provide training and technical assistance support to local and national authorities in the southern Mediterranean region, with a view to helping them respond more actively to sustainable policy challenges.

CES-MED ensures that the actions proposed match with the objectives of the Covenant of Mayors: to reach and even go beyond the European objective to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% thanks to the improvement of energy efficiency and the increased use of sustainable energy.

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