The Finance in Common Innovation Lab (FiCS Lab): Finance in Common (FiCS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) have partnered to operationalize the FiCS Lab, with CPI as the Secretariat and financial support from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). The objective of the FiCS Lab is to help public development banks (PDBs) and other FiCS members address barriers to climate finance by sharing best practices, developing standardized approaches to climate instruments, and providing technical support to move ideas through development to piloting to implementation for emerging markets and developing economies.
The FiCS Lab Incubator is intended to support PDBs and other similar public entities in EMDEs, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized entities, in developing and implementing innovative financial instruments that will allow them to expand climate finance. It aims to build capacity and accelerate new initiatives by providing direct technical assistance and allowing PDBs to procure external services or advice.
FiCS Lab will provide financial and technical support to assist PDBs to develop and pilot financial instruments that support effective and innovative climate finance. Finance support will be between 250,000 and 500,000 USD, depending on budget and needs. Proposals are sought from consortia consisting of at least one PDB (or other similar public entity) and at least one development partner. The PDB will be considered as lead applicant, and proposals will be evaluated on their impact and benefit for the PDB partner, as well as on their technical strength.