 Ladies and gentlemen, now for the special remarks, may I invite to the podium Mr. Mamadal Khonadir, Chair, Adaptation Board AFB. Prime Minister of Nepal, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, let me just lay express my gratitude to the governments of Nepal for hosting us in this beautiful city and join the organizing committee to thank Honourable Prime Minister Quirella for his presence here during this morning. I would like to extend my thanks to the organizers for the invitation to join you at this important conference. Kolis, we are gathering at a time when people, societies, and ecosystems in each of our countries are feeling the adverse effect of climate change. Here in Nepal, it's clear that melting glaciers will affect a vast stretch of communities from the at-land maintain of Himalayas to the coastal region of the Bay of Bender. It might not be Bukina Faso in West Africa and invulnerable countries from Sicilian Africa. More erratic and extreme weather events is hitting farmers harder. As countries around the world face such changes, they can look to the adaptation fund as a model of climate financing for vulnerable communities. Since the adaptation fund became active in 2010, we have partnered a fully operational diet access financing model. The diet access modality is unique in the sense that it allows developing countries to take full ownership of adaptation initiatives from project design to implementation and monitoring. So far, 16 countries have taken advantage of this new modality by having national agencies accredited to take on the full management of adaptation finance on behalf of their country. We are seeing that the diet access is promoting community-based adaptation at the local level in the number of countries. In Ceregan, for example, a non-governmental agency based on this unique approach was chosen by the country to take charge of adaptation resources and have brought small local entities into its decision-making processes. One of these, Dynamic Woman Community Association took responsibility for managing over $1 million in concrete adaptation activities, including pitch rehabilitation and construction of anti-salt water bias. This is an example of championing substantial amount of finance directly to the most vulnerable and the most in need. More recently in Rwanda, another missed developed country, a national entity has been accepted with over $9 million for community-based adaptation to reduce the impact of floods and landslides. These projects will provide adaptation finance to community-based organizations and family groups who will receive support from local governments in addressing their adaptation needs. Colleagues, these two examples are important for two reasons. Firstly, they embody remission to the adaptation fund to address the needs of the most vulnerable. In every project submission, the board ensures all projects have gone through a perspective consultation process with local communities. This is a key part of our review process and ensures that local voices from the communities are included in the project design. The second aspect which I found particularly helpful is to see the direct access process working in reality. I have personal experience of the many years of negotiation to get into this position and to see 16 national agencies, such as both in Senegal and Rwanda, take the lead of action on adaptation is a very positive signal. Having said on face, colleagues, challenges remain. Although every developing country is eligible to use direct access, so far only 16 have been accredited to access our resources. Of these 16, only five have managed to get finance, flowing to concrete projects and programs on the ground. We need to extend these opportunities to more countries and reach more vulnerable communities in the weeks. To do this, the adaptation fund board recently approved the readiness program for climate finance, which aims to increase the number of countries benefitting from direct access. This program will pick up next week and will build the capacity of developing countries to ensure they are prepared to use our resources in line with international standards. An important part of the program will be self-serve organization. We want to encourage national entities in developing countries to assist each other in building climate finance capacities. We are optimistic that the number of countries using direct access will increase and, in fact, the board has set aside 50% of its resources for national entities to access. As of today, over 100 million US dollars is available for this. Colleagues, I wish to end by recognizing that our efforts in adaptation do not stand to be long. The challenge of climate change is one that will not be solved by any one ATT or single approach. You, as a group of professionals and practitioners, have demonstrated over recent years that community-based adaptation requires collaboration and cooperation across boundaries. You have demonstrated a dedication to addressing the needs of the most vulnerable at the local level. The adaptation fund shares that mission. It's my hope that we can work together to achieve this. I look forward to my discussions with you and wish a successful conference. I thank you very much.