The Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has selected Mafalda Duarte as its new Executive Director, after a global recruitment process. The decision was taken at the Board’s thirty-fifth meeting, at GCF headquarters in Songdo, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
Duarte has led the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) as Chief Executive Officer since 2014. She has spent her career in climate finance, working in more than 30 developing countries on programmes for low-emission, climate-resilient development, and previously held senior positions at the African Development Bank and the World Bank.
The Board’s co-chairs, Nauman Bhatti of Pakistan and Victoria Gunderson of the United States, said she was chosen from a highly competitive international field, and pointed to her experience managing climate funds as GCF enters its next programming period.
The outgoing Executive Director, Yannick Glemarec, reaches the end of his four-year term on 2 April 2023, having told the Board he would not seek a second term. Deputy Executive Director Henry Gonzalez will act as Executive Director until Duarte takes up the post.
GCF supports low-emission, climate-resilient development in developing countries. It is part of the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and serves the Paris Agreement. Its Executive Director leads the Secretariat and a portfolio of more than 200 projects worth USD 42 billion, including co-financing.
Source: Green Climate Fund.