From 15-17 September 2026, the Independent Integrity Unit (IIU) and the Independent Redress hosted Mechanism (IRM) hosted the GCF Regional Accountability Workshop in Panama for integrity and grievance redress focal points from Direct Access Entities in Central America and the Caribbean and regional civil society organisations. This was the first time that these two units have conducted such a workshop in this region.

This workshop built off past regional trainings that the two units have jointly held for DAEs and civil society around the world, including in Rwanda, Morocco, and Vietnam.

In Panama, participants from 20 DAEs engaged substantively with GCF’s integrity framework - from identifying integrity risks and safeguarding climate finance to applying practical tools on anti-money laundering, countering terrorist financing, investigations, whistleblower protection, outreach, public participation, and the peer learning programme. The active participation from participants in the workshop helped to turn these sessions into a meaningful exchange on how to strengthen integrity and accountability in practice.

The two units were joined on the ground by colleagues from the GCF Department of Risk Management and Compliance and the GCF Department of Latin America and the Caribbean, who delivered sessions on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism and project preparation, respectively. Invited speakers from Transparency International also attended to deliver a session on public participation in climate finance projects.

This workshop also served as the closing engagement for IIU's 2025-2026 Peer Learning Programme Cohort, which is an initiative of peer engagement and networking between 14 global DAEs. The group has met monthly since February 2025 to discuss various integrity-focused topics and share ideas of best practices. You can learn more about the Peer Learning Programme on the IIU website.