Addressing the Financing Gap for Adaptation in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries

Abstract

This paper examines opportunities to address the financing gap for adaptation in fragile and conflict-affected countries through greater synergies between humanitarian, development and climate finance. Fragile states which have the least capacity to address the challenges of climate change, are often most at risk and vulnerable to its effects. However, the financing gap for adaptation in fragile countries coupled with the risk of renewed conflict linked to climate change is likely to accentuate the existing adaptation divide and create a vicious negative cycle. While creating synergies between different sources of finance is a potentially powerful way to address the adaptation financing gap and avoid mal-adaptation in fragile countries, joint action remains the exception. However, innovative practices to bridge efforts across different sources of finance are emerging in different country contexts, such as Jordan and Mali. As these innovative practices are very recent, it will be critical to leverage their learning potential to fully assess their effectiveness and replicability in similar development settings. Replicability will also be constrained by the differences in perspectives, objectives and financing between the humanitarian, development and climate adaptation communities. The resilience paradigm offers an opportunity to reconcile such differences and facilitate replicability through a shared theory of change across the different communities. The formulation process for the NAPs, which has recently begun in a number of fragile states, potentially provides a practical platform to bring different communities together in support of financing sustainable climate resilient development.