National Adaptation Programme Of Action Research Articles

Climate Change and Poverty Reduction Strategies: Challenges and Lessons from Tanzania

There is no doubt that climate change has significantly impeded poverty reduction and development efforts in many countries. Recent climate-related catastrophes have caused significant damages to developing countries and their citizens. This article analyses the nexus between climate change mitigation and its impact on Tanzania’s poverty reduction strategies. With the government’s decision to abandon poverty reduction strategies in 2011, it is vital to understand how these issues are mainstreamed in national plans. Drawing on extensive literature of secondary sources and official publications, the article demonstrates that, notwithstanding many promising features of the new national development plan, Tanzania has performed poorly within the overarching notion of mainstreaming climate change in its various national development plans. Findings further show that despite all these efforts made in previous climate change and poverty reduction strategies, Tanzania is still ill-prepared to face future climate change challenges. The article concludes that climate change issues are real and have already caused a significant setback to agricultural production and other productive sectors, posing a serious threat to human and food security. It recommends reconsidering mainstreaming climate change in development plans, adequate budgetary allocation, and establishing an effective National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) to coordinate climate-risk information at national and local levels.

Transformational Adaptation in Least Developed Countries: Does Expanded Stakeholder Participation Make a Difference?

Did the novel planning arrangements in the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) enable stakeholders to substantively influence adaptation planning? If so, does the observed influence have potential for more transformational adaptation? We inform these questions by reviewing and coding the first 50 NAPAs, prepared by the world’s poorest nations with support from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). We then apply categorical statistics and qualitative comparative analysis to test for stakeholder influence on the planning process and outcomes. We find little evidence that the composition of stakeholder participation influenced climate vulnerability analysis or adaptation planning in the NAPAs. Although the NAPAs were designed to be participatory and country-driven, they were constrained by limited budgets, prescribed guidelines from the UNFCCC, and the challenges of cultivating effective stakeholder participation. Key aspects of NAPAs even worked against generating transformational adaptation. Chief amongst these, risk exposure and sensitivity were emphasized over adaptive capacity in assessing vulnerability, and cost- effectiveness and synergies with existing development and environmental policies were priorities for selecting adaptation actions. These barriers to effective stakeholder engagement and transformational adaptation are timely reminders for those countries currently in the process of preparing their National Adaptation Plans to the UNFCCC.

Synergies between Climate Policies and the Sustainable Development Goals in Haiti

Addressing climate change is an important priority area for Haiti as evidenced by Haiti’s Nationally Determined Contribution of 2015, the National Climate Change Policy of 2016 and the National Adaptation Plan of Action updated in 2017, but it is not Haiti’s only development priority. Balancing many different national priorities can be challenging, and so identifying areas of synergy, where more than one goal can be met at the same time, can help Haiti to achieve its climate goals and other development goals at the same time. One way to identify connections between climate priorities and other priorities is through the Sustainable Development Goals. The goal of this analysis was to identify how Haiti’s climate priorities align with the SDGs, synergies between achieving climate priorities and the SDGs, and any gaps in terms of SDGs that are not addressed in Haiti’s climate policies. We identified climate priorities and actions as articulated in Haiti’s three major climate policies: Nationally Determined Contribution to the Paris Agreement, the National Climate Change Policy, and the National Adaptation Programme of Action. These policies included 99 adaptation actions, 19 mitigation actions, and 12 cross-cutting actions. The SDGs are not explicitly mentioned in any of Haiti’s climate policies, but there are many areas of synergy that can be found between Haiti’s climate policies and the SDGs and the analysis found that there are many opportunities for Haiti to achieve its targets for the SDGs and its climate goals at the same time. The most common connections were with SDG 15: Life on Land (9 priorities). Other common connections were with SDG 2: No Hunger (4 priorities) and SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy (3 priorities). The fisheries and coastal zone, agriculture and food security, health, water resources, health, energy, and human establishments and culture sectors had particularly strong connections. A strong case can be made that investments in climate action will help to achieve many of the SDGs, as investing in climate action also means investing directly in the implementation of many SDGs.

An Analysis of Water Policies and Strategies of Bangladesh in the Context of Climate Change

Water sector is crucial to sustainable development. It sustains the natural resources, livelihood of the people and facilitates to operate economic activities of the country. Currently, the water sector of Bangladesh is under severe threats particularly due to impacts of climate change. The Fourth Assessment Report of International Panel on climate change confirms that the water sector will be one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. Climate change impacts are being manifested in the form of extreme climatic events and sea-level rise followed by salinity intrusion into the groundwater and wetlands. The Government of Bangladesh has formulated policies to address the climate-induced water vulnerabilities. However, the existing policies are heavily leaned towards strategising adaptation options to address short-run climate-induced water vulnerabilities. Implementation of long-term approaches to combating climate change require laying groundwork which include extensive research on determining the future impacts of climate change on water resources. The article aims to assess some of the major policies, including National Water Policy, Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, National Strategy for Water Sanitation and Hygiene, The National Sustainable Development Strategy, National Adaptation Programme of Action and Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, through the lens of climate change to determine that up to what extent these policies have addressed the climate-induced water vulnerabilities. The article has recommended to emphasise on conducting a comprehensive research with proper institutional setup on the long-run impacts of climate change on water resources and undertake subsequent water adaptation strategies to address the water-related problems.

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation into sectoral policies in Nepal: A review

Nepalese people have experienced climate variability for a long time and the mitigation and adaptation responses they have made to reduce the effect of climate variability are not new phenomena for Nepal. However, mainstreaming climate change issues into sectoral policies from the government can be seen as recent activities in Nepal. Nepal has contributed negligible amount of emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) of global greenhouse gas, it is the fourth most vulnerable country in the world. In this context, this paper aims to review climate change adaptation policies in terms of sectoral integration. This paper has adopted text-mining method for information retrieval and knowledge mining and followed step-by-step approach to undertake review of policies. It concludes that National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) in 2010 can be a milestone in sectoral adaptation of climate change issue largely because it has provided the national framework for sectoral adaptation to climate change. However, NAPA ignores the importance of structural and institutional reforms needed for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into sectoral agencies. Climate change Policy, 2011, Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA) 2011, Constitution of Nepal, 2015, Local Government Operation Act (LGOA) 2017, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, 2017 and National REDD+ Strategy, 2018 are other prominent legislative and policy frameworks that have significant contribution in sectoral integration of climate change adaptation issues. However, lack of climate change act in order to implement fully these policies into practice for its implementation can be a major obstacle to achieve the goal. In this context, strong legislative foundation with effective institutional mechanism among different sectors will be very crucial to capture the spirit of new Federal Constitution of Nepal.

Foreign‐Funded Adaptation to Climate Change in Africa: Mirroring Administrative Traditions or Traditions of Administrative Blueprinting?

AbstractClimate change impacts are most severe in developing countries with limited adaptive capacity. Accordingly, in Africa, climate change adaptation has become an issue of international funding and practice. As suggested in the Introduction to this special issue, administrative traditions could play a role in how adaptation plays out. This, however, raises questions about how foreign funding regimes coincide with recipients' administrative traditions, especially on the African continent where administrative traditions are often meagerly established. To address these questions, this article takes an explorative approach. From a literature review of African state governance and development aid approaches, we take colonial legacy as the most distinctive factor responsible for African administrative traditions. In addition, we define three ways in which foreign aid programs have dealt with African administration: (1) aligning with donor administration, (2) blueprinting administration, and (3) ignoring administration. Using 34 African countries' National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), we analyze how African governments actually frame adaptation as a governance challenge. We contrast these frames with: (1) administrative traditions based on colonial legacy and (2) the ways in which development aid programs have historically dealt with recipient African administrations. Our findings indicate that NAPAs only meagerly refer to the administrative tradition that could be expected based on colonial legacy, but extensively refer to blueprint ideas common among international donors, or ignore administration altogether. We discuss the implications for adaptation to climate change.

Policy Coherence and Interplay between Climate Change Adaptation Policies and the Forestry Sector in Nepal.

Least Developed Countries are likely to be hit the hardest by climate change and need focused efforts towards adaptation. Nepal recognizes that it needs to integrate climate change adaptation into various policies, but limited understanding of how to make these policies coherent is among the factors that hinder effective adaptation action. This can lead to wasted resources and lost opportunities. This paper applies concepts from policy coherence for development frameworks and policy content analysis to examine coherence in Nepal's climate and forest policies-and discusses the factors hindering effective implementation. The policies are analyzed at the horizontal/external level at three layers-motivation, measures, and planned implementation process. The paper finds that policies are more consistent on motivation level and adaptation measures, but are less coherent on implementation. The National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) is more explicit in identifying institutions, organizations, roles and responsibilities, resource allocation (financial), and a monitoring and evaluation plan for climate change adaptation while other policies such as Climate Change Policy 2011, National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2014-2020, Forest Policy 2015, and Forest Sector Strategy 2016 have critical gaps in this area. This paper conclude that formulation of a policy, articulating targets, and mobilizing financial resources are in themselves not sufficient to effectively address climate change adaptation. Policy-based legislation is required, together with development of a supportive collaborative multi-stakeholder approach at different levels of governance, backed up by effective, collaborative monitoring and enforcement.

Ecosystem services in adaptation projects in West Africa

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which adaptation projects have incorporated ecosystem services, as well as their redesigning options. The projects selected are listed under National Adaptation Programme of Action in West African region.Design/methodology/approachA desktop survey approach was used to review 168 projects from 13 countries across West Africa. The projects were categorized and analyzed according to their adaptation goal, thematic focus, their implementation duration and level of investment.FindingsThe adaptation initiatives are dominated by actions in the agricultural sector accounting for 32 per cent of the total. Further, they were characterized by small grants consideration with 63 per cent falling under US$1m budget, short-term implementation duration with 46 per cent having three years’ execution period. A large portion of projects (55 per cent) mentioned directly one or more ecosystem services, with provisioning services being referred to in 50 per cent of the cases.Originality/valueAdaptation projects with ecosystem services components are more sustainable and beneficial to the community. Hence, more consideration of nature benefits during project design, more financial consideration and localizing of the projects to realize the global adaptation goal should be considered.

Mainstreaming national adaptation programmes of action into national development plans in Lesotho

PurposeThe concept of National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) is advocated at international, regional and national levels. The concept is thought to foster sustainability of livelihoods against impacts of climate change. This paper analyses the mainstreaming of NAPA into national development plans in Lesotho as accentuated by policies and programmes.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is broadly qualitative and reviews policies and projects on agriculture and food security, environment, forestry, water and irrigation aimed at sustaining rural livelihoods. Data from relevant government documents, commissioned studies’ reports, literature and key stakeholders are used.FindingsAlthough the mainstreaming entry point for NAPA is identified in the country’s Vision 2020 and National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2012/13-2016/17, financial, technical, human and other resources are inadequate to ensure its effective implementation. There is little evidence of NAPA mainstreaming into development plans by the line ministries of finance and economic development other than donor-funded projects. Absence of climate change policy influence means NAPA is not well-factored into the national development agenda, as mainstreaming is difficult without appropriate policies. Most projects with effect on climate change impact abatement originate from specific sectors and are disconnected from each other.Originality/valueBased on the findings, ways to leverage NAPA via mainstreaming are discussed. It is concluded that NAPA mainstreaming offers a promising avenue for initiating and promoting sustainable livelihoods in Lesotho. The study demonstrates the applicability of the presented sustainable livelihood framework.

AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY IN CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION PLANNING

Abstract Climate change is one of the biggest threats to food production worldwide. Recently, an increasing number of initiatives have embraced the concept of climate smart agriculture to respond to climate change adaptation and mitigation challenges. A central component of this approach is the use of agricultural biodiversity at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels for increasing productivity, adaptability and resilience of agricultural production systems. This paper analyses the extent to which the use of agricultural biodiversity is included in the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) developed by 50 least developed countries to guide their actions in relation to climate adaptation. The results of the analyses indicate that in the majority of the NAPAs, agricultural biodiversity has not been incorporated in a comprehensive manner and that increased efforts can be done at national and international levels for effectively making agricultural biodiversity work for most vulnerable countries’ adaptation to climate change. Key words: agrobiodiversity, NAPAs, smallholder farmers, developing countries, climate change adaptation

Assessment of Child Health in National Adaptation Programmes of Action for Climate Change

Assessment of Child Health in National Adaptation Programmes of Action for Climate Change

Socio-economic factors influencing household dependence on forests and its implication for forest-based climate change interventions

In most African countries, forest-based climate change intervention initiatives such as nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) and national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs) are widely accepted. This is mainly due to the fact that they are relevant in addressing multiple challenges associated with rural development, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and sustainable forest management. However, there are concerns about the implications of strategic and practical steps taken in this context on forest-dependent communities. Thus, there is need to reconcile local socio-economic vulnerabilities and forest-based climate change intervention initiatives. In the current study, socio-economic factors influencing households’ dependence on forest resources and associated implications on climate change interventions were investigated. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used to select 366 households from forest-based rural communities in Vhembe District of South Africa. A structured questionnaire was administered to household heads in 21 villages. The Pearson’s chi-square test was used to analyse the factors that influence household dependence on forest. The effects of household socio-economic characteristics on households’ forest dependence influencing factor were determined using the binary logit model. Up to 97% of the respondents depended on the forest resources predominantly because of low costs associated with using them. It was observed that socio-economic characteristics of households such as farm husbandry skills, years of residence (53–65) in the community and age of respondents (≤38–65) significantly (P < 0.05) influenced use of the forest resources. Thus, effectiveness and sustainability of forest-based climate change intervention initiatives can be promoted if the socio-economic conditions prevailing within households in areas next to forests are improved.

Health-sector responses to address the impacts of climate change in Nepal.

Nepal is highly vulnerable to global climate change, despite its negligible emission of global greenhouse gases. The vulnerable climate-sensitive sectors identified in Nepal's National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) to Climate Change 2010 include agriculture, forestry, water, energy, public health, urbanization and infrastructure, and climate-induced disasters. In addition, analyses carried out as part of the NAPA process have indicated that the impacts of climate change in Nepal are not gender neutral. Vector-borne diseases, diarrhoeal diseases including cholera, malnutrition, cardiorespiratory diseases, psychological stress, and health effects and injuries related to extreme weather are major climate-sensitive health risks in the country. In recent years, research has been done in Nepal in order to understand the changing epidemiology of diseases and generate evidence for decision-making. Based on this evidence, the experience of programme managers, and regular surveillance data, the Government of Nepal has mainstreamed issues related to climate change in development plans, policies and programmes. In particular, the Government of Nepal has addressed climate-sensitive health risks. In addition to the NAPA report, several policy documents have been launched, including the Climate Change Policy 2011; the Nepal Health Sector Programme - Implementation Plan II (NHSP-IP 2) 2010-2015; the National Health Policy 2014; the National Health Sector Strategy 2015-2020 and its implementation plan (2016-2021); and the Health National Adaptation Plan (H-NAP): climate change and health strategy and action plan (2016-2020). However, the translation of these policies and plans of action into tangible action on the ground is still in its infancy in Nepal. Despite this, the health sector's response to addressing the impact of climate change in Nepal may be taken as a good example for other low- and middle-income countries.

New discourses but same old development approaches? Climate change adaptation policies, chronic food insecurity and development interventions in northwestern Nepal

The study investigates whether Nepal’s Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) policies represent new conceptualizations and approach to address local vulnerability, compared to the country’s food security policy and local level perceptions of vulnerability in four villages in the region of Humla, northwestern Nepal. The study finds that Nepal’s National Adaptation Programme of Action, NAPA, and Local Adaptation Plans, LAPA, consistently address “outcome vulnerability” at the expense of “contextual vulnerability”, and that they offer little new in terms of challenging the sructural root causes of vulnerability compared with “development as usual” approaches. Because these CCA policies build on an apolitical analysis of vulnerability, they not only promote one-dimensional technocratic solutions that ignore the drivers of local vulnerability, they also run the risk of reinforcing existing vulnerability patterns and even reducing the adaptive capacity of the most vulnerable. This article argues that – in order to effectively respond to the impacts of climate change on local vulnerability – adaptation policies need to integrate a contextual vulnerability analysis and promote responses that contribute to change the conditions that create vulnerability in the first place.

An overview of nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) and national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs) in Africa

An overview of nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) and national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs) in Africa

Policy without politics: technocratic control of climate change adaptation policy making in Nepal

As developing countries around the world formulate policies to address climate change, concerns remain as to whether the voices of those most exposed to climate risk are represented in those policies. Developing countries face significant challenges for contextualizing global-scale scientific research into national political dynamics and downscaling global frameworks to sub-national levels, where the most affected are presumed to live. This article critiques the ways in which the politics of representation and climate science are framed and pursued in the process of climate policy development, and contributes to an understanding of the relative effectiveness of globally framed, generic policy mechanisms in vulnerable and politically volatile contexts. Based on this analysis, it also outlines opportunities for the possibility of improving climate policy processes to contest technocratic framing and generic international adaptation solutions.Policy relevanceNepal's position as one of the countries most at risk from climate change in the Himalayas has spurred significant international support to craft climate policy responses over the past few years. Focusing on the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) and the Climate Change Policy, this article examines the extent to which internationally and scientifically framed climate policy in Nepal recognizes the unfolding political mobilizations around the demand for a representative state and equitable adaptation to climate risks. This is particularly important in Nepal, where political unrest in the post-conflict transition after the end of the civil war in 2006 has focused around struggles over representation for those historically on the political margins. Arguing that vulnerability to climate risk is produced in conjunction with social and political conditions, and that not everyone in the same locality is equally vulnerable, we demonstrate the multi-faceted nature of the politics of representation for climate policy making in Nepal. However, so far, this policy making has primarily been shaped through a technocratic framing that avoids political contestations and downplays the demand for inclusive and deliberative processes. Based on this analysis, we identify the need for a flexible, contextually grounded, and multi-scalar approach to political representation while also emphasizing the need for downscaling climate science that can inform policy development and implementation to achieve fair and effective adaptation to climate change.

Differentiated livelihoods, local institutions, and the adaptation imperative: Assessing climate change adaptation policy in Tanzania

This paper interrogates the framings and priorities of adaptation in Tanzania’s climate policy and examines the implications for the role of local institutions and differentiated rural populations in climate change adaptation. Although Tanzania lacks a “stand alone” climate policy, Tanzania’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) and National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS) provide the most comprehensive statements of the central government’s framing of adaptation and its priorities with regard to adaptation. In assessing discursive framings of adaptation, we find that the dominant policy discourse constructs an anti-politics of adaptation through its framing of climate change as an urgent and generalized threat to development while failing sufficiently to address the complex governance and social equity dimensions of climate change adaptation. The technocratic prescriptions of Tanzania’s NAPA and NCSS converge with similar prescriptions found in Tanzania’s national development policies, such as the major agricultural development initiative Kilimo Kwanza. Adaptation challenges identified by communities in Mwanga District demonstrate complex local institutional and resource tenure questions that are not addressed in climate policy but which require policy attention if social equity in climate change adaptation is to be achieved.

Mainstreaming Climate Change. Adaptation into Regional Planning of Least Developed Countries: Strategy Implications for Regions in Bangladesh

Abstract The purpose of the study is to assess the search for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into regional planning of least developed countries (LDCs) and draw strategy implications for regions in Bangladesh. The findings of the study revealed that national adaptation programme of action (NAPAs) in least developed countries were being gender-blind and failed to be properly implemented. Least developed countries should therefore do more to prepare for ongoing and future climate changes focusing on actions that are no-regrets, multi-sectoral and multi-level, and that improve the management of current climate variability. Strengthening capacities to use climate information, enabling locally appropriate responses, screening climate risks, assessing risks and adaptation options, starting with existing policies and plans, broadening constituencies beyond environment agencies, managing strategy conflicts, learning from projects and recognizing their limitations, monitoring and learning are the foreseen strategic actions by regions in Bangladesh for effective mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into regional development planning in the years to come.

Adaptation policy and adaptation realities: local social organization and cross-scale networks for climate adaptation on Mount Kilimanjaro

Least developed countries have prepared national adaptation programs of action (NAPAs) to coordinate international adaptation funding to reduce social vulnerability to climate change. The adaptation programs have been written for consistency with existing sectoral policies and development agendas—policies which have thus far led to inequitable and incomplete decentralization of responsibility to organize and manage adaptation at the local level. The capacity of local social organization and of cross-scale networks and flows of knowledge and resources from higher levels of government is insufficient to facilitate socially equitable and sustainable adaptation to climate change. Tanzania’s NAPA, poverty reduction strategy paper, and sectoral policies for forest, water, and agriculture/livestock illustrate the coordination of adaptation plans with existing policies. National and regional statistics and a survey of households on Mount Kilimanjaro—a regional priority for climate adaptation in Tanzania—demonstrate significant gaps in local social organization and cross-scale networks for adaptation. Challenging existing structural causes of vulnerability will be difficult under adaptation plans written for complementarity with the very policies that have produced social inequality. Outside of a few development projects of limited geographic extent, there is limited evidence for socially equitable and sustainable adaptation outcomes. Sustainable adaptation will require substantial new commitments to developing local capacity and cross-scale networks.

Gender sensitivity of Sub-Saharan Africa National Adaptation Programmes of Action: findings from a desk review of 31 countries

There is growing realization that ignoring the mediating influence of gender relations may impact on the effectiveness of adaptation and mitigation policies, which has gradually brought gender issues onto the agenda of national and international fora. Against this background, this article confronts discourse with reality, by investigating to what extent and in what way 31 Sub-Saharan African National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) integrate a gender dimension into the different phases of the NAPA cycle, and the different sectors that are especially related to climate change. Additionally, this paper analyses the extent to which women and gender experts participate in diagnosis and decision-making, as well as the gender sensitivity of the format used for participation. The findings of the gender scan demonstrate, among other things, that there is a decline in gender sensitivity throughout the intervention cycle. Furthermore, processes have been more gender-sensitive than the actual content of NAPAs, which suggests that gender actors around the table in NAPA decision-making have not always been able to influence the content of the NAPAs. When it comes to integrating gender issues in climate change budgets, our study suggests that the insights, approaches and tools of gender budgeting could be particularly useful.