The event aimed at sharing information on support mechanisms for the preparation of NAPs, with focus on water security and agriculture, as well as innovative approaches and opportunities to access climate finance for adaptation action. Representatives from GWP, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and Malawi shared their experiences on the NAP process and climate finance, followed by a discussion among presenters and the audience.
Fred Kossam, Head of Climate Change and Research Services and Technical Lead for NAPs at the Department of Climate Change and Meteorological Services in Malawi, presented experiences and lessons learned from the NAP process in Malawi. Key challenges, emphasized in his presentation, are the lack of technical capacity and financial resources, the limited involvement of the private sector, and lack of data on future climate scenarios and vulnerability mapping. He highlighted that unpredictable funding resources lead to a shortage of resources in the Least Developed Country Fund (LDCF). Malawi plans to organize a NAP symposium this year, targeting all stakeholders involved in the process, to develop a comprehensive vulnerability analysis.
Susanne Skyllerstedt, Programme Officer at GWP Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP), gave a presentation on the importance of addressing water security in the NAP process as “water is the main medium through which climate change is felt” said Susanne, emphasizing the role of sustainable water management for successful adaptation action to achieve climate resilient development. The Water Supplement to the NAP Technical Guidelines was presented, a guiding document which aims at providing support to countries in incorporating water resources in the NAP process. The Water Supplement applies a water lens and is clearly aligned with the Technical Guidelines to the NAP process and can be used by water practitioners or NAP teams in countries.
“Food security is very important and climate change is affecting agricultural production in many ways”, said Julia Wolf, Natural Resources Officer at FAO. FAO is supporting countries in the NAP process, for example, through the development of an agriculture supplement to the NAP Technical Guidelines, focusing on crops, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, expected to be launched at COP 21 in Paris. With regard to water, Julia Wolf stated that it is difficult to address due to its cross-cutting character and its diverse role in the whole process. FAO supports several target countries in Africa and Asia to improve technical capacity and knowledge sharing as well as to develop integrated roadmaps for the NAP process.
On climate finance Maika Müller, Programme Officer at GWP for WACDEP Africa, presented activities under that programme. “Enhancing the capacity of developing countries to facilitate bankable project proposals, ’no/low’ regret investment options and financing strategies for water security and climate resilience, is key to responding to the impacts of climate change at country level,” highlighted Maika Müller. Through the WACDEP, GWP is supporting several national ministries and authorities in Africa to develop tangible project plans and financing options, to build on existing and on-going national development processes, and to access and leverage funding from new and emerging climate funds.
In the ensuing discussion, participants made clear that the institutional arrangement at country level, involving all actors and stakeholders, is crucial to strengthen the preparation of the NAP process. For example Malawi has set up a steering committee to lead the process. Depending on where in the NAP process a country is, it was stressed that the quality of vulnerability assessments played a key role, as well as ensuring linkages with ongoing initiatives through stocktaking. Participants emphasized that this process frequently challenging due to the lack of reliable and sufficient data and information. There is a need to support developing countries in vulnerability mapping and potential climate scenarios. The discussion also touched on the need to ensure linkages between the different mechanisms under the UNFCCC, for example for the NAP and the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) which countries are working on submitting prior to Paris. Stephen Gold, Team Leader for Climate Change at UNDP, mentioned that it would be of great importance to link the processes and that discussions have taken place on how these linkages can be done, e.g., through including NAP in the INDCs.