The Landscape of Financing Strategies for Adaptation in Developing Countries

The report reviews 24 financing strategies from developing countries, categorizing them into discrete adaptation strategies and general climate action strategies. It finds that while these documents help communicate priorities and attract international grants, there is a significant gap in strategic analysis regarding how to leverage public finance to attract private investment. The report emphasizes the need for stronger engagement from ministries of finance and planning, as well as improved country-level tracking of climate finance to measure the actual impact of these strategies.

• Developing countries use two primary types of financing strategies: discrete strategies focused solely on adaptation (e.g., NAP resource mobilization strategies) and general strategies for climate action that include both mitigation and adaptation (e.g., NDC financing roadmaps).
• There is a lack of detailed analysis in most strategies regarding the strategic use of public, grant, and concessional finance to leverage further investment, particularly from the private sector.
• Detailed costing of every adaptation action is not necessarily more effective than high-level strategies; generating exhaustive cost data can be expensive and time-consuming, and is often revised during the project design stage by funders.
• Strategies led by ministries of environment or sustainable development often lack the necessary integration with national budgets; therefore, active engagement of ministries of finance and planning is critical for aligning adaptation with national economic priorities.
• Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are central to the implementation of these strategies, often providing the technical assistance for their creation and serving as the primary delivery channels for the resulting finance.
• Measuring the impact of financing strategies is difficult due to a lack of country-level tracking systems for climate finance and the recent nature of most documents.
• A primary benefit of these strategies is the improved communication of adaptation priorities, which helps increase their visibility relative to mitigation projects and assists governments in communicating needs to development partners.

APA

Murphy, D. (2022). The Landscape of Financing Strategies for Adaptation in Developing Countries. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-08/financing-strategies-for-adaptation-developing-countries.pdf

Chicago

Murphy, Deborah. The Landscape of Financing Strategies for Adaptation in Developing Countries. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2022. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-08/financing-strategies-for-adaptation-developing-countries.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Murphy |first1=Deborah |title=The Landscape of Financing Strategies for Adaptation in Developing Countries |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=August 2022 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-08/financing-strategies-for-adaptation-developing-countries.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{murphy2022landscape, author = {Murphy, Deborah}, title = {{The Landscape of Financing Strategies for Adaptation in Developing Countries}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2022}, month = aug, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-08/financing-strategies-for-adaptation-developing-countries.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }