Integrating the Education Sector Into the National Adaptation Plan Process

The report outlines a comprehensive approach to building climate-resilient education systems by integrating them into the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process. It emphasizes three core components: resilient infrastructure, school safety and educational continuity, and climate-responsive teaching and learning. The document provides a step-by-step guide for NAP teams, covering enabling factors, impact, vulnerability, and risk assessments (IVRA), adaptation planning, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems, while advocating for a child-centered and inclusive lens to protect the rights of the most vulnerable students.

• A climate-resilient education system is defined by three interdependent elements: resilient education infrastructure designed to withstand climate hazards; school safety and educational continuity management to minimize learning disruptions; and the integration of climate change curricula into teaching and learning to empower students as agents of change.
• Climate change causes massive disruptions to basic education; in 2024, 242 million students from pre-primary to upper secondary experienced disruptions, and schools were closed in at least 75% of climate-related extreme weather events over the last 20 years.
• Children, particularly girls, those with disabilities, and those in poverty, are disproportionately vulnerable to climate impacts. Girls are specifically less likely to return to school after climate shocks due to increased caregiving duties or the risk of early and child marriage.
• The Impact, Vulnerability, and Risk Assessment (IVRA) phase for education should consider both exposure (which facilities and people are at risk) and vulnerability, which includes sensitivity to harm and existing adaptive capacity. Baseline conditions like teacher shortages and learning poverty compound climate risks.
• Effective integration of education into the NAP process requires strengthening seven enabling factors: leadership, institutional arrangements, engagement, data/knowledge/communication, skills and capacity, financing, and technology.
• Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) systems for NAPs should build upon existing education management information systems (EMIS) and use gender- and age-responsive indicators to track the causal pathway from adaptation activities to resilience outcomes.

APA

Merryweather, J., & Cooke, J. (2026). Integrating the Education Sector Into the National Adaptation Plan Process. NAP Global Network. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/napgn-en-2026-education-sector-nap-process-V4.pdf

Chicago

Merryweather, Jennifer, and Jessica Cooke. Integrating the Education Sector Into the National Adaptation Plan Process. NAP Global Network, 2026. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/napgn-en-2026-education-sector-nap-process-V4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Merryweather |first1=Jennifer |last2=Cooke |first2=Jessica |title=Integrating the Education Sector Into the National Adaptation Plan Process |publisher=NAP Global Network |date=May 2026 |url=https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/napgn-en-2026-education-sector-nap-process-V4.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{merryweather2026integrating, author = {Merryweather, Jennifer and Cooke, Jessica}, title = {{Integrating the Education Sector Into the National Adaptation Plan Process}}, institution = {NAP Global Network}, year = {2026}, month = may, url = {https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/napgn-en-2026-education-sector-nap-process-V4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }