Fostering complementarity: how development and climate financiers can scale up locally led adaptation

The document examines the potential for scaling up locally led adaptation (LLA) by leveraging the different strengths of bilateral donors, multilateral development banks, vertical climate funds, and private actors. It highlights that LLA can deliver 'double dividends'—combining direct climate resilience with broader socio-economic development—and suggests building on established community and local development (CLD) models. The brief emphasizes the need for better coordination to overcome challenges such as declining official development assistance (ODA) and limited technical capacity, while calling for more robust evidence on the cost-benefit analysis of LLA compared to top-down approaches.

• Locally led adaptation (LLA) is currently underfunded, with less than 25% of international public adaptation finance directed toward projects specifically focusing on local communities.
• Financiers can scale LLA by utilizing their specific operational strengths: bilateral donors provide proof-of-concept models; vertical climate funds innovate in vulnerable contexts; multilateral development banks (MDBs) integrate models into national systems; and philanthropies enable experimentation.
• The private sector is an underutilized source of LLA finance that could provide risk-tolerant capital through blended finance and impact investing, particularly for projects like climate-resilient agriculture that generate revenue.
• LLA can be scaled by adapting existing community and local development (CLD) approaches, which have proven effective in fragile contexts like the Sahel and Horn of Africa, and have been adopted as national service delivery mechanisms in Indonesia and the Philippines.
• Scaling LLA faces significant hurdles, including the misconception that it is only for small-scale projects, limited demand from some governments, and a projected reduction in official development assistance (ODA) commitments for 2026.

APA

Browne, K., El-Horr, J., Parviainen, J., & Tenzing, J. (2025). Fostering complementarity: how development and climate financiers can scale up locally led adaptation. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/201550/fostering-complementarity-development-climate-financiers-locally-led-adaptation.pdf

Chicago

Browne, Katherine, Jana El-Horr, Janne Parviainen, and Janna Tenzing. Fostering complementarity: how development and climate financiers can scale up locally led adaptation. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2025. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/201550/fostering-complementarity-development-climate-financiers-locally-led-adaptation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Browne |first1=Katherine |last2=El-Horr |first2=Jana |last3=Parviainen |first3=Janne |last4=Tenzing |first4=Janna |title=Fostering complementarity: how development and climate financiers can scale up locally led adaptation |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=September 2025 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/201550/fostering-complementarity-development-climate-financiers-locally-led-adaptation.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{browne2025fostering, author = {Browne, Katherine and El-Horr, Jana and Parviainen, Janne and Tenzing, Janna}, title = {{Fostering complementarity: how development and climate financiers can scale up locally led adaptation}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2025}, month = sep, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/201550/fostering-complementarity-development-climate-financiers-locally-led-adaptation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }