Search Climate Insights Directory

The document details a green economy initiative in two Cape Town informal settlements, Freedom Farm and Malawi Camp, where GreenCape and iSolar Ngoku are deploying solar home systems. The project aims to address a 30-year lack of formal electricity while fostering local employment through the training of community members as installers. The model uses a paid-service approach to ensure ownership and funds a community resource pool.

The LACC Project aims to enhance climate resilience for 45,000 direct beneficiaries in the Lake Chad Basin through four pillars: sustainable resource management, resilient livelihoods, equitable local governance, and the dissemination of best practices. The project addresses severe vulnerabilities including rising temperatures, rainfall variability, and high poverty rates in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Key interventions include the construction of solar-powered water harvesting structures, the promotion of agroforestry to sequester an estimated 1,139,225 tCO2eq, and the implementation of the Participatory Seasonal Planning (PSP) methodology for climate information. The project is led by CARE Nederland and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), targeting specific regions such as Diffa in Niger, the Far North in Cameroon, and the Lake Province in Chad.

The briefing discusses the risks of top-down rural electrification, citing a failed $100,000 project in India as an example of stranded assets. It proposes that community-led minigrids—designed in partnership with local leadership structures like cooperatives—can lower system costs and electricity prices by 60% from 2018 levels. RMI's Africa Energy Program is implementing the 'Sharing the Power' project over three years in sub-Saharan Africa, with potential testing sites in Nigeria and Ethiopia, to demonstrate how community involvement in planning and operation enhances financial and social sustainability.

The 'Gangavazi' project, a collaboration between the University of Exeter and the NGO S.A.F.E., used forum theatre in ten coastal Kenyan communities to address extreme weather impacts. By allowing community members to co-direct and change the outcome of a play based on their own experiences, the project shifted the focus from purely physical climate solutions to social resilience, such as girls' education and social cohesion. While some community-led initiatives like mangrove planting have successfully restored fish species, the document notes that these projects require further support to become self-sustainable and long-term.

The document provides a comparative overview of National Adaptation Plan (NAP) processes in multiple countries, detailing their specific strategic approaches, priority sectors, and implementation milestones. It emphasizes the integration of climate adaptation into national development planning, the importance of cross-sectoral coordination, and the mobilization of climate finance to build resilience against diverse hazards such as sea-level rise, droughts, and extreme weather events.

Rwanda's National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process, led by the Ministry of Environment and Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), employs an integrated approach to promote climate-resilient development with a focus on community- and ecosystem-based adaptation. The process has leveraged funding from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), including a USD 32.8 million GCF allocation for climate resilience in Gicumbi District. Priority adaptation sectors address impacts such as droughts, landslides, and food insecurity through measures like irrigation, afforestation, and disaster risk reduction.

The document describes the application of the Integrated Vulnerability Assessment (IVA) Framework in three Pacific island states to enhance their National Adaptation Plan (NAP) processes. The IVA Framework uses a standardized approach to analyze 35 intersecting components—five livelihood assets and seven human security objectives—to create vulnerability baselines. In Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands, the NAP Global Network supported the use of participatory field tools and tablet-based data collection to capture gender- and age-disaggregated perspectives from local communities. The briefing concludes that while tablet technology improves data accuracy and availability, there is a continuing need for robust information and knowledge management (IKM) systems and national capacity building to fully institutionalize these assessments within national budgeting and planning.

The document serves as a practitioner's guide for communicating climate change in developing nations. It emphasizes moving away from scientific jargon toward narratives that highlight the benefits of climate-compatible development, particularly for the poor. The guide outlines strategies for targeting diverse audiences—including governments, businesses, and the general public—and advocates for the use of 'demonstration effects' and data visualization to make climate risks tangible. It includes numerous case studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America illustrating successful interventions such as participatory mapping, community radio, and the use of 'stranded assets' as a policy framework.

The Ghana National Adaptation Plan Framework establishes a coordinated, sectoral-based approach to climate adaptation. Led by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the framework aims to integrate climate resilience into national development planning, engage the private sector, and ensure gender-responsive and community-based adaptation strategies across key sectors including agriculture, water, and health.

The report examines water security in Burkina Faso's Nouaho sub-basin, finding that climate-exacerbated hazards like water scarcity and flooding disproportionately affect women and girls due to gendered divisions of labour and social norms. While women primarily manage domestic water collection and often lead off-farm income activities, they are largely excluded from community-level decision-making and water association leadership. The document argues that WASH adaptation must move beyond technical infrastructure to address gender discrimination and empower marginalized groups to ensure long-term water security.

The ALivE tool guides users through a three-phase process: collecting data on livelihoods and ecosystems, analyzing risks and prioritizing EbA options, and integrating these options into policy and planning. It emphasizes a participatory approach, gender sensitivity, and adaptive management to ensure sustainable climate resilience.

Nepal is currently in the formulation phase of its National Adaptation Plan (NAP), utilizing an integrated, multidisciplinary approach across seven thematic areas and two cross-cutting issues. The process emphasizes inclusivity, stakeholder engagement, and scientific rigor, building upon previous frameworks like the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) and Local Adaptation Plans for Action (LAPA). Key challenges include aligning the NAP with ongoing government restructuring and ensuring meaningful participation of marginalized groups. Future priorities focus on engaging provincial and local governments, developing a formal NAP framework, synthesizing local vulnerability data, and creating a comprehensive financing strategy to transition from planning to implementation.

The document analyzes the conceptual frameworks, global and regional experiences, and existing sectoral information systems in Peru to guide the creation of a national M&E system for climate change adaptation. It highlights that while Peru has strong political commitments and sectoral data, it lacks a formally approved National Adaptation Plan and a corresponding national M&E system.

The document details the outcomes of a two-day assembly in May 2017 aimed at advancing Colombia's National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change (PNACC). It identifies critical gaps in institutional continuity, financing, and the integration of local community knowledge, while highlighting the role of regional nodes and international cooperation in bridging these gaps. The report emphasizes the need to transition from a top-down approach to a transversal network that fosters bidirectional communication between national entities and territorial actors.

The document examines the shift from top-down, infrastructure-heavy climate adaptation to integrated, bottom-up approaches. It details the roles of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) and Community-based Adaptation (CbA), arguing that their conceptual overlap makes an integrated approach more effective. The author emphasizes the need for stronger quantitative evidence and the mainstreaming of these strategies into national and regional policy frameworks to achieve scale, drawing lessons from community-based natural resource management (CBNRM).

The document advocates for multi-level governance in the Caribbean, moving away from 'top-down' adaptation. It highlights that effective climate resilience requires coordinating local networks, conducting community-based vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessments, and linking these local actions to regional and national decision-making processes.

The Simiyu Climate Resilience Project is a proposed adaptation initiative in Tanzania's Simiyu Region. It seeks 102.7 million EUR in grant funding from the GCF, with a total investment of 143.4 million EUR, to address water scarcity and food insecurity caused by climate change. The project focuses on constructing a bulk water supply system from Lake Victoria, improving sanitation, and implementing climate-smart agriculture for approximately 495,000 beneficiaries.

The document argues that effective climate adaptation in the Caribbean requires multi-level governance that integrates local actor networks, community-based vulnerability assessments, and adaptive capacity measurements to link local actions with national decision-making.

The document highlights a disconnect between national-level climate adaptation planning in SIDS and local-level implementation. While many SIDS have developed National Communications and National Adaptation Programs of Actions (NAPA) to secure donor funding, these often reflect national priorities with minimal local input. The brief suggests that overcoming 'adaptation deficits' requires empowering local leadership, utilizing participatory planning, and improving inter-ministerial collaboration to ensure global change dynamics fit local institutional contexts.

The document defines vertical integration as the creation of strategic linkages between national and sub-national actors to ensure climate adaptation is coordinated across all levels of government and society. It identifies institutional arrangements, information sharing, and capacity development as the three key enabling factors for this process. The brief emphasizes that while decentralization provides a strong foundation for vertical integration by applying the principle of subsidiarity, countries with less advanced decentralization must find alternative ways to engage local organizations and communities to ensure adaptation benefits reach the most vulnerable groups.