Global
Taxonomy Term List
SCALA Argentina
Argentina is considered a high-income economy with a GDP of US$600 billion in 2016 and a population of over 44 million. In the last decades, the country has experienced marked growth in its agriculture and food sectors, accounting to 54 percent of its land use, and playing a strategic role in the socio-economic development of the country, with 54 percent of employment. Agriculture and animal husbandry and fragile ecosystems are also especially vulnerable to the intensification of extreme climate events, affecting the production and supply of food on a national and global scale. The country is considered a top emitter for agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors, contributing to 2.1 percent of the global emissions, and with domestic emissions made up of livestock (21.6 percent); agriculture (5.8 percent) and land-use change and forestry (9.8 percent).
Argentina’s agriculture is highly innovative and has much to offer in terms of win-win climate actions. It has great potential to scale up actions and production processes that will simultaneously cut mitigate emissions and enhance resilience to improve productivity. Argentina is one of the 100 countries being supported by UNDP’s Climate Promise to enhance their NDCs. The country is also part of FAO’s Sub-Regional Project on "Low Emission Livestock, a contribution to the Sustainable Development of the Sector in South America”, and many other projects related to climate management.
The government of Argentina considers the SCALA programme as strong support for the revision of its NAP in the agricultural sector, and to carry out actions that allow the implementation and achievement of the commitments established in the country’s NDC. The programme will leverage participatory methods to address Argentina’s institutional and financial barriers, which allow for a transformative shift in the agriculture and land use sectors. Moreover, to engage and mobilize the private sector to increase its investments in climate action. With the SCALA programme supporting Argentina over the next five years, UNDP and FAO will strive to foster a more inclusive multi-stakeholder process that eventually meets the needs of smallholder farmers, rural communities, women, and youth, who are the most vulnerable to climate change.
In 2016, Argentina submitted its nationally determined contribution (NDC) that identified several agriculture-related priorities. Argentina has prioritized the development of adaptative capacities and the promotion of agriculture’s strategic role as a solution to climate change. In 2020, the country signed the new United Nations Strategic Cooperation Framework (2021-2025) and confirmed its interest to push forward the agenda that seeks to enhance ambition and catalyze action for land-use and agriculture. Argentina submitted its second NDC in December 2020, ratifying a more ambitious commitment to the Paris Agreement and providing a specific and broader role to adaptation, with the national goal of decreasing 19 percent of its total GHG emissions by 2030. The country has committed to elaborate its Long-Term Climate Strategy by the end of 2021.
The key priorities communicated for the agriculture and land-use sector focus mainly on prioritization of adaptation, strengthening the role of agribusiness as a source of solutions to climate change, integrating agro-industrial production and encouraging the development of process and product technologies. To support the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process, Argentina is implementing the Readiness Project for the NAP Process, financed by the Green Climate Fund and implemented by UNDP.
Along with these actions, the country aims to strengths the implementation of Minimum Budgets for the Environmental Protection of Native Forests, as well as achieve a substantial reduction in the deforestation rate. To support this goal the country implements the National Forest Management Plan with Integrated Livestock (MBGI), the Forest Watershed Plans and Comprehensive Community Plans (PIC), and the national forest extension system and the Deforestation Early Warning System (SAT). By 2030, the country also expects to deepen the development of fire, flood, and drought prevention measures - of great importance for the agricultural, livestock and forestry sectors.
SCALA Costa Rica
Costa Rica is in Central America and has a varied topography that includes coastal plains separated by rugged mountains, including over 100 volcanic cones and inhabits around 5 percent of the planet’s biodiversity. Costa Rica is among global leaders in responding to climate change, with a long history of environmental protection, sustainable development, and action on climate change mitigation. Costa Rica’s vulnerability to extreme climate events and natural hazards is a result of the presence of populations in areas prone to volcanic eruptions and unstable lands, degraded by wide-spread cattle ranching, or in poorly planned settlements prone to landslides and flooding. A total of 36 percent of Costa Rica’s land use is attributed to agriculture, and it accounts for 14 percent of the country’s employment.
Reports
The SCALA programme can contribute to strengthening market access for products developed through low-carbon value chains to help increase the capital flow to communities (at the farm level) that adopt technologies and help contribute to scaling up climate action. The SCALA programme will support Costa Rica in transforming how the agriculture and land use sectors operate and incorporating adaptation and mitigation measures. In addition to the support on soil management practices, SCALA in Cosa Rica will support the resilience of family farmers to cope with pathogens, so they have the resources to invest in sustainable low-carbon practices. The country is currently developing a road map for its National Adaptation Plan and aims to strengthen conservation initiatives and expand its environmental services payments program to include ecosystem-based adaptation. Costa Rica continues to promote renewable energies, stronger environmental management practices through agroforestry systems and watershed management, as well as tools for municipal-level land use planning to reduce the long-term vulnerabilities of its population and enhance its food security.
Project videos
Female herders of Costa Rica: towards gender-sensitive climate action (2023)
Combating climate change in Costa Rica's livestock sector (2023)
Disponible en Español.
Costa Rica prioritizes transformative climate practices in its agri-food chains
22 October 2021 - To learn more about how Costa Rica is scaling up its climate ambition in land use and agriculture to meet the targets of its NDC and related climate strategies, the SCALA programme sat down with the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Mr. Renato Alvarado to unpack the opportunities and challenges in this process as part of a new interview series.
Costa Rica’s National Climate Change Adaptation Policy (2018-2030), states the priorities with respect to agricultural sustainable production, namely the 1) promotion of adaptation based on ecosystems outside the State's natural heritage, through the conservation of biodiversity in biological corridors, private reserves and farms under forest regime 2) promotion of water security in the face of climate change, through the protection and monitoring of sources and proper management of hydrological basins. The National Development Plan (2019-2022) reaffirmed the ambitious goal to promote a carbon neutral economy by 2021 and laid out strategies to promote renewable energy, reduce GHG emissions, and consider adaptation initiatives.
In 2016, Costa Rica submitted its first NDC. Costa Rica’s National Climate Change Adaptation Policy (2018-2030), as well as the National Decarbonization Plan (2018-2050) and the NAMA coffee, NAMA livestock, NAMA sugarcane and NAMA Musaceae (banana), reflect some of the country’s key agri-food chains, which are livestock, coffee, rice, Musaceae and cane sugar. The country’s NDC aims to consolidate an agricultural model that is based on sound approaches in existing policies and strategies. To date, the country has developed a National Low Carbon Livestock Strategy, a National Low-emission Coffee Strategy, and the Low Carbon Banana Strategy, which focus on reducing risks and vulnerabilities in these value chains.
SCALA Cote D'Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire is located in West Africa along the Gulf of Guinea with the Atlantic running along its southern coast. As one of the world’s top exporters of cocoa, palm oil, banana and cashews and with two-third of the actively working population is percent employed by the agriculture sectors, Côte d’Ivoire is vulnerable to variations in weather and climate, as well as external shocks in its export trade. Côte d’Ivoire has the second largest economy in West Africa. High rainfall in the south fuels a fertile agricultural industry, which contributes to 27 percent of country’s GDP. A heavy economic reliance on agriculture, in addition to continued environmental degradation, rising temperature, prolonged dry season and deforestation all contribute to the country’s vulnerability to climate change. In addition, agriculture contributes 12 percent of total GHG emissions with livestock contributing the largest proportion (63 percent).
To support the country in implementing these plans, the SCALA programme partnered with Côte d'Ivoire for the next four years. The SCALA programme will help Côte d'Ivoire accelerate the implementation of its NAP and pursue action to achieve the commitments outlined in its forthcoming NDC. The programme will work with government stakeholders to overcome barriers at the institutional, technical, and financial levels to support a transformative shift in the agriculture and land use sectors. Through the SCALA programme, FAO and UNDP will strive to create an inclusive multi-stakeholder process between institutions and partners in Côte d'Ivoire that will help fill gaps, improve capacities and reach the country’s climate targets.
Côte d’Ivoire ratified the Paris Agreement in 2016 and submitted their first NDC the same year. The NDC intends to reconcile development and reduction of GHG emissions. Due to the country’s vulnerability to climate change impacts, especially in the key agricultural exports sector, adaptation is also a priority.
The revision of the NDC is ongoing, and the NAP process has been underway in Côte d’Ivoire since 2015. The adaptation planning is crucial in 11 identified priority sectors that are most vulnerable to climate change, including agriculture, fisheries, forestry, land use and gender as a cross-cutting theme. The second generation National Agricultural Investment Program 2017-2025 aims to increase added value of agricultural products; strengthen agricultural production systems that are respectful of the environment; and promote inclusive growth.
Along with the ongoing NDC submission, Côte d'Ivoire has several climate plans and policies in place, such as the National Strategy for Climate-Smart Agriculture 2018-25, National Strategic Plan for the Development of Livestock, Fisheries and Aquaculture 2014-20 and National Strategy for Forest Conservation, Rehabilitation and Extension, to build resilience and reduce GHG across key sectors.
SCALA Egypt
The Arab Republic of Egypt is a developing country in Northern Africa. This terrain consists of a vast desert plateau that has a fresh water renewable resource - the River Nile and its Nile Valley and Delta. Most of Egypt’s population and infrastructure are concentrated in the Nile Delta and along the Mediterranean coast, which makes the country vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise, particularly inundation and saltwater intrusion. About 15 percent of the most fertile arable land in the Nile Delta is already negatively affected by sea level rise and saltwater intrusion. With this negative impact, climate change studies predict a reduction in productivity of two major crops in Egypt - wheat and maize – by 15 percent and 19 percent, respectively, by 2050. Nevertheless, agriculture is the biggest employer involving over 31.2 percent of the total population. The agriculture sector contributed 14 percent to the GDP in 2009 and contributes 10 percent of the country's total GHG emissions.
Reports and Publications of relevance to Country Teams
The Ministry of Environment and the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency has officially approved and cleared the implementation the SCALA programme in Egypt. A background desk review of relevant climate change plans and documents has been undertaken, as well as a baseline report has been produced. This will be further informed by the stocktaking and climate action review exercise for the identification and validation of climate actions with transformative potential in the AFOLU sectors.
Through initial consultations with the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Agriculture & Land Reclamation, it has been recommended that the SCALA programme supports the NAP development process under the recently launched GCF-NAP Readiness project. SCALA deliverables therefore will be designed to serve as inputs to the NAP project through which Egypt’s overall NAP will be developed. Contributions will mostly be towards evidence generation through climate risk and vulnerability assessments, innovative climate research on water management and irrigation adaption measures, capacity needs assessment reports on disaster risk reduction and early warning mechanisms in AFOLU sectors, and environmental impact assessments of land use plans.
By supporting the preparation of National Adaption Plan Framework, which will target to address the mitigation and adaptation barriers, the SCALA programme in Egypt will contribute to the country’s long-term goal of decreasing climate vulnerability and building climate resilience of AFOLU sectors. By establishing a framework for improving institutional and technical capacity for climate change adaptation planning it will help the country enhance climate action needed by 2030. The programme will support assessments of climate risks and vulnerabilities, determining climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities, and integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation into national and sectoral planning and budgeting.
In 2011, a National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction was released. This strategy lays out the path to overcome the challenges raised by climate change and estimates the investment required to reach its strategic goals. Egypt ratified the Paris Agreement in June 2017 and submitted their nationally determined contribution (NDC), which focuses on the sustainability of agriculture, the environment, water resources, energy, and land management as priority areas.
Egypt’s NDC pledges to reduce its GHG emissions; particularly reducing CO2 emissions by 20 percent from the baseline emissions level of 250MtCO2 emissions by 2030. Each sector of the economy has set mitigation targets; particularly for the agriculture, forest, and other land-use sectors, the mitigation targets include recycling agricultural waste and manure and the implementation of a national MRV system. Additionally, the NDC outlines Adaptation Action Packages with specific adaptation goals for the most vulnerable sectors, including agriculture. Such adaptation actions include building an effective institutional system to manage climate change associated crises and disasters at the national level.
UNDP office in Egypt is implementing a Green Climate Fund (GCF)-financed National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Readiness project aiming to formulate and advance Egypt’s National Adaptation Plans Process. This NAP process targets to build/enhance climate resilience in all the sectors of the economy by improving institutional and technical capacity for climate change adaptation (CCA) planning, examining climate risks, determining CCA priorities, integrating CCA into national and sectoral planning and budgeting, and increasing investment in adaptation actions. This NAP process also targets to identify private sector actors with potential to invest in climate change actions. Already there is a large and fast-growing small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector and a large domestic market.
SCALA Ethiopia
Ethiopia is a landlocked country in Northeast Africa and has a population of over 112 million people. Its agriculture sector plays a major role in the national economy, contributing to 34.5 percent of GDP in 2020. Smallholder farming accounts for approximately 95 percent of agricultural production and 85 percent of total employment. In Ethiopia, agriculture and land-use are high GHG emitting sectors with around 80 percent of domestic emissions. Ethiopia’s agriculture sector is extremely vulnerable to climate change due to its high dependence on natural resources, and relatively low adaptive capacity – especially in rural areas – to deal with frequently experienced extreme events and longer-term variability, including droughts and floods, rainfall variability and pest invasions.
Reports and Publications by country teams
The Government of Ethiopia aims to proactively pursue further integration of climate change adaptation in its development policies and strategies, including macroeconomic and sectoral policies at regional and local levels. In support of this target, the SCALA programme will leverage participatory methods to address Ethiopia’s institutional and financial barriers to mainstream climate change at all administrative levels, to allow for a transformative shift in their agriculture and land use sectors. Building on the capacity gaps identified in scoping exercises, the programme will seek to enhance institutional capacities of the country to support the management of climate budget tagging systems, to undertake climate finance and resource mobilization, and to engage and mobilize the private sector to increase its investments in climate action. It also intends to develop stronger knowledge and information sharing platforms for bridging the gap between national, regional and woreda level governance mechanisms. Additionally, the implementation of SCALA programme will support the establishment of enabling environment and de-risking instruments to engage and incentivize private sector investments in climate actions.
The expectation of undertaking such activities is that they will help the country accelerate its NDC and NAP implementation. With the SCALA programme supporting Ethiopia over the next five years, UNDP and FAO will strive to foster a more inclusive, multi-stakeholder process that meets the needs of smallholder farmers, rural communities, women, and youth, who are the most vulnerable to climate change.
The Government of Ethiopia submitted its nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2016, and formally submitted an updated NDC in July 2021. The updated NDC builds on, and is in line with, the country’s development goals as laid out in its Growth and Transformation Plan II, its Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy, the emerging Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy, the Green Legacy Initiative, and Ethiopia’s 10-year Development Plan. The bulk of Ethiopia’s NDC adaptation commitments are focused on the agriculture and land use sectors, with priority areas including livestock diversification, drought-resistant animal breeding, rangeland management, crop, and livestock insurance. Ethiopia formulated its National Adaptation Plan (NAP) in 2017, along with a NAP Implementation Roadmap that further categorized the short-term adaptation priorities (such as capacity building, strengthening the enabling environment and promoting research), as well as long-term sector-specific priorities.
In its final National Adaptation Plan (NAP-ETH, 2019), Ethiopia prioritized adaptation in the sectors considered most vulnerable to climate change, namely: agriculture, forestry, health, transport, energy, industry, water and urban. Within these sectors, 18 adaptation options are identified for implementation at all administrative levels, recognizing the considerable diversity in context and vulnerability across Ethiopia’s regions and social groups. Ethiopia is working to integrate climate information into planning and decision-making for development interventions, and prioritizing climate resilience across policies to improve the adaptive capacity at national/federal, regional and Woreda levels. The plan is guided by the principles of participation, coherent interventions, stakeholder empowerment, gender sensitivity, equitable implementation, and partnership, especially with the private sector.
SCALA Senegal
Located in West Africa, Senegal has a steadily growing economy over recent years. However, poverty in Senegal is still prevalent in rural areas, where roughly 60 percent of the population resides. The other 40 percent of the population resides in urban areas, where the majority live in rapidly growing urban suburbs. Low agricultural production, limited capacity of the economy to create sustainable jobs, and inadequate resource allocation for social services contribute to poverty. While the agriculture, livestock and fishery sectors are contributing to food and nutrition security and representing 60 percent of the Senegalese rural labor force, these sectors are vulnerable to several climate-related impacts, such as drought, locust invasion, flooding, sea-level rise, coastal erosion and related health epidemics, as well as bush fires.
Reports and Publications of relevance to Country Teams
Senegal has a strong motivation to enhance its climate strategies and create more sustainable production patterns and food systems. The country plans to achieve its climate objectives in terms of land use and agriculture through the transformation of agri-food systems. The systemic approach adopted by the SCALA programme with all stakeholders constitutes an innovative approach to overcome obstacles and help define actionable priorities. Through fostering stakeholder commitments, to build institutional, financial and technical capacities and foster transformation actions such as agroecology, improving crop varieties, agroforestry and the importance of operationalizing the concept of agripreneur, the SCALA programme will further support the government of Senegal in accessing sustainable solutions, by considering cross-cutting issues and promoting synergies between ongoing initiatives.
Disponible aussi en Français.
Strengthening transformative approaches in Senegal’s climate action plans
6 November 2021 - The programme was officially launched during a two-day inception workshop in September 2021, where key stakeholders discussed SCALA’s activities and objectives to be implemented over the next four years. The discussion centered on the agroecological solutions (such as composting), improving crop varieties, agroforestry and the importance of operationalizing the concept of “agripreneur”. To learn more about the national priorities discussed, the SCALA programme sat down with two technical advisers from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Equipment, Mr. Boubacar Drame and Mr. Younoussa Mballo, to unpack the opportunities and objectives of the programme.
This report captures the participatory mapping of actors in the millet/groundnut and market gardening system and identification of challenges and barriers preventing an environment favorable to agroecological transformation in Senegal.
Senegal developed a National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) in 2006 and submitted an INDC in 2015, which outlined the country’s plans for mitigation and adaptation. The NDC was recently revised and submitted ahead of COP26 in 2021, while sectoral NAPs are currently under development. The Plan for an Emerging Senegal (Plan Sénégal Emergent) reflects the strong political will for development based on more sustainable production patterns and food systems. Since 2019, various actors involved in agroecology in Senegal have come together under the DyTAES (Dynamique pour une Transition AgroEcologique au Sénégal) framework to contribute to the reflections of the Senegalese government to build an agroecological transition policy.
In Senegal, the agriculture sector represents 36 percent of its GHG emissions followed by land use change and forestry (22 percent). As communicated in the NDC, the emissions from the agriculture sector will increase gradually and steadily, until 2030. Henceforth, to reduce emissions, Senegal will first create synergies between local community stakeholders and the private sector to reinforce acquired knowledge and build on good practices in terms of mitigation and adaptation to scale up action.
Strongly threatened by climate change, Senegal aims to enhance adaptation and mitigation measures in the agriculture, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors. Particularly in the crop production sector, the mitigation priorities are focused on the Intensive Rice Cultivation System, composting and assisted natural regeneration. Regarding adaptation priorities, the country will focus on vulnerable ecosystems and will work with vulnerable populations to increase their resilience to climate change impacts. Senegal will concentrate on promoting agriculture-livestock-agroforestry production systems, sustainable land management, use of adapted varieties, agriculture insurance, generic improve of species and animal health, promote sustainable aquaculture and restoration of mangroves field.
SCALA Uganda
Uganda experiences the effects of climate change in the form of increased temperatures, frequent disease outbreaks and insect infestations, disrupted rainfall patterns, and frequent floods and droughts. While Uganda has progressively undergone social and economic growth and transformation, consequently reducing its poverty rate by 23 percent over the last two decades, sustained gains will require continued investments in agriculture, and the inclusive participation in the economic growth of women as well the population reported poor in 2019. With 81 percent of the population engaged in rain-fed subsistence farming for food and cash income, the country’s reliance on rain-fed agriculture remains a risk to economic growth, income of farmers, as well as export earnings. Agriculture contributes up to 40 percent of Uganda’s total GDP and over 90 percent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. The agriculture sector contributes to 27 percent of emissions, followed by the land-use and forestry sector with approximately 60 percent of emissions.
Case Study
Experiences of safeguarding livelihoods and promoting resilience through National Adaptation Plans: Case study Uganda
Uganda identifies barriers, solutions, and investment opportunities for gender-responsive agri-food value chains in the cattle corridor
26 October 2021 - The SCALA team sat down with Mr. John Chrysostom Birantana, Senior Principal Policy Analyst at the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries to understand the challenges related to scaling up both climate change adaptation and mitigation in the cattle corridor landscape, and how the country plans to overcome those barriers to achieve its ambitious climate agenda.
Uganda was part of the FAO and UNDP supported Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag) Programme from 2015-2020, and developed a gender-responsive National Adaptation Plan (NAP) for the agriculture sector and its monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework which now requires support for implementation. Uganda has undertaken steps to implement the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and increase its ambition. The country developed its latest NDC through inclusive and participatory processes and aligned the NDC with its climate-resilient, long-term emission strategy. Most significantly is Uganda’s formulation of the National Climate Change Act 2021 to give the force of law to the Paris Agreement.
Based on the first and updated interim NDC, Uganda continues to prioritize adaptation as the first response to climate change and aims to strengthen mitigation actions, starting with the expansion of extension services and climate-related information. The country is committed to working on reducing climate change vulnerability and addressing climate actions in several key economic sectors including energy, waste, and industrial processes and product use (IPPU). As well the agriculture and livestock, forestry, sustainable land management (SLM), and sustainable natural resources management (mainly wetlands and natural forests restoration, open water bodies protection), are considered as the country’s greatest source of emissions. The country will scale up to increase resilience and adaptability at the community level and leverage synergies with the county’s land-based mitigation goals.
Economics of Climate Change Adaptation Programme in Asia and the Pacific
The Economics of Climate Change Adaptation Programme in Asia and the Pacific
The objective of this programme, the first phase of which ran between 2012 and 2015, was to strengthen the capacity of technical officers in Ministries of Planning/Finance, as well as line Ministries (Environment, Agriculture, Water, Public Works, and others) to assess economic costs and benefits when evaluating different adaptation alternatives, as they relate to medium- and long-term national, sub-national and sectoral development plans.
The programme aimed to produce a cadre of practitioners in government who can prepare high-quality economic analyses related to climate change adaptation projects and programmes. In coordination with other ongoing and planned UNDP initiatives, the programme was designed to strengthen governments’ capacity to more fully integrate climate change adaptation into national, sub-national and sector planning and budgeting.
Ultimately, the programme sought to institutionalize these important analytical skills into ministries and departments, and to enable countries to formulate economically efficient and climate resilient development plans, including National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) - a process established under the Cancun Adaptation Framework (CAF) to help countries identify their medium- and long-term adaptation needs.
In 2017, the ECCA programme transitioned into Phase Two, in collaboration with the Asian Insititute of Technology.
For more information visit : ECCA Asia and the Pacific.
Knowledge Products
Economics of Climate Change Adaptation (ECCA): Sri Lanka
Economics of Climate Change Adaptation (ECCA): Mongolia
Economics of Climate Change Adaptation (ECCA): Viet Nam
Training & Tools
Training of Trainers: Capacity Development on Economics of Adaptation, Water Security and Climate Resilient Development in Africa - Addis Ababa, 25-29 Nov 2013
Highlights
Benin joins the implementation of the AU and AMCOW ’s Capacity Development Programme on Economics of Adaptation Water Security, and Climate Resilient Development in Africa
Assessments and Background Documents
Background paper - Pacific Cost-Benefit Analysis Initiative (P-CBA)
Document
Examples of Cost- Benefit Analysis Reports
The Solomon Islands PACC Cost- Benefit Analysis Final Report
The Republic of Marshall Islands PACC Cost- Benefit Analysis Report
Relevant Peer-Reviewed Articles
Marine Economics and Policy Related to Ecosystem Services: Lessons from the Mediterranean, Black and Caribbean Regional Seas (Paulo Nunes and John Gowdy, 2013)
An Initial Estimate of the Value of Ecosystem Services in Bhutan (I. Kubiszewski, R. Costanza, L. Dorji, P. Thoennes and K. Tshering, 2013)
What Have Economists Learned about Valuing Nature? A Review Essay (Sarah Parks and John Gowdy, 2013)
Framing Local Outcomes of Biodiversity Conservation through Ecosystem Services: A Case Study from Ranomafana, Madagascar (Susanna Kari and Kaisa Korhonen-Kurki, 2013)
Climate Models at Their Limit? (Mark Maslin and Patrick Austin, 2012)
Disaster- Prone Technologies, Environmental Risks, and Profit Maximization (Richard England, 1988)
The Impact of Climate Change on Global Tropical Cyclone Damage (R. Mendelsohn, K. Emanuel, S. Chonabayashi and L. Bakkensen, 2012)
Examining the Storm Protection Services of Mangroves of Orissa during the 1999 Cyclone (Saudamini Das, 2011)
Mangroves protected villages and reduced death toll during Indian super cyclone (Saudamini Das and Jeffrey R. Vincent, 2009)
Environmental Cost-Benefit Analysis (Giles Atkinson and Susana Mourato, 2008)
Efficient Adaptation to Climate Change (Robert Mendelsohn, 2000)
Reports and Publications of relevance to Country Teams
Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Egyptian Economy (2012)
International Institute for Environment and Development: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Adaptation in the Water Sector (Bolivia, Bangladesh, Malawi, Morocco, and Nepal) Synthesis Report (IIED, 2013)
International Institute for Environment and Development: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Adaptation in the Water Sector (Bolivia, Bangladesh, Malawi, Morocco, and Nepal) Guidance Report (IIED, 2013)
Frequently Asked Questions: The UNDP Capacity Assessment Methodology (UNDP, 2009)
Capacity Development: Measuring Capacity (UNDP, 2010)
Capacity Development: Practice Note (UNDP, 2008)
Capacity Development: A UNDP Primer (UNDP, 2009)
Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis of Investment Projects (European Commission, 2008)
Handbook on Economic Analysis of Investment Operations (World Bank, 1998)
Adapting to Climate Change: Strengthening the Climate Resilience of Water Sector Infrastructure in Khulna, Bangladesh (Asian Development Bank, 2011)
The programme was designed and rolled out as a compliment to UNDP's support to countries on adaptation with financing from the Least Developed Country Fund, Special Climate Change Fund (managed by the Global Environment Facility) and the Adaptation Fund. It was aligned with UNDP-GEF-UNEP support to countries that are preparing to formulate National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
Specifically, the approach adopted in this capacity building programme was based on the following key elements:
• Training of technical officers at the national and sub-national level to estimate the economic costs and benefits of climate change impacts as well as adaptation options.
• Support to technical officers at the national and sub-national level, to assess the costs and benefits of climate change adaptation options in order to promote learning by doing.
• Establishment of the training programme within a suitable center of excellence in the country or region that can provide continuous technical advisory support on the economics of adaptation to countries developing national adaptation plans and investment projects.
• Convening of policy dialogue forums with Ministries of Planning/Finance and line Ministries at the country and regional level to discuss the economics of adaptation in the context of national and sub-national medium and long-term national development plans and investment projects.
• Development and nurturing of a virtual community of practice of technical officers working on the economics of adaptation.
• Support for the appraisal of investment projects for adaptation that can be financed from current and emerging sources of climate finance.
• Technical officers in Planning, Finance, Environment, Agriculture, Water and Public Works Ministries and others at the national and sub-national level were trained to estimate the economic costs and benefits of climate change impacts, as well as adaptation options.
• Country Teams (comprised of technical officers from relevant Government Ministries, academia and others) conducted assessments on the costs and benefits of climate change adaptation options (this work was linked to ongoing adaptation projects financed by the Least Developed Country Fund, Special Climate Change Fund and/or Adaptation Fund).
• Investment projects for adaptation financed from current and emerging sources of funds such as the Green Climate Fund were assessed in terms of their economic costs and benefits.
• The training programme was established within a suitable learning center in the country or region in order to provide continuous technical advisory support to countries on the assessment of economic costs/benefits of adaptation.
• Regular policy dialogue forums with Ministries of Planning/Finance and line Ministries were conducted at the country and regional level, to discuss the economics of adaptation in the context of national and sub-national medium and long-term national development planning process.
• A virtual community of practice working on the economics of adaptation was established, with innovative means to share lessons and knowledge, including Live Chats and Webinars- virtual classroom settings where participants discuss issues with the lead mentors as well as each other. The Global ALM platform provided facilities for the community of practice to share learning materials, as well as lessons learned.
Programme Related Documents
Programme Related Events
Communities of Practice, Live Chat and Webinar
Communities of Practice Platform
First Live Chat Session Summary Report (June 2013)
Second Live Chat Session Summary Report (September 2013)
Hydro-Economic Model Webinar (November 2013)
'Uniting theory and action: Asia Pacific Economics of Climate Change Adaptation programme relaunches' - UNDP, June 2017. Notice of launch of Phase Two of the ECCA Programme in partnership with the Asian Institute of Technology.
Community-Based Adaptation: Kazakhstan
While Kazakhstan has a rapidly growing economy, farmers and pastoralists outside of the main urban centers face significant climate change risks to their livelihoods stemming from increased aridity. A combination of rising temperatures, declining average rainfall, and regional deglaciation threaten to cause:
- Increased drought risk in rainfed farmlands
- Increased salinization risk in irrigated farmlands
- Increased erosion risks in both farmlands and rangelands
- Declining rangeland water resources, leading to overstocking and erosion around remaining water resources
- Decreased habitat for native fauna
Community-Based Adaptation in Kazakhstan will work with communities to integrate climate change concerns into sustainable rangeland and agricultural management practices, and work with local water managers to integrate climate change concerns into irrigation regimes for climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture. Activities will be guided by the Kazakhstan CBA Country Programme Strategy.
The Government of Switzerland co-finances six of the CBA projects in Kazakhstan that focus on land degradation and water scarcity. The partnership began in November 2009.
The CBA Kazakhstan portfolio consists of ten (10) projects:
1. Reducing Vulnerability to Declining Water Supplies in Burevestnik
2. Forest Protection Belts to Combat Increasing Aridity in Shyrkyn Village
3. Sustainable Water and Land Management in South Kazakhstan Under Increased Aridity
4. Demonstrating Adaptive Land Management in Priozernoye
5. Climate-Resilient Horse Production in Kargaly Village
6. Climate-Resilient Pasture and Livestock Management in Zhangeldy Village
7. Adaptation to Increased Aridity through Climate-Resilient Agro-Silvo-Pastoralism Using Sauxal
8. Adapting Grazing Stock-Raising in Lepsy Village
9. Adapting Farming Practices to Increasing Temperatures and Aridity in Akmola Oblast
10. Autumn/Winter Irrigation as Adaptive Mechanism for Water Resources
* Kazakhstan is one of ten (10) countries implementing projects as part of UNDP's "Community-Based Adaptation" programme. *
Brochures, Posters, Communications Products
Community-Based Adaptation: Climate Change in Action brochure (2009)
Community-Based Adaptation: Climate Change in Action brochure (Jan. 2010)
Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change Brochure (July 2010)
Annual Reports
Case Study
Adaptation Bulletin
ProDocs
PIFs
Project Brief / Fact Sheet
Assessments and Background Documents
Kazakhstan is a semiarid to arid country with a temperate climate, facing significant desiccation in the face of climate change, and significant exacerbation of baseline (non-climate) pressures. Kazakhstan’s national communications to the UNFCCC indicate that climate change scenarios for Kazakhstan project an increase in average temperature (approximately +1.4 by 2030 to +4.6 by 2085), and northward migration of humidity zones by as much as 450km. This increasing aridity threatens to significantly decrease the resilience of Kazakhstan’s ecosystems to land degradation pressures, constituting both a considerable threat to the natural environment, as well as to national development and poverty alleviation targets.
Climate change impacts are expected to exacerbate existing land degradation pressures, by reducing ecosystem resilience to non-climate drivers of land degradation, while also contributing towards land degradation directly through desiccation and increased wind and water erosion (see section d, “baseline-additionally reasoning”). Land degradation already had significant adverse impact on rural communities, whose livelihoods are dependant on agriculture and livestock production. Climate change will increase the severity and geographic extent of land degradation pressures, threatening these livelihoods further (INC 2008).
The UNDP Community Based Adaptation (CBA) Programme in Kazakhstan will work to reduce the climate change-induced risks on Kazakhstan’s land resources, by developing local capacity and introducing new techniques for climate-resilient sustainable land management. This will be achieved by implementing 8 to 12 demonstration projects that will enhance community and/or ecosystem resilience to climate change impacts. These projects will also contribute towards securing climate change resilient global environmental benefits (GEB), focusing on sustainable land management. Lessons from projects on best practices will be shared for replication by national development institutions such as the 'Kazyna' Sustainable Development Fund, Small Businesses Support Fund, as well as others within and outside of Kazakhstan.
The CBA programme draws on priority adaptation-related identified through ongoing work on Kazakhstan’s Second National Communication and other climate change-related programmes, enabling access to climate change and adaptation information as well as policy processes, particularly within the agricultural sector. The Programme will be implemented in Kazakhstan by UNDP using the mechanism of the UNDP/Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme (UNDP-GEF/SGP). The work will be conducted in alignment with the GEF/SGP country programme and in accordance with the UNDP’s corporate guidelines on climate change adaptation. The CBA projects will be singled out as an individual project portfolio independent of the GEF/SGP regular grant portfolio with implications for independent and separate co-financing requirements.
Objectives and Impact Indicators
The objective of the CBA programme in Kazakhstan is to implement the principles of sustainable community management of natural resources in the face of climate change.
To assess the achievement of the above objective, the following four UNDP Climate Change Adaptation indicators (TA6) will be measured:
- Number of measures (implemented methodologies/ approaches) deployed as part of climate change resilient sustainable resource management activities;
- Success of sustainable resource management interventions in securing livelihoods and protecting resources (QBS);
- Number of stakeholders (e.g. families/households) benefiting from climate change resilient sustainable resource management activities;
- Number of local and national SLM programmes/policies that are revised to reflect lessons learnt/ best practices from the CBA programme.
The objective of the CBA programme in Kazakhstan is to implement the principles of sustainable community management of natural resources in the face of climate change.
To assess the achievement of the above objective, the following four UNDP Climate Change Adaptation indicators (TA6) will be measured:
- Number of measures (implemented methodologies/ approaches) deployed as part of climate change resilient sustainable resource management activities;
- Success of sustainable resource management interventions in securing livelihoods and protecting resources (QBS);
- Number of stakeholders (e.g. families/households) benefiting from climate change resilient sustainable resource management activities;
- Number of local and national SLM programmes/policies that are revised to reflect lessons learnt/ best practices from the CBA programme.
Monitoring and evaluation for community-based adaptation is a new field, and the CBA project is piloting innovative approaches to evaluating the success of locally-driven adaptation projects, and generating lessons to inform ongoing practice.
Key considerations in M&E for CBA include:
- Grounding M&E in the local context: M&E for CBA should avoid overly rigid frameworks, recognizing community heterogeneity and maintaining local relevance
- Capturing global lessons from local projects: CBA projects are highly contextualized, but lessons generated should be relevant to stakeholders globally
- Incorporation of both quantitative and qualitative indicators: to ground projects in tangible changes that can be objectively evaluated, and to capture lessons and case studies for global dissemination
To these ends, the CBA project uses three indicator systems: the Vulnerability Reduction Assessment, the Small Grants Programme Impact Assessment System, and the UNDP Climate Change Adaptation Indicator Framework.
The Vulnerability Reduction Assessment (VRA)
The VRA is a question-based approach with the following aims:
- To make M&E responsive to community priorities
- To use M&E to make projects more accountable to local priorities
- To make M&E capture community ideas and local knowledge
- To gather community-level feedback to guide ongoing project management
- To generate qualitative information
- To capture lessons on specific issues within community-based adaptation
- To generate case studies highlighting adaptation projects
The VRA follows UNDP's Adaptation Policy Framework, and is measured in a series of meetings with local community stakeholders. In these meetings, locally-tailored questions based on standard VRA questions/indicators are posed, and the community assigns a numerical score on a 1-10 scale for each question. Progress is evaluated through changes in scores over the course of implementation, as well as through qualitative data collected in community discussions surrounding the exercise.
UNDP has developed a Users Guide to the VRA (Espanol) (Francais) as a tool to assist practitioners to conceptualize and execute VRA measurements in the context of CBA projects.
The SGP Impact Assessment System (IAS)
The CBA, being a project of the GEF Strategic Priority on Adaptation, aims to increase the resilience of ecosystems and communities to the impacts of climate change, generating global environmental benefits, and increasing their resilience in the face of climate change impacts. To this end, the CBA projects use the SGP's impact assessment system for monitoring achievements in GEF focal areas (focusing primarily on biodiversity and sustainable land management).
The IAS is composed of a number of quantitative indicators which track biophysical ecosystem indicators, as well as policy impact, capacity development and awareness-building.
UNDP Climate Change Adaptation Indicator Framework
CBA projects also track quantitative indicators from UNDP's adaptation indicator framework, corresponding to the thematic area on natural resources management. More information on UNDP's indicator framework can be found on the UNDP climate change adaptation monitoring and evaluation website.
* This description applies to all projects implemented through UNDP's Community-Based Adaptation programme. Specific details on this project's M&E will be included here as they become available. *