African LDCs discuss measuring, monitoring and evaluating their progress on adaptation in their NAP
This year marks the end of the first cycle of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Parties to the Paris Agreement are updating or submitting a new NDC to the UNFCCC. As a majority of developing countries had included adaptation in their first NDC submission, and will continue to in their next iteration, strengthening the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) mechanism for adaptation has been a key discussion among Least Developed Countries (LDCs) as they enhance their NDCs in 2020.
To support countries in sharing experience on the topic, the National Adaptation Plan Global Support Programme (NAP-GSP) partnered with the NAP Global Network to organize a webinar in July 2020 for Francophone African LDCs. The webinar was part of a series of webinars organized by the NAP-GSP and funded by the Global Environment Facility to promote a South-South exchange on National Adaptation Plans (NAP) among LDCs. The objective of this webinar was to discuss how the process to formulate and implement NAPs can strengthen M&E mechanisms for climate change adaptation at national level and, in turn, informs their NDCs.
The online event brought together 104 participants from 26 countries and heard two presentations from the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. From Burkina Faso, Arouna Dolobzanga from the Ministry of Environment, Green Economy and Climate Change delivered a presentation on M&E challenges in terms of adaptation. Jean Douglas Anaman, the Coordinator of the UNDP NAP GSP project in Cote d’Ivoire presented on defining adaptation metrics by using vulnerability index. Following these country experiences, the participants entered breakout rooms dedicated to three topical challenges. The full webinar recording is available below.
The topical challenges discussed among participants in the breakout groups included 1) what are the tools and approaches for M&E systems of adaptation; 2) how to implement M&E systems of adaptation and 3) how to integrate M&E systems of adaptation into the NDCs, Sendai Framework and Sustainable Development Goals? The group discussion brought to light several key challenges that countries faced in their M&E systems, which included a lack of coordination between climate change actors, the unavailability of data and the difficulty to set indicators by sector that are affected by climate change.
To address these gaps, the participants suggested solutions based on practices from their own countries. The training of ministry staff and organization of regular inter-ministry meetings were identified ways to strengthen national capacities and facilitate the circulation of climate change information across sectors. The integration of adaptation indicators into sectoral plans was also pointed out as a key M&E step to track adaptation activities and harmonize contributions to the NDCs, Sendai Framework and SDGs. Many participants had never attended a webinar on the M&E component of the NAP process and showed interest in having a space dedicated to Francophone African LDCs to share national experiences and learn from each other’s NAP process. In its last year of implementation, the NAP GSP will continue to work with countries to support their M&E and will continue to organize webinars to give LDCs a space to share their experiences.
