Advancing risk-informed development and land-use planning in Tunisia

The project “Advancing risk-informed development and land-use planning in Tunisia” is designed to integrate climate change adaptation into two dimensions of development planning in Tunisia: socio-economic planning and land-use planning, both at the national and local levels. This objective is supported through the achievement of three main outcomes: development of a national adaptation framework, informing the National Economic and Social Development Plan and the Master Land-Use Plan with climate change risks, and integration risks and adaptation into local development in two municipalities.  
The expected outcomes of the project will address the barriers related to coordination mechanisms, awareness of high-level political and decision makers, building capacity of national planners, and financial sustainability. The outcomes are being implemented in a sequential manner. Establishing the adaptation coordination mechanism to develop NAP framework (outcome 1) will lead to greater efficiency in integrating climate change into development planning, across sectors both at the national level (outcome 2), and at the local level (outcome 3). Outcome 1 provides a foundation from which outcomes 2 and 3 are being built, and outcome 1 outputs will guide the implementation of outcomes 2 and 3 

PROJECT RATIONALE 

Situated in North Africa, Tunisia is in one of the world’s most water-scarce and dry regions and is highly dependent on climate-sensitive agriculture. In addition, a large share of its population and economic activity is in low-lying and flood-prone coastal zones. By 2050, climate change projections for Tunisia predict temperature increases between 1.6°C and 2.7°C, reduced precipitation by 10 to 30 percent, rising sea levels by 15 to 18 cm and escalating extreme weather phenomena (floods and droughts). These risks are likely to result in major environmental and socio-economic impacts and affect various sectoral activities such as health, agriculture, and tourism. 

Several barriers were identified in the 2016 initial Stocktaking Report and subsequent consultations of stakeholders: the insufficient quality or absence of economic analyses and in-depth risks and vulnerability assessments in key PAG socio-economic target sectors, the limitations of climate change coordination mechanisms to facilitate mainstreaming and monitoring of CCA, the failure to align the M&E system for climate change with the National Statistical System; and the weak capacity of the National Environment and Climate Fund (FNEC) to support sustainable funding for CCA. Benin’s main challenge related to adaptation planning is the limited technical expertise to ensure integration of CCA mainstreaming into budgeting and planning processes. 

PROJECT UPDATES 
 
The project has delivered the following results under the three outcomes: 

• Defined proposed objectives for Tunisia's forthcoming National Adaptation Plan (NAP) 

• Multistakeholder collaboration for adaptation strengthened through the support to the setting up and operationalization of the Adaptation Partnership Forum

• Capacity-building program on topics relevant to climate adaptation planning designed with clear objectives and implemented throughout 2023 through 5 training sessions

• Assessment of climate risks conducted, covering the entire national territory

• Established a comprehensive inventory of climate risks by compiling available information and studies on the impacts, socioeconomic vulnerability, and adaptation to climate change in Tunisia

• National-level training sessions conducted to support climate risk vulnerability assessments

• Progress made on local level climate risks integration in Tataouine and Kalâat Landlous municipalities by strengthening the evidence base, building capacities on climate risks, and setting up a tool for the visualization of climate change impacts on localities in Tatahouine to enable the identification of adaptation-related decision elements