Overcoming the barriers: mainstreaming climate change adaptation in developing countries

What progress has been made by developing country governments and donor agencies in mainstreaming climate adaptation into development planning? This report reviews looks at issues preventing further progress and provides recommendations on how these barriers can be overcome. The report includes the following:

• a review of what progress has been made by developing country governments and donor agencies in mainstreaming climate adaptation into development planning
• an examination of barriers to further progress
• recommendations on how these barriers can be overcome.

The report's recommendations are aimed at national governments and international donors and focus on information, institutions, inclusion, incentives and international finance. It recommends that:

• governments should engage more actively with the scientific community, who in turn must be supported to provide easily accessible climate risk information
• climate risk information should put current and future climate in the perspective of national development priorities
• a multi-stakeholder coordination committee should be established to manage national adaptation strategies, chaired by a senior ministry
• regulatory issues should be considered from the start of the mainstreaming process
• the capacity of existing poverty reduction and risk reduction mechanisms should be expanded to incorporate climate adaptation where possible
• a broad range of stakeholders should be involved in climate change policy-making, including civil society, sectoral departments and senior policy-makers
• climate change adaptation should be informed by successful ground-level experiences in vulnerability reduction
• donors should provide incentives for developing country governments to take particular adaptation actions, appropriate to local contexts
• the economic case for different adaptation options should be communicated widely
• funding for adaptation should be increased well beyond that currently available via the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and other adaptation-specific bilateral aid
• current international adaptation resources should be used to achieve maximum adaptation results within existing development activities and investments.