# data[].attributes.body
I'm a Diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Cameroon. I'm member of the National Task Force in charge of the review of the Cameroons' NDC.

# data[].attributes.headline
I'm Jean-Eric FONKOU, Diplomat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Cameroon. I'm member of the National Task Force in charge of the review of the Cameroons' NDC. 

# data[].attributes.subject
I'm Jean-Eric FONKOU, Diplomat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Cameroon. I'm member of the National Task Force in charge of the review of the Cameroons' NDC. 

# data[].attributes.body
joining from Moosburg in Germany.

# data[].attributes.body
I am Obed Asamoah Kissi
I am joining from Ghana. I work with the Research and Grant Institute of Ghana as Head of Programs, Monitoring and Evaluation

# data[].attributes.headline
The equality gap within the adaptation gap

# data[].attributes.subject
The equality gap within the adaptation gap

# data[].attributes.body
We need to acknowledge that there is a clear subset of adaptation interventions that will align with private sector interests and revenue generation - but there are others that are truly global public goods - and will require domestic (ideally shored up with donor funds) funding exclusively.  We need to address both of these if we want to avoid creating a vulnerability gap in adaptation investment programs -where better off people in revenue generating value chains have their adaptation and resilience needs addressed, while those requiring pure public support are left competing for attention with other (including COVID) priorities

# data[].attributes.headline
Impact investing for some adaptation opportunities

# data[].attributes.subject
Impact investing for some adaptation opportunities

# data[].attributes.body
https://lightsmithgp.com/focus-areas/

CLIMATE RESILIENCE SOLUTIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Businesses and governments are already spending over $130 billion annually on data and analytics, resilience services, and resource efficiency technologies to manage volatility, resource scarcity, and physical damage and disruption. This spending is in several existing, fast-growing market segments that will grow even faster as businesses, governments, and consumers spend more to deal with the risks and impacts that are being intensified by climate change. Lightsmith’s 500+ company investment pipeline includes companies providing business intelligence as well as technology-enabled services that enhance resilience in areas such as supply chain analytics, weather modeling, precision agriculture, water efficiency, distributed energy, business continuity, disaster response, infrastructure engineering, and parametric insurance that will grow faster due to this macro trend.

# data[].attributes.body
Would be interested to hear some reflection on how the adaptation finance gaps fits in the much broader finance gap that exists, and extent to which we should think more about mainstreaming climate considerations into thinking about national policy making, and indeed taxation alongside calls for private finance (with revenue generation stagnating in many countries, pre-COVID)

# data[].attributes.body
The Adaptation SME Accelerator Project (ASAP) launches Global Directory and Accelerator Initiative

We are excited to announce the launch of the ASAP SME Directory and the Accelerator Partnership Program! We would like to thank the Global Environment Facility, Conservation International, the Inter-American Development Bank, and IDB Lab for their support. The ASAP SME Directory serves as a public platform to underpin the creation of an ecosystem of existing small and medium sized enterprises ("SMEs") providing solutions and services which enhance climate adaptation and resilience. The Accelerator Partnership Program complements this effort by enlisting partners to identify, select, and mentor cohorts of Adaptation SMEs, co-create customized curricula, and facilitate access to climate-focused investor networks

# data[].attributes.body
joining from Ottawa, unceded  Algonquin Anishinabe territory , such a great and important discussion , thank you

# data[].attributes.headline
Impact Reporting for Smaller Scale Initiatives

# data[].attributes.subject
Impact Reporting for Smaller Scale Initiatives

# data[].attributes.body
Check out this organization re impact investment for investors and donors: https://60decibels.com/

# data[].attributes.body
In general we think of
large international finance flows when we refer to the private sector. Would we consider local non-state actors to constitute the private sector?

# data[].attributes.headline
Providing financing for Local adaptation needs

# data[].attributes.subject
Providing financing for Local adaptation needs

# data[].attributes.body
In many developing countries, the resources and capacity are concentrated at the central level, while climate adaptation needs are at the local level, how can this critical gap be effectively bridged?

# data[].attributes.body
Given the great need for more adaptation finance and the current lack of private sector finance, are there any promising financial tools emerging to close this gap? For example, structured products or funds that use public grants to reduce risk and crowd-in private capital?

# data[].attributes.headline
Hi I am Nathale Clarke-Lewis, joining from the spice isle Grenada

# data[].attributes.subject
Hi I am Nathale Clarke-Lewis, joining from the spice isle Grenada

# data[].attributes.body
To what extent is the challenge of climate "adaptation" finance one of a terminology barrier?  I.e. many "adaptation" measures in developing countries are not expressed as a climate challenge per se, so are not seen as linked to climate adaptation.  But these land tenure, access to credit, access to insurance, access to TA/Capacity building, need for increased ag and forestry productivity; watershed management, etc. are all part and parcel of climate adaptation solutions....how can we rapidly promote a taxonomy of traditional development needs that correspond to climate adaptation and resiliency solutions?

# data[].attributes.body
Joining from Berlin, Germany. I work at the Finance Ministry and am attending in a private capacity today.

# data[].attributes.body
Thanks all for attending this important webinar. I'm pleased to be joining from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples.

# data[].attributes.body
Sustainable Inclusive Economies, IDRC, Ottawa

# data[].attributes.headline
Realign the country to attract adapatation funding

# data[].attributes.subject
Realign the country to attract adapatation funding

# data[].attributes.body
In Kenya we are seeing most of the climate funds flowing to mitigation while our NDC is adapatation focused, like all developing countries. How can
we realign the country to direct funding to adaptation?

# data[].attributes.headline
UNCDF program to support climate finance integration in local governance

# data[].attributes.subject
UNCDF program to support climate finance integration in local governance

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.uncdf.org/local/homepage

​The Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) Facility of the UN Capital Development Fund serves as a mechanism to integrate climate change adaptation into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems, increase awareness of and response to climate change at the local level, and increase the amount of finance available to local governments for climate change adaptation.

# data[].attributes.headline
Nabil Haque, Research Fellow - Aid Atlas, SEI Asia

# data[].attributes.subject
Nabil Haque, Research Fellow - Aid Atlas, SEI Asia

# data[].attributes.body
We all know that women and girls are both more vulnerable to climate change and have the greatest potential to inform solutions based on their knowledge, experience and reliance on natural resources - how do we integrate gender-lens or gender-responsive investment parameters into an already difficult challenge of promoting higher adaptation finance?

# data[].attributes.headline
Integration of adaptation finance into development planning and financing:

# data[].attributes.subject
Integration of adaptation finance into development planning and financing:

# data[].attributes.body
In Nepal's case, I see several "climate adaptation" projects which are mostly of development nature with a small element similar to some adaptation measures. In such cases, national and global figures on adaptation financing may not be actual.  Therefore, there is need to delineate the climate adaptation financing from  development financing. This is my general observation. I think, the local and provincial governments here are in need of clear technical guidance on what to include in adaptation finance and what not.  I would like to hear from the Panelists on some explanations or clear vision or best practices. Thank you very much.

# data[].attributes.headline
Coming soon - Carbon and ecosystem services credits

# data[].attributes.subject
Coming soon - Carbon and ecosystem services credits

# data[].attributes.body
With climate and biodiversity COPs on the horizon, we expect major increases in carbon credit and ecosystem services markets - these generate revenue sources in areas that previously were not seen as interesting to the private sector.  How can we get ahead of this market change and integrate these revenue opportunities into our advice and support to developing countries - and how can we set up "offtakers" ahead of time for these adaptation projects?

# data[].attributes.headline
How do we identify an overarching definition for 'enabling environment' when the contexts are so very different globally? 

# data[].attributes.subject
How do we identify an overarching definition for 'enabling environment' when the contexts are so very different globally? 

# data[].attributes.body
Typically for climate funds, governments are the gatekeeper. Do governments have the capacities to make this happen?

# data[].attributes.body
What actions do you think the MDBs could take to further strengthen their contribution to financing for adaptation?

# data[].attributes.headline
Margaret Baker, Master of Environment and Business @ University of Waterloo

# data[].attributes.subject
Margaret Baker, Master of Environment and Business @ University of Waterloo

# data[].attributes.body
Hi all! Great topic and excited to learn more.

# data[].attributes.headline
Thanks. I am Thakur Pandit, Kathmandu, Nepal. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Thanks. I am Thakur Pandit, Kathmandu, Nepal. 

# data[].attributes.body
I would like to learn from this event.

# data[].attributes.headline
Geoffroy Groleau, Senior Project Director, Cowater International

# data[].attributes.subject
Geoffroy Groleau, Senior Project Director, Cowater International

# data[].attributes.body
Hi, good morning / good day from Montreal, Canada!

# data[].attributes.body
Jo-Ellen Parry, IISD, in Winnipeg

# data[].attributes.headline
Georgina Cundill Kemp, Climate Resilience team at IDRC

# data[].attributes.subject
Georgina Cundill Kemp, Climate Resilience team at IDRC

# data[].attributes.body
Gillian Dowie, IDRC Sustainable Inclusive Economies team, New Delhi

# data[].attributes.headline
Kerry Max, Special advisor, Climate Finance Partnerships, Global Affairs Canada

# data[].attributes.subject
Kerry Max, Special advisor, Climate Finance Partnerships, Global Affairs Canada

# data[].attributes.body
Great topic of conversation!

# data[].attributes.body
Archi Rastogi, Independent Evaluation Unit, Green Climate Fund.

I am also leading an evaluation of the GCF's approach to the private sector and welcome inputs from colleagues attending. arastogi@gcfund.org

# data[].attributes.headline
Mobilizing Development Finance for Strategic and Scaled-up Investment in Climate Adaptation

# data[].attributes.subject
Mobilizing Development Finance for Strategic and Scaled-up Investment in Climate Adaptation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Addressing the substantial gap between current levels of financing for adaptation and what developing countries require to increase their resilience to climate change is critical to achieving the Paris Agreement's adaptation goal.

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have pledged to help address this gap by scaling up their provision of climate finance and by better integrating climate change adaptation considerations into their development finance portfolios. Mainstreaming adaptation considerations into MDB investments would increase the financing available to build resilience to climate change. At the same time, there is a need to ensure that these investments are supporting adaptation actions prioritized by developing country governments.

The "Mobilizing Development Finance for Adaptation" aims to generate the knowledge needed to advance the mainstreaming of adaptation in development finance strategies. This will help MDBs scale up investments in actions that are strongly aligned with country-defined adaptation priorities. It seeks to identify barriers-both within MDBs and developing countries-that limit the use of development financing to address national adaptation priorities and opportunities to overcome these constraints.

Through case study research in Kenya, Nepal and Peru, the research project is examining three key questions:

What approaches are MDBs taking to mainstream adaptation in their development finance portfolios and overcome encountered challenges?

How can developing countries better attract MDB development finance that addresses and is aligned with the adaptation priorities arising from their National Adaptation Plan and/or Nationally Determined Contribution processes?

What is the potential to use innovative finance instruments to scale up financing for adaptation?

IISD is undertaking this research project in collaboration with the African Centre for Technology Studies based in Kenya, the Prakriti Resources Centre based in Nepal, and Libélula based in Peru.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mobilizing Development Finance for Strategic and Scaled-up Investment in Climate Adaptation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Addressing the substantial gap between current levels of financing for adaptation and what developing countries require to increase their resilience to climate change is critical to achieving the Paris Agreement's adaptation goal. Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have pledged to help address this gap by scaling up their provision of climate finance and by better integrating climate change adaptation considerations into their development finance portfolios.

# data[].attributes.body
A review of Multilateral Development Banks' efforts to scale up financing for climate adaptation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The main research questions addressed in this paper are:

What constraints and barriers are MDBs encountering as they work to scale-up and mainstream adaptation across their investment portfolios at the developing country level?

How are MDBs working with developing country governments to overcome these challenges and further integrate adaptation into their development finance portfolios?

Finance for adaptation is not flowing at the pace or scale needed to address the needs of developing countries. Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are expected to play a critical role in addressing this adaptation gap because they provide and leverage large-volume finance under attractive terms. MDBs have taken significant steps to increase the provision of climate finance and to align their development finance flows with the Paris Agreement, yet MDBs have encountered challenges when attempting to fully mainstream climate resilience across their portfolios.

The report highlights the need for MDBs to transition from a focus on increasing climate finance for stand-alone adaptation projects or added-on adaptation components of development projects to instead ensuring that all investments consider and incorporate the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The report concludes that MDBs' success in increasing finance for adaptation requires active support of developing country partners, improved tracking of adaptation finance at the country level, alignment of MDB finance with national adaptation priorities, and engagement of the private sector in adaptation actions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Filling the Gap: A review of Multilateral Development Banks' efforts to scale up financing for climate adaptation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The main research questions addressed in this paper are: What constraints and barriers are MDBs encountering as they work to scale-up and mainstream adaptation across their investment portfolios at the developing country level? How are MDBs working with developing country governments to overcome these challenges and further integrate adaptation into their development finance portfolios?

# data[].attributes.body
How governments can help the private sector overcome financial barriers to investing in adaptation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Most farmers in Kenya are smallholders: they own and work on plots of land that are on average less than three hectares in size.

For these farmers, a changing climate poses a significant challenge to their lives and livelihoods.

Kenya's National Adaptation Planning (NAP) process recognizes climate-smart agriculture as a key priority for enhancing the resilience of the country's agricultural value chains.

The challenge is immense, but the farmers can adapt: they can plant shade trees to protect their coffee crops from the blistering sun; they can switch to drought-resistant strains of cassava and sorghum; or they can increase the efficiency of their water harvesting systems. Such climate-smart agriculture techniques can be vital to ongoing adaptation efforts for this crucial segment of the national economy. And Kenya's National Adaptation Planning (NAP) process recognizes climate-smart agriculture as a key priority for enhancing the resilience of the country's agricultural value chains. However, designing and implementing these responses will require not only the right level of capacities, but also the appropriate financing.

Many private enterprises-and especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises-may have limited access to financial resources to pursue adaptation actions. For many private sector actors, including smallholder farmers, accessing the appropriate level and type of financing to pay for their adaptation efforts can be difficult, even if the benefits to engagement are apparent. They may need financing to pay for investments in climate-proofing their operations, for example, or to bring new goods and services to the market that support resilience. However, accessing that financing can be impossible for many: they may not have the required collateral or may not be able to support high interest rates.

In Kenya's NAP document, developing fiscal incentives for private sector investment in adaptation has been identified as a medium-term sub-action moving forward.

Ensuring that private sector actors have access to reliable financing to pay for adaptation actions and that appropriate financial instruments are made available to them will be integral to enabling private investments in a country's longer-term adaptation goals and programs, including the NAP process.

Governments can help here. They can, for example, provide incentives that promote adaptation investments, including tax breaks. They can offer risk guarantees and can use procurement contracts that help secure the demand for climate-resilient products and services. Governments can use mechanisms like taxes, levies, fees and royalties to raise funding that allows financial support to be offered for climate risk assessments; extension services; and start-up or seed financing for new products and services. They can also use a variety of de-risking instruments-including partial credit guarantees, political risk guarantees and blended finance-to help bear the risk of adaptation investments, particularly for large-scale investments.

Accessing the appropriate kind of financing is another key challenge. Financiers and enterprises may be operating in imperfect capital markets that are unable to efficiently allocate capital or transfer risk. It is important that a variety of financial instruments suited to different types of adaptation investments are made available-financing, for example, that can cover short-term and long-term investments, or internal and external investments in adaptation. For example, there is often a shortage of longer-term credit in many financial markets, inhibiting the ability of companies to finance the investments required to cope with longer-term or distant climate impacts.

Enabling private sector access to finance should be a key part of the NAP planning and implementation process. This could include the development by the government of a NAP financing or resource mobilization strategy, keeping in mind that it is crucial that private sector actors be included in drafting these strategies, to ensure their priorities and interests are heard and incorporated.

In Kenya's NAP document, developing fiscal incentives for private sector investment in adaptation has been identified as a medium-term sub-action moving forward. The government is already working toward this aim, in part through its support of the Finance Innovation for Climate Change Fund (FICCF). FICCF has sought to overcome many of the barriers to financing adaptation in its promotion of private sector investments in climate-smart agriculture. The fund does so in part by providing repayable grants to microfinance institutions for on-lending to smallholder farmers and aggregators, so that they can invest in climate-smart technologies and practices. The Kenyan government is helping the initiative by providing reliable access to data and information on current and forecasted weather and climate.

In Kenya's NAP document, developing fiscal incentives for private sector investment in adaptation has been identified as a medium-term sub-action moving forward.

Private sector engagement will be essential to the success of the NAP process, whether through direct financing or active participation in adaptation actions. Governments can play a key role in enabling this private sector engagement by promoting a number of enabling factors.

In addition to promoting information sharing ( released last week) and ensuring access to appropriate financing, in the next few weeks, we will also explore other enabling factors, including capacity building and institutional arrangements.
This is the third installment of a five-part series on private investment in the NAP process.
Blog | What is the Business Case for Private Investment in the NAP Process? (Part one)

Blog | Knowledge is Power: Why information sharing is key to engaging businesses in the NAP process (Part two)

Blog | How Institutional Arrangements Can Engage Small Businesses in Climate Adaptation (Part four)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Paying For It: How governments can help the private sector overcome financial barriers to investing in adaptation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Private sector engagement will be essential to the success of the NAP process, whether through direct financing or active participation in adaptation actions. Governments can play a key role in enabling this private sector engagement by promoting a number of enabling factors.

# data[].attributes.headline
MDB investment can support climate-resilient COVID-19 recovery in developing countries

# data[].attributes.subject
MDB investment can support climate-resilient COVID-19 recovery in developing countries

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
MDB investment can support climate-resilient COVID-19 recovery in developing countries

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in disruptions to and a weakening of the global economy in 2020. This health crisis and its economic impacts have demanded the attention, management and resources of both Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and developing country governments. The NAP Global Network reports adaptation to climate change may not be a priority in the short term for some governments and mobilizing resources for adaptation may be challenging as governments grapple with the added expense of COVID-19 responses, revenue loss and increased debt.

While MDB and developing country government attention on adaptation finance may have taken a backseat to COVID-19 responses in 2020, it is critical that economic recovery programs incorporate adaptation and climate resilience. The impacts of climate change are increasingly evident. The five-year period from 2016 to 2020 is expected to be the warmest on record, contributing to such impacts as disappearing Arctic ice, rising oceans, and more droughts and floods. In Nepal, extreme rainfall in 2020 caused 445 flooding and landslide incidents that claimed about 430 lives and displaced more than 5,000 people. This flooding, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected over 185,0000 people and claimed more than 1,000 lives in Nepal as of early November 2020, has severely disrupted economic activity. Economic recovery programmes for Nepal require additional financing from both domestic and international sources.

MDBs are at the forefront of addressing the challenge of the pandemic in many developing countries, and have committed hundreds of billions of dollars in loans and grants to first help tackle the health emergency and then move toward stimulus measures for economic recovery. In Nepal, the Asian Development Bank has provided grant funds of US$ 3 million for COVID-19 emergency response and a US$ 250 million concessional loan that is focused on social protection for the poor and vulnerable and economic support especially for affected small businesses. The World Bank has provided a concessional loan of US$ 29 million for COVID-19 emergency response and a grant of US$ 10.85 million for a school sector response to COVID-19. In addition, the World Bank has approved almost US$1 billion in concessional loans in 2020 to sectors that are critical to an effective COVID-19 economic recovery, including agriculture, urban development, energy, trade, forestry and strengthened financial sector stability.

A key lesson emerging from our research project, " Mobilizing Development Finance for Adaptation" is that adaptation must remain at the forefront in MDB and developing country government planning and programming. The Prakriti Resources Centre is working with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to examine opportunities to scale up financing for adaptation from the perspective of developing countries and MDBs. The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) in Kenya and Libelula in Peru are also research partners of this project that is funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Our preliminary research tells us that sustainable recovery to the COVID-19 pandemic means that investment decisions taken today need to incorporate a longer-term perspective that promotes infrastructure, urban, and agricultural systems that are climate resilient. Additionally, crisis response needs to stress the importance of access to the environmental determinants of health - including water and sanitation, and nutritious food - and addressing the expected impact of climate change on these sectors. In the short term, this includes ensuring that MDB investment in COVID-19 recovery accounts for adaptation priorities; as well as highlighting the contribution that adaptation finance can make toward national social and economic development goals.

Raju Pandit Chhetri, Executive Director of PRC, highlighted the linkages between Nepal's COVID-19 recovery response, the country's emerging adaptation priorities, and World Bank programming. He remarked that, "The World Bank is supporting Nepal to develop an adaptation investment plan. It is critical that this plan be linked to and support national processes to develop Nepal's National Adaptation Plan and to update the country's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)." Chhetri further explained that the updating of the NDC and development of the NAP offers opportunity to guide adaptation action in the country's pandemic response. But a critical factor in scaling up MDB support for adaptation is that the request that come from developing country governments. Government officials responsible for adaptation need to be engaged in discussions with MDBs; and MDB officials need to learn from and draw on country-led adaptation processes to identify priority actions.

While adaptation may appear to less of a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency is not diminishing. MDBs and the Government of Nepal can work together to factor climate adaptation needs in COVID-19 recovery investments that promote inclusive, climate-resilient and sustainable systems and communities that encourage economic and social development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
MDB investment can support climate-resilient COVID-19 recovery in developing countries The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in disruptions to and a weakening of the global economy in 2020. This health crisis and its economic impacts have demanded the attention, management and resources of both Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and developing country governments.

# data[].attributes.headline
Fostering greater demand for multilateral development bank financing for adaptation

# data[].attributes.subject
Fostering greater demand for multilateral development bank financing for adaptation

# data[].attributes.body
Insights from developing countries

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fostering greater demand for multilateral development bank financing for adaptation: Insights from developing countries

Authors : Deborah Murphy, Jo-Ellen Parry and Joanes Atela.

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have pledged to and are working to increase financing for adaptation in developing countries. For MDBs, alignment with the adaptation goals of the

Paris Agreement means scaling up finance for adaptation in a way that helps developing countries achieve their international commitments as well as national economic and social objectives, including COVID-19 recovery. The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) is partnering with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) on a research project that is exploring options to scale up MDB investment in adaptation. Initial research findings in Kenya, Nepal, and Peru highlight that MDB's efforts to close the adaptation finance gap require input from developing country governments and alignment with nationally determined adaptation priorities.
Blog:

Lost in the daily coverage of the global COVID-19 pandemic is the ongoing, insidious impacts of climate change. The year 2020 is tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record, and the past six years have been the hottest six years on record. Climate change is contributing to catastrophes around the world, including intense and prolonged rainfall and flooding that claimed over 285 lives and affected more than 800,000 people in Kenya in 2020.

The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) has partnered with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and institutions based in Nepal and Peru to undertake research that will help governments manage the effects of climate change. The Mobilizing Development Finance for Adaptation research project, which is managed by IISD and funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), is addressing one of the biggest roadblocks to the implementation of adaptation actions: the lack of financing.

We are specifically looking at the role that multilateral development banks (MDBs), such as the World Bank, can play in helping developing countries address their adaptation financing gap. MDBs provide and leverage large-volume financing under attractive terms, and these banks have committed to increasing their investment in adaptation and aligning their financing portfolios with the adaptation goals of the Paris Agreement. In a high-level statement in 2019, nine MDBs committed to a collective effort to double the total level of adaptation finance provided to clients, meaning that MDBs will allocate USD 18 billion annually for adaptation by 2025.

MDBs are well placed to work with developing country governments to scale up finance for adaptation in a way that helps them achieve their international climate commitments as well as national economic and social objectives, including COVID-19 recovery. However, MDBs cannot act alone. A recent IISD report indicates that a critical factor for achieving scaled up MDB support for adaptation is specific requests from developing country governments. MDBs are demand-driven institutions, and the engagement of ministries that lead on both adaptation and finance can help to integrate adaptation considerations in MDB investments. Additionally, research in Kenya, Nepal, and Peru points to three different strategies to encourage MDB investment in climate adaptation and lessons learned for each of them.
Kenya: Informing MDB investments with climate change adaptation plans
Kenya has identified its adaptation priorities and the costs of implementing these adaptation actions through national action plans that are cascaded locally through subnational county governments. These plans include the country's second national climate change action plan, the National Adaptation Plan (NAP), the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and an NDC investment plan.

Professor Tom Ogada, Executive Director of ACTS in Nairobi, explains: "An enhanced understanding of the costs of climate change and benefits of adaptation across government ministries - including treasury and environment - has informed consultations between the government and MDBs. The climate vulnerabilities and adaptation needs already identified by Kenya have informed the design of recent World Bank projects in the housing and agriculture sectors."
Nepal: Using the MDB investment plan to push national adaptation plans forward
In Nepal, COVID-19 has delayed government processes to formulate the country's NAP. A World Bank initiative to develop an adaptation investment plan for Nepal offers an opportunity to support national processes. The Prakriti Resources Centre (PRC) in Kathmandu is examining MDB investments in adaptation in Nepal and helping the government identify opportunities to use the World Bank project to further national adaptation processes. Raju Pandit Chhetri, Executive Director of the PRC, indicates: "The research is critical to improving our understanding of how MDB investment can be scaled up and aligned with Nepal's adaptation priorities, and how MDB processes can help the government meet international climate change commitments."
Peru: Engaging MDBs in the making of climate adaptation strategies
Many developing countries are receiving technical assistance through NDC support programs established by MDBs, which can be used to address adaptation concerns. Diego Calero, Project Manager at Libélula in Lima, notes the importance of engaging MDBs in the development of these national climate adaptation strategies. "While these are national processes led by the government, MDBs are more likely to understand a country's adaptation priorities and direct investment to these priorities if they are engaged in these processes." For example, the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) NDC Invest program is supporting the Peruvian government in designing a " climate-smart economic revival " as the country seeks to respond to the high impact of COVID-19. The work includes updating the country's national climate change strategy, which includes a vision for long-term adaptation that can guide future MDB investment.
Progress is being made
ACTS recently examined the investment portfolio of the World Bank in Kenya. This Initial research shows that allocations of finance for adaptation relative to mitigation and overall investment portfolios have increased since 2013. Similar to research findings in Kathmandu and Peru, much of MDBs' finance for adaptation is in sectors that are important for COVID-19 recovery, including infrastructure, water, and agriculture.

We will continue to work with IISD and its partners to identify strategies to encourage government officials to request MDB financing for adaptation. Our research is exploring how best to align adaptation processes with national economic development and planning efforts, and how to improve understanding of the benefits of incorporating climate resilience in investment decisions, especially with officials from treasury and planning. MDBs have committed to scaling up finance for adaptation, and our research will help developing countries direct MDB investment toward nationally determined priorities.
Link to IISD project webpage:
Mobilizing Development Finance for Strategic and Scaled-up Investment in Climate Adaptation https://www.iisd.org/projects/mobilizing-development-finance-strategic-and-scaled-investment-climate-adaptation

Acknowledgement: This blog was written under a project managed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development that is funded by Canada's International Development Centre (IDRC).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fostering greater demand for multilateral development bank financing for adaptation: Insights from developing countries

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fostering greater demand for multilateral development bank financing for adaptation: Insights from developing countries Authors : Deborah Murphy, Jo-Ellen Parry and Joanes Atela. Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have pledged to and are working to increase financing for adaptation in developing countries.