Mainstreaming climate change adaptation in least developed countries in South and Southeast Asia

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation in least

developed countries in South and Southeast Asia

Norio Saito

Received: 15 February 2012 / Accepted: 9 May 2012 / Published online: 26 May 2012

# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Abstract This paper undertakes an in-depth analysis of six least developed countries

(LDCs) in South and Southeast Asia to assess the extent of mainstreaming climate change

adaptation into national development plans by reviewing their National Adaptation Pro￾grammes of Action (NAPAs), national development plans, and Strategic Programs for Climate

Resilience (SPCRs) (where available). The paper proposes two perspectives to analyze the level

of mainstreaming and five factors that may affect such a level. The results show that there is a

significant difference in the success of their mainstreaming efforts: mainstreaming is relatively

advanced in Bangladesh, limited in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Maldives, and

Nepal, and still minimal in Bhutan and Cambodia. Among the factors, the study finds that the

inter-ministerial coordination supported by the highest levels of government is most relevant to

the success of mainstreaming, which is measured by the integration of climate adaptation

consideration into development priorities and a country’s own initiatives, particularly those

involving budget allocation. Recognition of the need for mainstreaming and monitoring and

evaluation also affect the success of mainstreaming efforts in LDCs. Another important factor is

to make adaptation plans compatible with national development plans in terms of their time

horizon, and SPCRs effectively facilitate this process. As all countries still require external

support for advancing mainstreaming, the role of development partners is instrumental. The

paper points to issues that need to be incorporated in the relevant NAPAs including updating to

facilitate mainstreaming.

Keywords Adaptation . Asia . Climate change . Mainstreaming . National Adaptation

Programmes ofAction (NAPAs) . National development plans . Strategic Programs forClimate

Resilience (SPCRs)

1 Introduction

It has been increasingly recognized that climate change will adversely affect development

and poverty reduction efforts being made by developing countries, and that strengthening

Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2013) 18:825–849

DOI 10.1007/s11027-012-9392-4

N. Saito (*)

Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ibaraki University,

4-12-1 Nakanarusawa, Hitachi, Ibaraki 316-8511, Japan

e-mail: [email protected]

resilience through adaptation measures is essential to ensure that development achievements

are not compromised or negated by climate change. Adaptation means “adjustments in

ecological, social or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli

and their effects and impacts, to moderate potential damages or take advantage of opportu￾nities associated with climate change” according to the United Nations Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2001). Adaptation to climate change needs to be integrated

properly into national development plans, or in other words, ‘mainstreamed’, to be mean￾ingful and effective.

The annotated guidelines (hereinafter referred to as the “Guidelines”) for the preparation

of National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs)1 (UNFCCC 2002) stress the

importance of mainstreaming NAPAs, and state that “mainstreaming refers to the integration

of objectives, policies, strategies or measures outlined within a NAPA such that they become

part and parcel of national and regional development policies, processes and budgets at all

levels and at all stages, and such that they complement or advance the broader objectives of

poverty reduction and sustainable development.” In this paper, the word ‘mainstreaming’ is

defined as above, while it is used interchangeably with ‘integration.’

The objective of this paper is to assess the level of mainstreaming and analyze factors that

affect the level of mainstreaming in least developed countries (LDCs) in South and Southeast

Asia: while there are eight LDCs in these regions, all six countries where relevant information is

available for a meaningful assessment are selected for the study; namely, Bangladesh, Bhutan,

Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), the Maldives, and Nepal.2 All these

countries successfully developed NAPAs in 2005–2010. Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Nepal

have been selected for the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR), and they developed the

Strategic Programs for Climate Resilience (SPCRs) in 2010–2011.3 The analysis further shows

us how NAPAs can be strengthened in facilitating mainstreaming.

2 State of mainstreaming and research gaps

Much of the literature stresses the need to address ‘mainstreaming’ or ‘integrating’ climate

change adaptation into development policies (e.g. Kok and de Coninck 2007; Lasco et al.

2009; Richardson et al. 2011). The Guidelines stress that “if a NAPA is not relevant to a

country’s immediate development priorities, there is a higher probability that it will remain a

peripheral exercise and that its results will not be given serious consideration during national

development planning processes.” The Guidelines acknowledge the challenge of

1 The NAPAs are documents that identify priority activities that respond to the urgent and immediate needs of

LDCs with regard to adaptation to climate change.

2 The two LDCs that are not covered in this paper are Afghanistan and Myanmar. Afghanistan is still in the

process of its national building, while Myanmar just resumed engagement with the international community.

Nevertheless, Afghanistan developed its NAPA in 2009.

3 The SPCR is developed under the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) of the Strategic Climate

Fund established in the Multi-donor Climate Investment Funds (CIF). While NAPAs are intended to identify

priority adaption projects, the PPCR was created in consideration of a need to integrate climate resilience into

development planning and financing. The PPCR is designed to be country-led and country-driven, and build

upon national development plans, NAPA, and other relevant country studies and strategies, and help countries

move beyond the project stage to the programmatic level (CIF 2009). The SPCR, which includes an

underlying investment program, is the output of the first phase of the PPCR; the PPCR’s second phase is to

support the implementation of the SPCR. The PPCR is directly linked with large-scale funding under the CIF;

the range of funding agreed for a single country pilot program is $40–50 million in grant resources and 75 %

of the grant amount in concessional loans, both depending upon availability of resources.

826 Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2013) 18:825–849