Cross-cutting areas of Capacity Building and Adaptation

1. Cross-cutting areas of Capacity Building and Adaptation UNDP Workshop for NIS Environmental Focal Points 14- 16 June 2004

2. Content: • Capacity Development and Adaptation Cluster • CDAC main objectives • GEF’s Approach to CD and current status • Indicator framework and technical criteria for modality III • Examples of C/C capacity building in RBEC • Initial Guidance for Adaptation projects

3. Capacity Development and Adaptation Cluster (CDAC) • CDAC – responding to new (GEF 3) opportunities in cross-cutting areas of capacity building and adaptation • EAs: NCSAs and SNCs; Capacity Building, including methodological support; and Adaptation;

4. CDAC Objectives: • Rationalize EAs • Currently around 42 EAs in RBEC • Duration: 12-28 months • 100K-500K • Ensure methodological support and consistency • Almost no lessons captured • No synergies and coordination • Significant resources but potential underutilized

5. COUNTRY Regional level Cross - cutting Capacity Development Biodiversity Capacity Climate Change Other focal areas Development · · · NCSA SNC · Enabling (Land · · NAPA Other degradation) activities · · Adaptation (POPs) Implementation Support · Tools and methods · · Knowledge Networks Workshops Capacity Development and Adaptation Cluster (CDAC)

6. EA potentials: • Bridging the gap between the UNDP/GEF and country programming • Capacity building for integrated policy formulation and decision-making • Overcoming the disconnect between the strategic planning and national budgetary decision-making

8. GEF’s Strategic Approach to Enhance Capacity Building http://www.gefweb.org/Documents/Council_Documents/GEF_C22/C.22.8_Strategic_Approach_to_Capacity_Building_FINAL.pdf Based on CDI recommendations there are four pathways for CD: • Strengthening capacity building components of GEF projects • Targeted capacity building projects within a focal area • Cross focal area capacity building projects (crosscutting) • Capacity building through country programs for LDCs, SIDS

9. Current Status of CD activities No news is good news? • No new GEF discussion nor decisions • Paper expected at November Council • Resources available CDAC focusing on Pathway 3 and 4 (3 in RBEC) • NCSA is a conditionality for Cross-cutting capacity building projects (21 countries in this region) • C/C capacity building concepts (2) • Capacity for what? • Aim for policy-driven, high impact projects, with mainstreaming as core objective.

10. UNDP-GEF Indicator Framework for CD • 4 Categories of capacity • Conceptualize and formulate policies, legislation, strategies and programmes • Implement policies, legislation, strategies and programmes • Engage and build consensus among stakeholders • Mobilize information and and use knowledge • Monitor, evaluate, report, and learn from results • Aggregate indicators to 3 levels (systemic, organizational and individual)

11. Modality III: Criteria for crosscutting initiatives I.Technical Eligibility • Must address three focal areas • Objective mainstream MEA • Description of mainstreaming process, methodology, and procedures • Cannot fit in an existing OP/SP • Impact not confined to an ecosystem or geographical area • Address key capacity constraints (barriers) identified by NCSA or other capacity assessment processes • Strengthen / modify /complement existing multi-sectoral processes that can promote policy harmonization and realize cost efficiencies • Focus on environmental governance system

12. Modality III: Criteria for crosscutting initiatives II. Incremental reasoning • Difficult to quantify, therefore emphasize reasoning • Based on assessment of baseline capacities (NCSA) • Describe project scenario: additional capacity required for implementing 3 MEA; GE has been neglected; III. Cost sharing • Given the nature of cross-cutting capacity building and the shared benefits costs should be shared too.

13. Modality III: Criteria for crosscutting initiatives IV. Strategic partnerships • Projects should be designed as strategic partnerships with relevant national structures and on-going processes (PRSP, Decentralization, EU accession) V. M&E: impacts to be measured against baseline • Projects should have outcome and impact indicators • Projects should include activities related to learning and feeding lessons into implementation

14. Examples of Crosscutting Projects • Bulgaria: Integrating Rio conventions into the national and regional development policies in Bulgaria • Armenia: developing institutional and legal capacity to optimize information management and monitoring system for GE

15. Adaptation - the 23rd Strategic Priority http://www.gefweb.org/Documents/Council_Documents/GEF_C21/C.21.Inf.10_Adaptation_to_CC.pdf • A key innovation of the UNDP-GEF strategy is that it will work from current climate variability and extremes as the starting point for assessing national needs for coping with future climate. In other words, the strategy will strengthen adaptive capacity to deal with current climate variability as a first step towards developing national response measures for future climate change. • Rather than advocating heavy investment in the face of climate change uncertainty, the underlying motivation is to build on what is already known for addressing present national concerns, while exploiting synergies for adapting to future climate risks. In other words, the strategy is firmly grounded in the present, yet it is strongly linked to the future.

16. Some Initial Guidance • Assess on-going GEF projects and identify indirect benefits to adaptation and design additional intervention to bring direct benefits to strengthening adaptive capacities; • Take intersecotral approach: agriculture/land use and planning/ biodiversity/forestry; water management/renewable energy • Small MSPs with potential for great impact • Research can only be a component of a pilot MSP; • SNCs will identify adaptation needs and generate project ideas