In planning towards climate change adaptation, most vulnerable countries in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are expected to provide their National Communications and National Adaptation Programs of Actions (NAPA). This is a requirement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These action plans offer insights into the level of vulnerability, adaptation needs, priority sectors, and targeted stakeholder groups. Most SIDSs have made significant progresses in developing their national adaptation policies and action plans. Some are still work in progress (e.g. the Jamaica National Climate Change Policy and Action Plan) whilst some are already in place (e.g. St Lucia National Climate Change Adaptation Policy). Despite these milestones, there is still room to mainstream climate adaptation considerations into key sectoral goals and to improve inter-ministerial collaboration by linking national adaptation policies with local development needs.

Increasingly as well, NAPAs are becoming conduits for leveraging donor funding mechanisms such as the Adaptation Fund, Least Developed Countries Fund, and the Special Fund for Climate Change for strengthening the adaptive capacity of SIDS and to mainstream adaptation into national development policies. These projects and programmes are mainly focused on the most vulnerable sectors (e.g. agriculture, fisheries, water, and forestry) and on assessment, capacity building, and knowledge mobilization. However, these programmes and projects mainly respond to national priorities and little input is sought from the local level with gaps existing between national adaptation policies and project implementation at the local level, where most of the impacts are felt.

This brief and GIVRAPD research offers opportunities to address these disconnects between national adaptation policies and local level implementation.

Policy highlights:

• The existence of adaptation deficits in SIDS require linking national adaptation plans of actions and other climate policies with local level development needs for successful replication efforts.
• National level governments play a crucial role in the governance of adaptation as they confront existing barriers by changing policies or providing enabling conditions. But they could also constrain local bottom-up initiatives on adaptation by marginalizing community inputs and local leadership.
• Stakeholder workshops and participatory planning exercises in GIVRAPD learning sites provide insights into local implementation barriers that can be overcome through collective action by targeting national adaptation units for research and local monitoring, citizen science, and knowledge mobilization.
• Furthermore, field research demonstrates that the 'problem of fit' between local institutions and global change dynamics require various governance mechanisms that empower inter-ministerial collaboration by linking national adaptation policies with local development needs.

Picture: airborneshodan