A small country’s multi-sector approach to a national adaptation plan

By Melanie Pisano and Louis Nunes Da Costa

Timor-Leste is a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) and the smallest country in the region of East and Southeast Asia both in geographic size and population — with less than 1.2 million people living there. With over 700 kilometres of coastline, Timor-Leste faces the adverse impacts of climate change head-on. Coastal cities and communities are threatened by the rise of sea level, flooding, cyclones, strong winds, and extreme rainfall, which causes damage to infrastructure, increases water borne diseases and landslides.

On the other end of the spectrum, Timor-Leste experiences phases of prolonged drought and heat stress that have exacerbated crop health, human health, and livestock health around the country. The Government of Timor-Leste has been making recent strides in their national development agenda and adaptation planning to build resilience towards these impacts and safeguard their citizens and sectors.

To learn more about Timor-Leste’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP) experience, the joint UNDP-UN Environment NAP Global Support Programme, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), caught up with Justina Aurea da Costa Belo, a professional staff at the National Directorate of Climate Change in Timor-Leste. The NAP-GSP supported the facilitation of Timor-Leste’s initial NAP document. This support included providing the legal framework of the NAP and the national circumstances for Timor-Leste’s environmental, social, and economic background. The NAP-GSP supported an overview of the vulnerability assessment results, identifying adaptation priorities in existing and drafted documents that were relevant to the regulatory framework for climate change adaptation.

Timor-Leste’s National Adaptation Plan process

In March 2020, with the support of the UNDP country office in Dili, Timor-Leste held a national consultation workshop with sectoral stakeholders from ministries (Public Works, Agriculture and Fisheries, Health, Finance, Education) and the National Directorate for DRM under the Secretariat of State for Civil Protection, International Agencies, NGOs and private Sectors. Following the two-day workshop, an initial National Adaptation Plan document was formulated.

The NAP highlights: (1) Legal Basis and Institutional Arrangement for the NAP; (2) the national circumstances and political, economic and social background; (3) the rationale for focusing on adaptation; (4) National Adaptation Plan Alignment with Existing Strategic, Legal and Regulatory Framework; (5) an overview of the results from a previously conducted vulnerability assessments; (6) Priority Adaptation program for Timor-Leste and (7) Conclusion and Next Steps for Advancing Timor-Leste’s National Adaptation Plan Process to expand the NAPs process from 2020–2022. The NAP will then be reviewed by the UNDP country office and will go to the National Directorate for Climate Change. A validation workshop has been scheduled for June 2020 for finalisation before it is submitted to the UNFCCC.

Understanding the local context is essential to effective adaptation

To prepare the formulation of the NAP, Timor-Leste conducted an integrated vulnerability assessment in several ‘suco’ villages around the country. More than 80 percent of the people in Timor-Leste depend on agriculture so it essential the NAP process is evidence-based and targeted.

The vulnerability assessment included on-the-ground field visits, a questionnaire and discussions with the locals and farmers from each suco. On these visits, there was evidence of mass-crop failure due to prolonged droughts. With erratic rainfall and then prolonged dry seasons, the crop cycle and harvest potential is becoming more unpredictable for farmers.

The NAP formulation process was also considering all related vulnerability assessment results undertaken by all related agencies in the past. During the stakeholder consultation workshop, the vulnerability assessment findings were discussed and the need for more research on climate-resilient and drought-resistant crop varieties for development in the agriculture.

Encountering challenges in the NAPs process

The slightest changes in the climate greatly affect all sectors. Frequent and extreme weather patterns directly impact the decline of coral reef ecosystem services and lack of access to deep-water fishing, as well the agriculture production of staple crops, such as rice and maize that depend on the timing of the wet season.

The NAP is an opportunity for a multi-sector approach to adapt and build resilience. The NAP process in Timor-Leste has faced a unique challenge, something they call an “ego-sectoral” issue. In Timor-Leste, each ministry feels ownership over their sector, and while the adaptation planning is conducted at the national level, it needs to involve all relevant and key sectors in the country. To overcome this, the consultation workshop identified the need to develop a Ministerial Decree of Law for the NAP so it could be a legally separate entity that will ensure inclusion and uptake in all line ministries.

As a small island state, climate impacts, such as ‘rising sea levels’ can cause infrastructure damage, flooding and water-borne diseases, which would, therefore, trigger the involvement of the Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The Ministerial Decree of Law allows the ownership of all sector stakeholders in the NAP process. To ensure multi-sector ownership in their climate plans, Timor-Leste is enacting national law — a solution to a common challenge of many countries.

The difference between the NAP and the NAPA

The difference between Timor-Leste’s National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) that was completed in 2010 and the National Adaptation Plan is that the NAPA focused on urgent and immediate adaptation actions and the NAP focuses on medium to long-term adaptation actions to build resilience. The NAPA was a project-based approach and the NAP has a policy-based approach. Timor-Leste viewed the NAPA as an established process and the NAP is seen as a flexible process.

2020 and beyond

To prepare for a world with a rise in sea level of between 61cm and 1.1m by 2100, as projected in the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019), Timor-Leste is prioritising adaptation to safeguard its culture and communities that rely on the dependability of water.

Timor-Leste is looking forward to the design and implementation of two phases in the NAP. The country aims to finalize the governance at the national and sub-national levels to implement the NAP and establish a firm legal mandate of the NAP. Following the upcoming validation workshop, the completion of the initial NAP will need to be presented to the Council of Ministers for approval and review, before it’s submitted to the UNFCCC. The goal for 2020 is for the National Directorate of Climate Change to formulate a funding proposal to access Green Climate Fund financing that will support the next phases of the NAP process.

In parallel, Timor-Leste is one of the 100 countries being supported by UNDP’s Climate Promise to enhance their NDCs by 2020. Timor-Leste is leveraging on-going efforts to further strengthen its capacity in addressing and responding to climate change. UNDP is supporting Timor-Leste’s efforts in raising adaptation ambition through a GCF project, “Safeguarding rural communities and their physical and economic assets from climate-induced disasters in Timor-Leste” to strengthen rural infrastructure, such as water supply systems, rural road and bridges, flood defenses, and irrigation systems.