Institutional arrangements for national adaptation planning and implementation: 2014 thematic report

This report is part of a series of annual thematic reports prepared under the workplan of the Adaptation Committee to provide information on adaptation to Parties and the broader international adaptation community. The 2014 report on institutional arrangements for adaptation, considering their critical importance for adaptation planning and implementation.

This thematic report draws on eight case studies as well as information from other sources to raise awareness of existing institutional arrangements that have been set up to support adaptation at different governance levels, identify the main challenges those institutions face, and highlight key lessons learned from their work that can be drawn upon to identify a set of concrete measures to enhance the effectiveness of institutional arrangements.

The report is structured as follows: Section II provides an overview of current institutional arrangements for adaptation, including challenges, and provides eight case studies that explore in more detail examples of institutional arrangements set up in different countries and regions to support national adaption to climate change. Section III looks at current and future challenges identified as described in section II and discusses measures that can be used to support the strengthening of institutional arrangements. Section IV concludes with the main messages from the report including recommendations.

Institutional arrangements at the national level:

• Case study 1 - Indonesia: national action plan for climate change adaptation
• Case study 2 - Netherlands: national coastal strategy
• Case study 3 - United States of America: rebuild by design - an initiative of the hurricane Sandy rebuilding task force
• Case study 4 - Viet Nam: Mekong delta plan

Institutional arrangements at the regional level:

• Case study 5 - African Sahel: great green wall initiative (la grande muraille verte)
• Case study 6 - Andes: adaptation to the impact of rapid glacier retreat in the tropical Andes
• Case study 7 - Caribbean community: regional framework for achieving development resilient to climate change and its implementation plan
• Case study 8 - Pacific Islands: pacific adaptation to climate change programme