The U.S. Agency for International Development’s Climate Change Adaptation Project Preparation Facility for Asia and the Pacific (USAID Adapt Asia-Pacific) program helps countries gain access to international climate adaptation funding so they can enhance climate resiliency. The five-year, $17 million program shares information and best practices about fund requirements and provides technical assistance to governments so they can access the existing pool of international climate change adaptation funds along with their domestic budget and funding from the private sector. By linking climate funding organizations with eligible Asia-Pacific countries, the program helps prepare projects that increase resilience to the negative effects of climate change.

BUILDING TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE

Millions of people in Asia and the Pacific Islands are vulnerable to climate change, such as rising sea levels and more frequent extreme weather events. Those who are particularly at risk, including the urban poor, live in low-lying coastal areas and river basins. Climate change affects many livelihoods and key economic sectors in the region. Through technical assistance, focused training and peer-to-peer learning, USAID Adapt Asia-Pacific helps strengthen governments’ ability to prepare specialized adaptation projects tailored to meet their needs. The program also supports extensive research and analyses of climate change impacts to key agricultural sectors and ecosystems.

PREPARING PROJECTS FOR FINANCING

Climate change adaptation funds have very specific requirements for project preparation that require a multi-disciplinary team of experienced specialists, who are often not available within government bodies. USAID Adapt Asia-Pacific identifies project preparation gaps and mobilizes teams of highly-skilled sector specialists to assist governments across the region in developing adaptation project proposals for climate change adaptation funding.  For example, with targeted support from the program, India’s National Agriculture and Rural Development Bank obtained approval from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Adaptation Fund for climate-resilient agriculture and natural resources projects totaling almost $5 million.

STRENGTHENING REGIONAL NETWORKS

USAID Adapt Asia-Pacific creates networks through trainings and events, including an annual forum and development marketplace. The program works in close coordination with the Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network, a regional knowledge sharing platform, to share information on adaptation-related topics. The program also supports partnerships that match one country’s expertise with another’s lack of it and encourages close dialogue between Asian and Pacific countries and international climate change funds.

PARTNERS

AECOM International Development, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and the Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network.

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