Adaptation Futures 2018

The GEF Independent Evaluation Office participated in the 2018 Adaptation Futures Conference in the following sessions:

Transnational City-to-City Learning to accelerate urban adaptation | S188 | Monday, June 18

Responding to the challenge of climate adaptation and seizing the opportunities places complex demands on cities including decision makers, city planners, engineers, architects and citizens. These demands and the rapid changes occurring in cities, call for accelerated learning through ‘learning from each other' (peer learning). Transnational cooperation between cities is facilitated by a novel approach of peer learning: transnational City-to-City learning. But what drives city-to-city learning and what are the enabling conditions? Who will take the lead? This session aims to bring together three active clusters of city networks from Europe, Arab countries and South Africa. cities, will be explored.

Speakers:

Eleanor Chapman, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustianability, Germany; Judith Rodriguez, Harvard University; Paola Sakai, University of Leeds, UK; Sergio Antonio Ruiz, Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Ecuador; Dennis Bours, Evaluation Officer, GEF IEO; Kornelia Ilpinge, University of Namibia, Namibia; Sebastiaan van Herk.

Chair:

Chris Zevenbergen, IHE Delft.

Agriculture: programmes, strategies and technologies | S352 | Tuesday, June 19

The SmartAgri Plan - a Governmental response with South African Western Cape's climatic vulnerability - will be analysed for its capacity to guide and inspire a transition to a more sustainable and climate resilient agricultural system. A business case for the set up of an adaptation facilitation mechanism to promote CSA extensivley through parterships, technical and financial assistance. An evaluation and sharing of first results of the GEF funded Food Security IAP program in SSA - an effort that targets 10 million hectares of production landscapes with 2-3 million beneficiary households in the drylands ecosystems of 12 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. How the Promotion and Dissemination of Drought Tolerant Quality Protein Maize in Ghana will contribute towards nutritional and food secutrity, hilts offering increased resilience to climate change. How do local poeple respond to changes in the provisioning ecosystem services and how effective are these responses as coping strategies. Conservation Agriculture (CA) and a CA-Farmer Innovation Programme (FIP) aiming to ensure sustainable use and management of natural resources and climate change adaptation, while enhancing food security in South Africa. Finally, a study to evaluate the effect of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) on agricultural productivity and food security. CSA intends to simultaneously achieve agricultural sustainability, resilience to climate change and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Speakers:

Carlo Carugi, Senior Evaluation Officer, GEF IEO; Stephanie Midgley, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Wendy Engel, Wwf Sa Nedbank Sustainable Agriculture Partnership; Victor Abegunde, University of Zululand, South Africa; Stephen Yeboah, Csir-crop Research Insitute, Ghana.

Chair:

Paul Bordoni

Cities and knowledge sharing | S349 | Tuesday, June 19

Cities are increasingly becoming focal areas for climate change research and action in adaptation and mitigation. Operating in such spaces, however, is not without contestation and challenge. The experiences from a range of city engagements (from the Netherlands and the USA to African cities including those linked to the Future Resilience African Cities and Lands project (FRACTAL)) will be shared. Issues including complex and diversified governance experiences, the roles of embedded researchers and how these can facilitate decision making in cities and finally, the complex politics of multiple actor engagements and social organization of adaptation governance in cities, will be explored.

Speakers:

Dennis Bours, Evaluation Officer, GEF IEO; Karen Hetz, adelphi, Germany; Katharina Hetz, Dutch Research Insitute for Transitions (driff), Netherlands; Brenda Mwalukanga, University of Namibia, Namibia; Lulu Van Rooyen, University of Kwazulu-natal, South Africa.

Chair:

Coleen Vogel, WITS University, South Africa

The Role of Climate Funds in the Co-production of Climate Adaptation Knowledge | S236 | Wednesday, June 20

With a proliferation of experience based on concrete results, understanding of outcomes, and increasingly impacts of the various adaptation interventions piloted to-date, along with the reality that adaptation is gaining mainstream adoption and that significant further investments are foreseen as being necessary, there are certain questions that are especially timely and relevant:

1. What should be the role or roles of the finance entities in the production of climate adaptation knowledge?
2. What are some of the experiences of knowledge production or management in this space?
3. What can the multilateral financing sources do in this space, versus international agencies that implement projects, countries, academia, and centers of excellence? What have they done, and what should they do?
4. Specifically in the sub-Saharan context, how can the co-production of knowledge occur in the most optimal way, in order to best serve the adaptation effort in African LDCs in particular and other vulnerable countries?

The session included a panel debate, followed by a dynamic back-and-forth between the audience and the panelists, around the questions.

Discussants:

Bettina Koelle, Senior Learning Specialist, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center, the Hague - Netherlands; Sukaina Bharwani, Senior Research Fellow and Co-leader of the Initiative on Climate Services, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Oxford - United Kingdom.

Speakers:

Saliha Dobardzic, Senior Climate Change Specialist, Adaptation Fund; Barney Dickson, Head Climate Change Adaptation Unit, Ecosystems Division, UNEP; Anele Mojo, National Coordinator, GEF/UNDP Small Grants Programme, Pretoria - South Africa.

Chair: Dennis Bours, Evaluation Officer, GEF IEO.

Climate Change Adaptation Policies and their Implementation in LDCs: Prospect for Sharing, Learning and Collaboration across the globe | S137 | Wednesday, June 20

The session will consist of presentations on the following topics: - Topic-1: Assessing climatic vulnerability of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and highlighting needs of the local communities - Topic-2: Climate change adaptation policies in the LDCs - Topic-3: Community Based Adaptation (CBA) case studies from LDCs - Topic-4: Building South-South and South-North knowledge transfer and collaboration Objectives: - Share cross-country experiences, and improve knowledge on successful adaptation policies and interventions - Enhance understanding about integrated approach, process and institutions required to sustain the socio-economic development - Develop consensus on South-South and South-North collaboration to facilitate knowledge generation and dissemination

Speakers:

Carlo Carugi, Senior Evaluation Officer, GEF IEO; Sharmala Naidoo; Jack Dyer; Saliha Dobardzic, Senior Climate Change Specialist, Adaptation Fund; Geronimo Gussmann; Mark Abkowitz; Shababa Haque.

Chair:

Saleemul Huq, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD).