Building Resilience to Global Risks: NAP Global Network Progress Report 2019-2020

Director’s Message
NAP FACTS
125
Number of developing countries that
have initiated and launched the NAP
process*
100%
Percentage of completed NAPs that
include Early Warning Systems as a
priority**
100%
Percentage of completed NAPs that
include ‘agriculture’ and ‘health’ as
priority sectors
100%
Percentage of NAP documents
that highlight the importance of
ecosystems for adaptation
34 of 35
Number of sampled Green Climate
Fund NAP Readiness proposals that
include an overarching commitment
to integrating gender
This past year challenged the world in unprecedented
ways. The COVID-19 global pandemic brought to light the
structural inequalities and inefficiencies that make our
societies fragile. These drivers of vulnerability and risk are
also being exacerbated by the effects of climate change.
Building resilience to a range of shocks and stresses has
never been more important.
The events of 2020 highlighted the value of vehicles for
strategic planning and implementation like the National
Adaptation Plan (NAP) process. The NAP process is about
putting adaptation at the heart of decision making. It is a
government-led process that drives coordination, identifies
policy priorities, mobilizes resources, and tracks progress
in countries’ efforts to manage climate risk—all while
promoting gender equality and social inclusion so that
nobody is left behind.
The investments made in this effort should be leveraged for
COVID-19 response; indeed, NAPs can provide roadmaps
for resilient recovery, offering solutions that simultaneously
help countries manage climate risks, deal with the impacts
of COVID-19, and prepare for the next shock or stress. More
than this, though, COVID-19 further reinforces the need for
national adaptation support. In other words, it’s not just
about adaptation actions being aligned with and useful to
pandemic recovery efforts; the pandemic demonstrated that
had investments already been made in certain adaptation
priorities—e.g., nature-based solutions that boost water and
sanitation services, climate-smart agriculture that increases
food security, stronger capacities in risk communications—
some of the worst impacts of COVID-19 might have been
avoided.
2020 also marks the five-year anniversary of the Paris
Agreement and the ratcheting up of ambition on climate
action. The urgency of the climate crisis has not subsided
and, as we’ve seen through the efforts of countries
who submitted new or updated nationally determined
contributions (NDCs), commitment to ambition has not
been swayed by the challenges of COVID-19. Because
NAP processes play an important role in establishing and
achieving the adaptation goals that many countries are
including in their NDCs, the Network will continue to offer
support to ensure NDC and NAP processes are aligned and
mutually reinforcing.
Global progress is a collection of local-to-national-toregional
stories of achievement. Looking back on 2020,
we are inspired by what country partners accomplished
through their NAP processes—especially during such
turbulent times. For example, Peru completed the final
draft of the country’s first NAP and is ready to move forward
with a well-developed plan that promotes gender equality,
as well as intergenerational and intercultural justice.
Colombia continued its move from adaptation planning
to implementation by designing an early warning system
that enables water service providers to offer more reliable,
8 | NAP Global Network 2019–2020 Progress Report
* United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat. (November 2020). Progress in the process to
formulate and implement national adaptation plans. https://unfccc.int/documents/266467
** World Meteorological Organization (WMO) (October 2020). State of Climate Services 2020 Report. https://public.wmo.int/en/
resources/library/2020-state-of-climate-services-report