Launch of the NAP process in Mali

Two IKI projects being implemented by GIZ are supporting Malian partners to improve their approach for planning and managing climate change adaptation.

The Malian Ministry of Environment held a kick-off event on 18 August 2016 to launch the national adaptation plan (NAP) process in Mali. Two projects being carried out under the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Environment Ministry (BMUB) are promoting this process.

The project ‘Innovative Development Planning for Climate Change Adaptation’ is helping relevant national authorities to address planning issues.  The aim is to ensure that adaptation measures are integrated into the planning instruments of local authorities such as municipalities, districts and regions. The second project, ‘Mali - Pilot Programme for an Integrative Adaptation Strategy’, is supporting the Mali Agency for Environment and Sustainable Development to implement the National Strategy on Climate Change in particularly impacted sectors.

In the framework of these two projects, which are being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, a comprehensive vulnerability analysis was commissioned in July. It will analyse the vulnerability of the population in the target regions of the project using the Sourcebook Vulnerability method developed by GIZ. This will enable policy-makers to better match the type and extent of adaptation measures to actual needs and to help ensure the funding deployed is used as efficiently as possible. At the same time municipalities have been selected to receive support from GIZ in revising their development plans to ensure that climate aspects are taken into better account. Together with the vulnerability analysis, the revised development plans will provide a basis for selecting specific adaptation measures to implement in the municipalities. In September, work began on revising the documents for strategic environmental assessments, environmental impact assessments and an audit. The reformulated legislative texts and guidelines will take account of climate change aspects and strengthen the application of these instruments.

The national adaptation plan process was initially mapped out during the 2010 negotiations on the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Cancún. Experts from the Least Developed Countries Group then ironed out the details of the technical guidelines for developing countries in 2012.

The aim is to both reduce the population’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and to integrate aspects of climate change into development strategies and plans at all relevant levels and in all relevant sectors.