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For capturing country experiences

Information on the status of preparation and implementation of NAPAs, including information on experiences from LDC NAPA teams, was assembled through questionnaires, interviews and a desk review of country-specific documents and data, including NAPAs and LDCF project documents. A total of 24 countries were covered in the first two sets of interviews conducted in June 2010 and June 2011.
 
The country experiences presented here are from: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Kiribati, Malawi, Sao Tome and Principe and Uganda. They offer an insight into the diversity of the LDCs in terms of geographical distribution (Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific), language (anglophones, francophones and lusophones) and ecosystems (mountainous countries, SIDS, landlocked countries, subtropical regions and the Sahel).

The results from the findings are used to inform the support provided by the LEG to the LDCs. In cases where immediate actions were required, the LEG worked with the GEF and its agencies to find solutions. This approach has proved to be a good practice in itself; it has led to the quick resolution of problems and the improvement of the relationships between the NAPA teams and the GEF implementing agencies.

The LEG intends to add more country profiles to the LDC Portal on the UNFCCC website  as part of its ongoing work on capturing and communicating best practices and lessons learned.

The approach used follows from the past presentation of lessons learned in other programmes. Lessons are presented in publications, more often than not, to demonstrate an engagement and contribution to knowledge. The LEG believes that, to be useful, lessons must be presented and communicated effectively to their intended audience. The approach that is being proposed by the LEG builds on a framework of lessons from evaluation, developed by the Evaluation and Oversight Unit of UNEP.*

The LEG is guided by two definitions of lessons learned: 

“A lesson learned is knowledge or understanding gained by experience. The experience may be positive, as in a successful test or mission, or negative, as in a mishap or failure… A lesson must be significant in that it has a real or assumed impact on operations; valid in that it is factually and technically correct; and applicable in that it identifies a specific design, process or decision that reduces or eliminates the potential for failures and mishaps, or reinforces a positive result (Secchi, 1999 in Weber 2001).”

The second definition, based on the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), defines lessons learned as “Generalizations based on evaluation experiences with projects, programmes, or policies that abstract from the specific circumstances to broader situations. Frequently, lessons highlight strengths or weaknesses in preparation, design, and implementation that affect performance, outcome, and impact.”

The goal is to frame lessons, based on experience, in a manner that will facilitate use in future areas and applications, and will actively facilitate learning from experience in order to avoid repeating past mistakes or reinventing the wheel. According to UNEP, a high-quality lesson must:

• Concisely capture the context from which it is derived;
• Be applicable in a different context (generic), have a clear ‘application domain’ and identify target users;
• Suggest a prescription and should guide action. 

The lessons learned and best practices below are an initial selection by the LEG. The LEG intends to publish additional cases through the LDC Portal on the UNFCCC website as more LDCs are interviewed and profiled.

* Reference
Spilsbury MJ, Perch C, Norgbey S, Rauniyar G and Battaglino C (eds.). 2007. Lessons Learned from Evaluation: A Platform for Sharing Knowledge, Nairobi: Evaluation and Oversight Unit, UNEP.