Background

Climate change is already affecting communities across East and Southern Africa through more frequent droughts, floods, unpredictable rainfall and other extreme weather events. These impacts threaten food security, water resources, biodiversity, infrastructure and livelihoods, making adaptation an urgent priority for countries across the region.

To help countries prepare for these growing challenges, countries are encouraged to develop National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). These plans help governments identify their long-term climate risks, set national adaptation priorities and integrate climate resilience into development planning. They also strengthen coordination across government institutions, encourage collaboration with stakeholders, and support informed investment decisions that can improve resilience for people, ecosystems and economies.

A National Adaptation Plan is more than a policy document. It provides a roadmap for building resilience, aligning climate action with national development goals, and creating the conditions needed to attract investment and access international climate finance for adaptation.

Tanzania has become a regional leader by successfully developing and submitting its NAP. Led by the Vice President's Office (Division of Environment), the process brought together government institutions and stakeholders from multiple sectors to develop a shared vision for climate resilience. The NAP is closely aligned with the country's long-term development priorities, including Tanzania Development Vision 2050, its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and its Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS). Tanzania's experience demonstrates how strong coordination, inclusive planning and integration of adaptation into national policies can provide a valuable model for other countries in the region.

Context and Rationale

While many countries in East and Southern Africa are making progress in developing their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), the process can be complex. Common challenges include limited technical capacity, gaps in climate data, difficulties in securing financing, and the need to better integrate adaptation into national development priorities. Ensuring effective coordination across government institutions and engaging a wide range of stakeholders are also essential for success.

One of the most effective ways to overcome these challenges is through peer learning. By sharing experiences, lessons learned and practical solutions, countries can benefit from each other's successes and avoid common obstacles. Tanzania's experience, in particular, offers valuable insights for countries at different stages of the NAP process.

Regional cooperation also plays an important role in strengthening climate resilience. Working together allows countries to address shared climate risks, exchange knowledge and promote more coordinated approaches to adaptation across borders.

To support this collaboration, the UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Centre for East and Southern Africa (RCC EASA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Government of Tanzania are bringing together government representatives and experts for a knowledge-sharing webinar. The event will provide an opportunity for participants to exchange experiences, discuss challenges and explore practical approaches to developing and implementing National Adaptation Plans.

Objectives

With this event, we seek to support other countries:

• Gaining an understanding of the process countries follow in preparing their NAPs, including key approaches, best practices, challenges, and lessons learned.
• Sharing Tanzania's plans, ongoing efforts, and expectations related to the implementation of its NAP, and how these align with other climate policies, including the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA).
• Encouraging countries currently developing, or interested in developing, their NAPs to engage with peer representatives and learn from the insights and experiences shared.
• Sharing experiences on legal, policy, and institutional arrangements for NAP coordination, vertical and horizontal integration, monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL), and the mobilization of adaptation finance.

Outcomes and key takeaways

The webinar brought together 39 Participants including NAP focal points and technical experts from the region to exchange experience on NAP formulation and implementation, with an in-depth case study from Tanzania one of the region's NAP frontrunners. Representative NAP focal points included those from Botswana, Mauritius, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia and Eswatini.

Through the webinar, Botswana, Mauritius, Malawi and Uganda shared their County status on their NAPs progress while Tanzania shared their NAP Journey and lessons learnt worth taking up by countries that are in progress or initiation stages of their NAPs. Below are some of the key lessons shared:

• A multi-expert task-team model proved more cost-effective and timely than reliance on external consultants.
• Close, sustained coordination with ministries, development partners, CSOs, academia, private sector and communities strengthened national ownership.
• LEG review of the draft NAP materially improved document quality before UNFCCC submission.
• And lastly Sequencing the NAP process in parallel with NDC and national development-vision processes strengthened policy coherence

Moving forward, Tanzania expressed interest to have a Community of Practice(CoP) on NAPs - a shared platform that allows countries in the region to share on the lessons and best practices not only on NAPs but also overall adaptation landscape.