Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation: A Practitioner’s Handbook

AIMED AT: This handbook is primarily designed for CARE in Vietnam programme management (programme managers, component managers, project staff and programme officers) and project partners working at the district and commune level, but may prove useful to other development NGOs PURPOSE: The handbook will assist in analysing the implications of climate change for the lives and livelihoods of the communities CARE work with GEOGRAPHICAL AREA: Vietnam with implications for other countries TECHNICAL AREA: Mainstreaming climate change into projects BASIC STRUCTURE: The handbook provides: methodology; practical tools; case studies; guidance and relevant information on how to assess project and program vulnerability to climate variability and change; and how to design and adapt projects so that they are more resilient to a range of climate change scenarios. Mainstreaming climate change adaptation is described as a process of considering climate risks to development projects, and of adjusting project activities and approaches to address these risks. Mainstreaming climate change adaptation can achieve three main objectives: (i) reducing the risks posed by climate change to project activities, stakeholders, and results, sometimes referred to as ‘climate-proofing’; and (ii) ensuring that project or program activities maximize their contribution to adaptive capacity of target populations; and (iii) do not inadvertently increase vulnerability to climate change. The seven-step approach for mainstreaming climate change adaptation at the operational level, known as the Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation Pathway (CVA Pathway), is proposed. It follows a development path parallel to the project cycle. Step 1: Assess project activities for climate risk, Step 2: Decide on the CVA Pathway, Step 3: identify Adaptation Measures, Step 4: Prioritise Adaptation Measures, Step 5: Select Adaptation Option(s) for Implementation, Step 6: Implement Adaptation Measures, Step 7: Evaluate Adaptation and the CVA Pathway.

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