Issue

What

Who

Defining boundary conditions

The project should clearly define the limits of the freshwater basin and responsible bodies. Advice on these will come from a range of sources, including the Project Document, but in all cases these should be confirmed with the PSC during the inception period. These includes:

• Geographical boundaries (of the basin)

• Time periods for consideration (e.g. 10, 25, 50, 100 years).

• Involved sectors and ministries responsible

PCU/National Experts

PSC

Inception Meeting

Identifying sources of local, national, regional or global sources of information

The UNFCCC website provides a wealth of information that should be consulted by GEF IW projects. Including:

• Guidance on socio-economic data and tools
• Gender and climate change information
• A search of the site will provide documents on economic valuation of climate impacts (and adaptation approaches) an example can be found

The project should identify sources of information (with the assistance of national counterpart organisations, ministries of environment, water, economy, PSC members, etc.) including:

• Climate models / reviews of approaches (as given above by UNFCCC)
• Socio-economic trend data (e.g. population changes, water usage by sector, for example agriculture demand, industry, transport, etc.). See for example the Kura-Aras TDA
• Monitoring information (e.g. river discharge, temperature, rainfall, etc.) - for example what data is currently available for what time period.
• Data owners and databases within region (for example ministries, institutes, academia - these will be identified by national experts and / or counterparts and approved for use in the project by the PSC)
• UNFCCC national responses (see https://unfccc.int for recent National Communications)
• International sources of data and models (see references 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48 for example)

PSC

PCU

National focal points/ministries /institutions

UNFCCC

What expert assistance on climate change is needed

The project should identifying national/regional expertise to assist assess climate change reports and collect/collate information, for example:

• Identifying additional national experts (academic, civil society/NGOs, etc.). An example of a ToR for national experts to assist can be found in the Project Management Manual
• Identifying  institutions involved in the UNFCCC Communications
• Ministries involved in approving/reporting UNFCCC Communications
• Undertaking economic valuations of the impact of tranboundary issues (including climate change - see the UNFCCC approaches referenced above)

Inter-ministerial committees

National Governments

Project Partners

National Universities

Reviewing the Project's M&E plan

The project should review and asses the need for mainstreaming climate change considerations within the M&E framework, including:

• Indicators – are these relevant for assessing climate resistant activities etc? For example ensuring that climate risk analysis is included in the development phase of demonstration activities. Will the monitoring detect long-term changes? Advice can be expected from national experts or institutes and should be supported by the PSC to encourage sustainability post-project.
• Identifying sources of information to provide baseline on climate issues and on-going monitoring information (water resources, climate, socio-economic etc.) See the UNFCCC approaches to socio-economic data and tools listed above and the approach used in the Kura-Aras TDA
• Use of international sources of data and tools (see references 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48 for example).

PCU

PSC

Issue

What

Who

Commissioning studies

The project is likely to require expert advice through consultants and/or partners relating to, for example:

• Assessing climate model outputs (see Part 3 references for examples of models and assessment)
• Agreeing baseline conditions and socio-economic factors (water availability, demand, population, employment by sectors, health, etc. – all issues that have demand on, or impact on water/land)
• Developing trend scenarios with sector representatives
• Assessing impacts on sectors (e.g. water demand on agriculture – changes of crops, lack of water etc)
• Ecosystem valuation assessments (has these been used within TDAs or other activities?)
• Understanding (and explaining) uncertainty in the outputs
• Involving stakeholders

PCU

Assessing climate change impacts and needs for mainstreaming climate considerations within demonstration activities

The project should consider the specific needs of demonstration activities to ensure they both reflect potential climate change impacts and are implemented to take account of any changes (following a 'no-regrets' approach for example). These consideration could include:

• Reviewing demonstration activities to ensure 'no regrets principles' followed with regards to interventions.
• Strengthening local understanding on mitigation of climate impacts and adaptation to change
• Developing awareness of climate variability and change by local monitoring of conditions and trends

PCU

National Experts

Developing monitoring plans

The project should assess if the monitoring plans in operation to collect ecosystem status or socio-economic data are robust and sensitive to climate variability or change to provide the baseline for long-term datasets. Such considerations should include:

• Utilizing national/regional data sets on long-term monitoring (water quality, quantity, biology, sediments) for assessing impacts of floods, droughts and water quality issues..
• Assisting with developing/implementing programmes to collect/analyse water resources and climate data where needed
• Identifying long-term sustainability issues to assess climate change over an extended period (post-project). National commitments such as endorsement of a SAP could assist with this.

PCU

PSC

National Experts

Reviewing adaptation approaches

The project should consider reviewing current activities within country/region on adaptation approaches and evaluating against climate change scenarios and developing a database of experiences to capture lessons on climate change adaption  for incorporation within other IW project activities and contributing to the knowledge base within this manual

PCU

National Experts

Maintaining M&E parameters and updating results framework

The project should continue to ensure the collection and analysis of data for project indicators and periodic review of project results framework to assess / report progress. (Indicators will be given in the ProDoc but additional ones could be developed to assist PCU and long-term sustainability linked to monitoring plans, e.g. rainfall, temperature, river flow, etc. See Kura-Aras TDA

PCU

PSC

Issue

What

Who

Assessment of project activity sustainability

The project should make a final assessment of how activities implemented under the GEF project  can be sustained and are indicating their sensitivity / robustness to climate variability and change scenarios (essentially have the demos and other activities been undertaken  in accordance with the 'no regrets' concepts). This analysis should be an element of the final project 'exit strategy'

PCU

PSC

National / Regional Partners

Has a post project monitoring strategy been developed, adopted and funded by the country / regional body?

Again as part of the exit strategy, the project should assess:

• How monitoring programmes encouraged by the project be sustained post-project?
• How will data be collected/analysed?
• What is the level of commitment of national (or regional) authorities to continue to collect and report (to all stakeholders) data

National / Regional Partners

National authorities