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National Adaptation Plan

Introduction

In order to address vulnerabilities to climate change that Lesotho is faced with, the Government of
Lesotho through the Ministry of Defence, National Security and Environment under the Lesotho
Meteorological Services (LMS) is implementing a three-year project titled “Strengthening Lesotho’s
capacity to advance the National Adaptation Planning process (NAP)”. The three-year NAP project
was approved in June 2020 by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) under the Readiness and Preparatory
Support Programme Proposal. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the Delivery
Partner (DP) supporting the Ministry of Defence, National Security and Environment in the
implementation of this NAP project in accordance with its Framework Agreement with the GCF and
will the role of supporting and overseeing the project implementation and providing technical
support. The NAP intends to build on the NAPA, the National Climate Change Policy and the other
plans and strategies by assessing opportunities for implementing medium- and long-term climate
change adaptation actions.

A Stakeholder Capacity Development Needs Assessment in Climate Change Adaptation was conducted in 2011. Its purpose was to to identify priority capacity needs for climate change adaptation in Lesotho. The assessment aimed to facilitate implementation of capacity development and training needs in the various stakeholder sectors, all geared toward addressing the effects of climate change in the country. Among the key findings, it underscored the necessity of addressing deficiencies in policies, institutions, and legislation. 

Project Objective

The main objective of the proposed project is to enhance Lesotho’s national response to the threats of climate change at the national and local levels by strengthening the technical, institutional and financial capacity of the country.

Outcomes

Outcomes

Targets

  1. Institutional capacity and stakeholder engagement processes for adaptation planning in Lesotho strengthened.

1.1 Clear mandate for the

coordinating body of the NAP

process and strengthened

capacity for this group and

national and local decisionmakers to formulate and

implement the NAP process in a

participatory and gender-equitable

manner

1.2 Participatory, crosssectoral and gender-equitable

NAP working processes in place

and a roadmap for the NAP

established.

1.3 Awareness of, and

access to, climate information

increased in Lesotho through

improved storage and

dissemination of climate change

information and NAP updates

1.4 Relevant stakeholders

have access to all training

programmes developed during

and for the NAP process, thereby

strengthening institutional and

technical capacity

  1. Climate change information generation, analysis and dissemination enhanced.

2.1 Access to and

understanding of climate

scenarios and climate change

risks at district level increased,

and ability to generate climate

information for the NAP process

and for future project development

increased.

2.2 Access increased for

district- and national-level

planners to information about

alternative adaptation strategies

and their costs and benefits to

inform the development of the

NAP.

  1. National capacity for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into policies, plans and strategies strengthened.

3.1 Systematic

mainstreaming of climate change

adaptation into development

policies, strategies and plans, as

well as associated budgets, is

taking place across sectors and

government levels.

  1. Enabling environment for financing of the NAP process enhanced

4.1 Additional climate finance

is leveraged through private

sector engagement and the

development of a comprehensive

finance strategy

  1. National capacity for monitoring and reporting on the NAP process enhanced.

5.1 A monitoring and

reporting framework to monitor

and report on the effectiveness of

the NAP process is established

and used by relevant institutions

to generate lessons learned.

5.2 Lessons learned from

implementing the NAP process

are shared with all relevant

stakeholders and used to inform

the next iteration of the process