Integrating Climate Change Risks into National Development Planning Processes in Haiti
Introduction
The project sought to strengthen institutional and technical capacities in Haiti to iteratively develop a National Adaptation Plan (NAP). Additionally, it aimed to integrate climate change adaptation into national and sub-national coordination, planning, and budgeting processes. This objective was achieved by advancing existing frameworks and systems, enhancing the capacities of various stakeholders to effectively contribute to the process, and establishing a mechanism to sustain the NAP process beyond this project.
Project details
Funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness Programme, the "Integrating climate change risks into national development planning processes in Haiti" project supported the Government of Haiti in strengthening institutional and technical capacities for iterative development of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP). This included integrating climate change adaptation into national planning and budgeting processes.
The project built on lessons from the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) implementation, as well as complementary activities currently underway in Haiti to avoid duplication of efforts. By integrating climate change adaptation into development plans, the project sought to align inclusive climate change adaptation priorities with the country’s visionary Strategic Development Plan (PSDH), National Land Use Plan (SNAT) and Disaster Risk Reduction Plan and Strategy.
As the only Least Developed Country (LDC) in the Caribbean region, Haiti’s primary economic sectors (i.e., agriculture, forestry, and fishing) are heavily affected by climatic events. As of 2023, nearly 59 percent of Haiti’s population lives below the poverty line, many of those people living in extreme poverty. According to the World Bank’s Climate Change Overview Country Summary (2022), political violence, economic imbalance, and population pressure have led to extreme environmental degradation in Haiti, with an estimated 98 percent of forests cleared for fuel. These destabilizing forces have left most Haitians extremely vulnerable to natural hazards.
Haiti has embarked on many initiatives to strengthen its resilience to climate change. However, fragmented policies and data, weak technical capacity, and inadequate climate financing, among others, have hampered the country’s efforts to plan effectively and iteratively for medium-to-long-term climate risks in its development planning and budgeting.
The project was informed by stakeholder consultations and stocktaking of existing initiatives, policies, and strategies in Haiti that were conducted by the National Adaptation Plan Global Support Programme in 2017, which resulted in an action plan to implement the NAP. The Stocktaking Report highlighted limitations and gaps, including insufficient technical and institutional capacity to effectively coordinate and implement climate change adaptation measures, scattered data and information-sharing on climate change impacts and adaptation interventions, limited capacity to monitor climate change adaptation and inform policies, and inadequate budget allocations. These served as the basis for the project activities that were later confirmed by stakeholders.
The project is expected to deliver the following results under the three key outcomes:
- Capacities of the Technical Working Group, particularly MDE (Ministry of Environment) and MCPE (Ministry of Planning), to steer the climate change coordination and integration process are developed;
- Institutional barriers to the integration of climate change into development planning and policies are reviewed and key stakeholders are sensitized to climate change adaptation and development linkages;
- Mechanisms for regularly updating and reviewing adaptation are strengthened and feed into the iterative adaptation planning process;
- Haiti's National Adaptation Plan is developed;
- A system for economic analysis and appraisal of adaptation options is established and adaptation priority interventions are integrated into the SNAT, PSDH and PNGRD;
- Universities and educational institutions are capacitated to support adaptation initiatives and the NAP process;
- Financing and Investment Strategy for the NAP is developed through a gender responsive consultative process;
- Private sector engagement in climate change adaptation is strengthened.
Project results
Despite socio-political challenges, the project advanced the NAP process in Haiti, focusing on enhancing national institutional capacities. The NAP was developed and validated by both the Ministry of Environment (MDE) and the Ministry of Planning (MCPE). The NAP document was presented at COP 27 in Egypt, the NAP Expo 2022 in Botswana, and at the launch of the National Committee on Climate Change (NCCC), providing platforms for experience-sharing and networking with potential partners. Subsequently, the NAP was published by UNFCCC in January 2023.
The project has produced strategic documents and tools, including a gender integration strategy, an exploratory report on private sector engagement in climate change adaptation, and a training mission for actors in planning and budgeting for adaptation. A NAP financing and investment strategy was developed through broad consultations with diverse stakeholders, including women’s organizations, while the communication strategy for the NAP process was validated and disseminated nationwide. An assessment of the regulatory framework and the vulnerabilities of priority sectors, such as health, agrobiodiversity, and water resources, was also conducted.
Other activities included technical working group meetings from sectorial ministries to strengthen capacity, ongoing training on climate information and adaptation integration, and stakeholder development planning and budgeting. Adaptation criteria were integrated into the Haiti Public Investment Program, while other efforts focused on incorporating SDG-aligned adaptation indicators into the national MRV system, creating new data layers with the Ministry of Environment, and organizing workshops on monitoring and evaluation, including a workshop on adaptation practices. Additionally, research programs for priority sectors with two Haitian universities were finalized.
Various initiatives aimed at revising strategic documents were supported, including the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), the development of an operational plan for the PNGRD and the reinforcement of the EIS-Haiti database for the monitoring of climate indicators, among others. Additional activities involved formulating addendums for the PSDH and SNAT, developing project concept notes, and promoting private sector participation in adaptation.
Several good practices and lessons learned from adaptation measures were compiled to promote successful approaches and were incorporated into the Environmental Information System platform. Moreover, collaboration with partners and stakeholders allowed the project to continue the implementation and validation of deliverables while developing synergies between climate change adaptation actions in the field.
- National
- National Governments
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- Haiti's Ministry of Environment (MDE)
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Key results and output
Outcome 1: The coordination mechanism for multi-sectoral adaptation planning and implementation is strengthened at different levels
Outcome 2: The NAP is compiled with a strong evidence base for adaptation planning and priorities are integrated into the Strategic Development Plan and the Disaster Risk Reduction Plan and Strategy
Outcome 3: A financing framework for climate change adaptation action in the medium-to long-term is established.