RESEARCH ARTICLE A perspective on climate-resilient development and national adaptation planning based on USAID’ s experience Yoon Kim a * , Joel B. Smith b , Charlotte Mack c , Jonathan Cook d , John Furlow d , Joyce-Lynn Njinga e and Michael Cote e a 275 Grand View Ave., Apt. 103, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA; b Stratus Consulting Inc., PO Box 4059, Boulder, CO 80306, USA; c ICF International, 1725 Eye St. NW, Washington, DC 20006, USA; d USAID, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20523, USA; e Engility/IRG, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA (Received 2 February 2015; accepted 14 October 2015) National adaptation planning has evolved from a focus on short-term, project-level interventions to mainstreaming adaptation into broader development goals. Initial adaptation efforts tended to focus on climate science and project-level assessments and measures. In contrast, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) provide an opportunity to take a longer-term, more strategic approach to adaptation. A “development-first” approach, rather than a “climate-first” or climate stressor-driven approach, enables climate change to be more effectively integrated into development planning and decision-making. The United States Agency for International Development’ s (USAID’ s) Climate-Resilient Development framework, as applied to NAPs, begins with a workshop attended by a broad array of government and non-government stakeholders. During the workshop, participants take a comprehensive view of a country’ s social and economic development goals and key climate and non-climate risks to those goals. Participants also identify potential adaptations that can reduce the most significant climate risks to development. USAID has applied this approach in stakeholder workshops in Jamaica, West Africa, and Tanzania, and these workshops have helped to catalyse NAP processes in the countries. Lessons learned from these applications include the importance of stakeholder ownership and buy-in at an early stage of the NAP process, the value of embedding NAPs in an existing planning process such as long-term economic development planning to promote more effective mainstreaming, and the key role that NAPs can play in the coordination of financial and technical support by development agencies and other institutions. Keywords: national adaptation plans; NAPs; adaptation; capacity building; climate change; climate policy; development; mainstreaming; sustainable development; UNFCCC; USAID 1. Introduction The impacts of climate change have been found potentially to limit economic growth in developing and developed countries, thus resulting in significant implications for achieving development goals (e.g. Arendt et al., 2014). Some countries are trapped in poverty partly because of climate factors, and climate change can restrict efforts for economic development. In addition, the poorest segments of societies tend to be most vulnerable to climate change, as poverty limits their access to resources needed to adapt to climate variability and change (e.g. Arendt et al., 2014). Poor populations also tend to be marginalized in decision- making and access to rights, services, and resources (von Braun & Gatzweiler, 2014). Recent efforts to address the impacts of climate change in developing countries have emphasized National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), authorized under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). NAPs provide an opportunity for countries to develop strategic, longer-term plans for adaptation. This paper presents the United States Agency for International Development’ s (USAID’ s) approach to NAPs based on its Climate-Resilient Development (CRD) framework, which it has used to support a number of countries in initiating their NAP processes. Section 2 provides context on NAPs and examines the shift in national adaptation planning from a “climate- first” approach to a “development-first” approach, focus- ing on the experience of USAID. Section 3 discusses USAID’ s CRD framework in detail. Section 4 explores The work of Jonathan Cook and John Furlow was authored as part of their official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 USC. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under US Law. Michael Cote, Yoon Kim, Charlotte Mack, Joyce-Lynn Njinga and Joel Smith hereby waive their right to assert copyright, but not their right to be named as co-authors in the article. *Corresponding author. Email: yoonhuikim@gmail.com Climate and Development, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2015.1124037 Downloaded by [Professor Richard Klein] at 12:44 24 February 2016