GIDRM at the Botswana Global Adaptation Week

Gaborone, 22-26 August 2022—This year’s “Botswana Climate Adaptation Week 2022” was co-hosted by the Government of Botswana and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the aim of fostering adaptation ambitions and progress of the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).

During the adaptation week, the annual NAP Expo, organized by the Least Developed Countries Expert Group (LEG) under the auspice of the UNFCCC, featured sessions and discussions related to “Transformations to adapt”. The NAP Expo is set up to foster the exchange of experiences and strengthen collaboration between stakeholders on how to advance NAPs. Related to the formulation and implementation of NAPs, several countries raised the issue of technical assistance needs, which will be carefully followed up by GIDRM as for enhancing greater synergies and alignment between climate change adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the SADC Region.

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In 2021, UNDRR highlighted a series of potential key benefits of enhancing coherence between CCA and DRR including:

  1. More effective policies and investments in CCA and DRR including the integration of both approaches into national development plans and policies,
  2. More efficient use of capacities and financial resources,
  3. Advancing technical knowledge and expertise in assessing, understanding, and managing both climate and other risks and
  4. Enhancing disaster preparedness and response planning.

In face of current and future climate- and disaster risks, GIDRM’s work in the SADC region aims at supporting partners in using synergies between CCA and DRR. The processes of developing policies on and investing in CCA and DRR have similar approaches, common challenges and complementary advantages for governance, financing, information and data analysis, capacity development and monitoring. Drawing on this understanding of synergies, GIDRM promoted the alignment of CCA and DRR in the context of national adaptation plans at the NAP Expo.