Prabin Man Singh Programme Officer (Climate Change) Oxfam GB Nepal

1. ‘Localised actions for climate change adaptation’ Report:Review of Climate Change Adaptation Practices in South Asia Prabin Man Singh Programme Officer (Climate Change) Oxfam GB Nepal

2. Methodology • Research focussed in five countries in South Asia: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka • Field work in two countries : Bangladesh and Nepal • 64 adaptation projects reviewed and 14 projects were studied in detailed.

3. Context: South Asia • 1.5 billion people live on less than USD 1.25 per day • Agriculture employs more than 60% of the region’s labour force. • More than 70% of people lives in villages

4. Predicted Impacts of Climate Change in South Asia • Increased variability in both monsoon and winter rainfall, • Increased frequency and/or severity of extreme weather events (floods, cyclones and drought), • Increase in average temperature, with warmer winter, • Increase salinity in coastal areas as a result of rising seas, • Reduced discharge of major rivers, • Weakening ecosystems, • Recession of glaciers in the Himalayas

5. Signature events • 1985- Glacier Lakes Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in Dig Tsho • 1993- Mid mountain cloudburst and floods in Central Nepal • 2001/02- Drought in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in India • 2007- Cyclone Sdir hit Bangladesh • 2008-9 • Winter drought in Nepal • Forest fire across the Himalayan region • Diarrhoea epidemic in the mid-western hills in Nepal • 2009- Cyclone Aila hit Bangladesh and India • 2010 • Floods in Sindh province, Pakistan • Cloud outbrust in Ladakh, India

6. Case study: Local Adaptation Programme of Action in Nepal • Operational at the administrative scale of the District Development Committee (DDC) and the Village Development committee (VDC), • Acknowledge the role of plural mechanisms operating within these scales where the capacity of public sectors administrative units is limited, • Operated over the medium terms, • Mainstream into local, VDC and district-planning process

7. Key Lessons • Participatory assessment and analysis of vulnerability and capacity, • Climate change adaptation is not dealt in isolation. Complex interdependence of sustainable livelihoods, disaster, water and natural resources, • Focus on poor, vulnerable and marginalised beneficiaries, • Flexible and responsive design and implementation, • Future looking – long term programme, • Build adaptive capacity at multiple levels and within existing institutions,

8. Adaptation Cooperation in South Asia • Adaptation works need to complement with national plans and policies. • Adaptation works need to back by rigorous assessment at the national, sub-regional and regional level with an emphasis on respective ecosystems. • Hydro-met information sharing between the counties in the region. • River basin management at a sub-regional or regional level

9. Adaptation cooperation… contd. • Existing institutions within SAARC like food bank, meteorological station and seed bank need to operationalise. • Implementation of SAARC Action Plan on Climate Change. • Technologies (early warning, drought/flood tolerant seeds, water management) transfer within the region, • Monitoring and evaluation framework for adaptation practices to be developed. • Adaptation works in the region require predictable and additional finance.

10. The End.