PAS-PNA - Science-based National Adaptation Planning in Benin

Climate change is a reality and there is nowadays a worldwide consensus on the effects of climate change on various sectors, where Africa is often pictured as one of the most vulnerable regions. Since 2010, the Parties have agreed on the process of the National Adaptation Plans (NAP) for Least Developed Countries (LDC) to identify their adaptation needs in the middle and long-term and define their strategies and programmes addressing these needs. Benin, in accordance with the progress of the international climate change negotiations, launched its NAP in 2013. The NAP allows to reduce climate change vulnerability and integrates adaptation in strategic development planning and processes.

The Support Project for Science-based National Adaptation Planning (PAS-PNA) was initiated in this context through the cooperation between Benin and the Federal Republic of Germany to strengthen the implementation capacities of the NAP process. Officially launched in March 2017, the PAS-PNA project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), and implemented, under the authority of the Ministry of Quality of Life and Sustainable Development (MCVDD), by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), in cooperation with Climate Analytics from 2017 to 2019. The four main components of the PAS-PNA project are: (i) strengthening the governance framework and integrate adaptation in the development planning processes, (ii) providing scientific support for the formulation of process of National Adaptation Plans, (iii) increasing access to international funding for NAP priority areas and (iv) facilitating regional exchanges on NAP processes for francophone Sub-Saharan Africans LDCs.

International climate financing mechanisms require scientific proof and evaluation of vulnerability in the face of climate change and the development of adaptation strategies that explicitly address impacts caused by climate change and variability. It is therefore necessary to ‘prove’ the climate vulnerability of the country’s development sectors and identify concrete science-based adaptation measures.

The component 2 of the PAS-PNA project addresses this challenge through scientific capacity building of the various actors for the adequate planning of the adaptation measures in partnership with the Centre for Partnership and expertise for Sustainable Development (CePED). More specifically, the project accompanies national research groups in the realization of vulnerability studies in three priority sectors for the country: agriculture, water resources and health.

Initial preparatory phase of the studies – June 2017 to February 2018

• Identification of the three priority sectors

• Validation of the conceptual approach of the studies

• Stocktaking of the institutional and political context
  An evaluation of the policies and national strategies has been undertaken to define to which extent scientific data and information relevant to climate change are taken into account. This study is based on the systematic review of documents on policies and development strategies (national and sectoral) and interviews with political actors. The study highlights that even if the issue of climate change remains a concern for the development of the country, the aspects of climate change are not always reflected in the policy documents. To fill this gap and to integrate the scientific results of the vulnerability studies in the strategic plans, the PAS-PNA project works with technical stakeholders intervening in the three strategic sectors.

• Two scientific workshops were organized (December 2017 and January 2018) with the following outcomes:
  • The identification of the group of experts accompanying the implementation of the studies
  • The formation of thematic research groups for the three identified priority sectors
  • The creation of a monitoring committee to link the research and the politics and facilitate the use the of the results of the vulnerability results
  • The development and validation of an interdisciplinary approach for the vulnerability studies
  • The identification of study areas, based on the relevancy of the themes in the various regions of the country
  • The validation of the methodological approach stated in the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the vulnerability studies.

• Approach for scientific capacity building
  The methodological approaches of the vulnerability studies have been developed with national scientists and technical actors who play a role in the three priority sectors. This co-built approach with national actors aims to contribute to scientific capacity building and serve as a basis for long-term adaptation planning. Therefore, it has been agreed with the actors to form three thematic research groups (one group for each sector) with researchers from Benin with varied and complementary expertise, in charge of the conduction of the studies. Several meetings organized with the scientific actors have allowed to identify the study areas, the timeframe, the methodology for the three vulnerability studies and the functioning of the thematic groups. The thematic groups are facilitated by a researcher, also named coordinator, and are accompanied during the vulnerability studies by a monitoring committee taking on the role of supervisor in addition to the scientific support of Climate Analytics throughout the studies.

In-depth vulnerability studies – March 2018 to January 2019

• Stocktaking of science-based knowledge
  The stocktaking of science-based knowledge allows on one hand to get a broad picture of the existing scientific knowledge on impacts, vulnerability, adaptation options and strategies available in Benin for the three priority sectors. On the other hand, it allows to identify the gaps regarding the availability and reliability of the scientific information in each of these sectors. The scientific information available on impacts, vulnerability, adaptation options and strategies have been collected. There have been meetings organised between the scientists and the research institutes to discuss the results and the limits and difficulties encountered. The intermediary results have highlighted that there was an uncertainty in the attribution of impacts differentiating the share of climate and non-climate shocks. Frequently, the impact chains are unclear and limited to the analysis of only one sector. In addition, socio-economic considerations are only partially taken into account in future projections, which reduces the reliability of the forecasts. The study specifically highlighted that in the health sector, the evaluation of the potential effects of climate change do not always take quantitative projections into account. PAS-PNA is aware of this gap and based on this stocktaking, it is possible to determine what additional scientific information the sectoral vulnerability studies will provide.

• In-depth vulnerability studies
  The vulnerability studies were led by three thematic research groups during ten months. Once the vulnerabilities had been identified, adaptation options for each sector were identified. In February 2019, a final workshop on the vulnerability studies was organised to present and validate the results of the studies and the identified adaptation options to the various actors. Radio and TV programmes were produced to reach local communities. Finally, policy-briefs are being elaborated to communicate the results to the key actors.

Integration of scientific results in the process of NAP formulation – January to August 2019

The scientific results of the vulnerability studies will be communicated to the political actors and integrated throughout the NAP process through various workshops and reports.

Since the launch of the project, the following activities have been conducted :

• Formation of three thematic research groups, identification of the coordinator of each group and five professors who guide and advise the research groups
• Development of the methodology of the vulnerability studies
• Identification of the study areas:
  • For the agriculture sector: the Pôle de Développement Agricole 4, from Southern Borgou to Djidja (in the Zou)
  • For the water sector: the Ouémé basin
  • For the health sector: the sanitary areas ABD (Adjohoun, Bonou, Dangbo)
• Official launch of the vulnerability studies: March 15th, 2018
• Publication of the report on the stocktaking of the institutional and political context
• Publication of the report on the stocktaking of science-based knowledge
• August 2018: Workshop on the intermediate results of the vulnerability studies
• February 2019: Final workshop on the results of the vulnerability studies
• Publication of the final reports of the vulnerability studies and the adaptation options for each sector