In this free publication from UNDP, you can learn about the Climate Change Adaptation in the Arab States to achieve sustainable and lasting results. Some lessons include building local capacity at all levels to ensure a project’s long-term viability, decentralizing infrastructure management, implicating community-based organizations, and promoting resilience of vulnerable populations through livelihood diversification.Providing populations with access to adapted financial services such as Weather Index Insurances (WII) linked with microfinance services was found to support rural populations to become more resilient to climate induced damages.
The immediate objective of this publication is not only to share experiences with a wider audience, but also to inform future CCA programming. The publication furthermore acts as a call to action to facilitate a long-term coordinated approach to increasing the resilience of countries most vulnerable to climate change in the region.
The impacts of climate change are exacerbating the existing challenges of sustainably managing limited natural resources. Climate change-related desertification has expanded in the Arab region, greatly increasing the vulnerability of the local population. In fragile countries such as Somalia, illegal armed groups such as Al-Shabaab have increasingly attracted young people, who are affected by drought-induced food insecurity and have limited job prospects.