ALM UNDP

An important aspect of this Project is its capacity development aspect. The following describes how the project responded to this objective. CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT EVENTS

• 1. A Short Training Course to Mainstream Climate Risks in UN programming and Colombia Public Policies (29-30 July 2009)

Objectives: (i) To improve the general understanding of climate change, including variability, vulnerability, risks, and adaptation; and (ii) To enhance the appreciation for the mainstreaming of risks and opportunities in Colombian development processes. Attendance: 16 representatives from 10 UN Agencies, and 14 representatives from 11 national institutions.

• 2. Dialogue on the UNDAF Risk Screening (31 July 2009)

Objectives: (i) T present the screening results of the UNDAF to the Colombian UN Agencies; (ii) To seek feedback and validation on the results of the UNDAF screening; and (iii) To establish next steps to effectively integrate climate change in the UN system. Attendance: 15 representatives from 10 UN Agencies (out of 22); 4 representatives of 3 national institutions.

• 3. National Dialogue on Poverty Reduction and Climate Change (3 August 2009)

Objectives: (i) To present and receive feedback on the results of the climate change risk assessment of the UNDAF 2008 – 2012, UN projects, and selected national public policies, and (ii) To build on the earlier working group accomplishments made during the First National Panel of Experts on poverty policies and the adaptation to climate change and generate recommendations for national policies regarding poverty reduction, risk management, environmental health; and food and nutritional security. Attendance: 80 participants from UN Agencies, national entities, NGOs, universities and indigenous groups. In addition, the dialogue was broadcast live as a video stream with chat room, which had over 1.000 national and international computers connected through the day (from over 20 countries). National and international media coverage was also wide.

• 4. Capacity Development for inter-agency groups (24 November 2009)

Objectives: (i) To improve the understanding of the participants on climate change, including variability, vulnerability, adaptation and risks; and (ii) To enhance the appreciation for the mainstreaming of risks and opportunities in Colombian development processes. Attendance: 25 national, international institutions and UN Agencies who are part of the IASC and UNETE. In addition, an online transmission of the event reached over 1,000 computers.

• 5. UN Country Team Exchange of experience on climate change over breakfast (28 January 2010)

Objectives: (i) To present the results and products of the Climate Change Mainstreaming Project, (ii) To present the progress and next steps of the Inter-agency Group on Climate Change (IGCC), and (iii) To obtain the commitment of the UN Country Team to support the long-term activities of the IGCC and its mandate of mainstreaming climate change in the work of UN Agencies and the UNDAF. Attendance: 25 individuals from 15 UN Agencies (10 of which sent in their highest representatives).GENERAL RESULTS OF THE CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT EVENTS

• The events contributed to strengthening two importance messages: (i) climate change will greatly affect development efforts and (ii) integrating adaptation measures across sectors and activities is crucial to ensure that development is safeguarded against future climate change, including variability.
• Climate change issues are gaining presence in the political agenda of both Colombia public institutions and UN agencies. The effort made to foster a constructive collaboration and dialogue between them was welcomed, with colombian institutions and UN agencies participating extensively in each event.
• The capacity of the national and UN participants to understand the climate change challenge and mainstreaming approach was enhanced.
• The events contributed to disseminating the results and products of the project.
• The events generated an interest to continue mainstreaming efforts by national entities and UN Agencies.

 LESSONS LEARNED

• Project results could not have been of this quality without a very strong Project Team to support its implementation in Colombia: the communication is excellent, capacity is very high, there is trust, appreciation, and a clarity on the roles and responsibilities of each. This provided an overall ability to take advantage of the opportunities that arose and to face the find solutions to the problems faced.
• Joining efforts with the organizers of the Inter-Ministerial Dialogue (4-5 August), under the Capacity Development for Policy Makers project, was a success. The collaboration showed a strong presence under the umbrella “Climate Week” and contributed significantly to raising aware of climate change in the country and to create a momentum for further work.
• The journalist workshop, sponsored by the IF&F workshop, ensured that the media was involved in the coverage of the national dialogues. The topic is complex and journalists are expecting to have some support in order to make a better coverage. The involvement of UNDP communication officer is crucial at this respect.
• There is a need to strengthen the mainstreaming section of the capacity development workshop. This can be done by ensuring that the concepts introduced are well understood, using concrete national examples to discuss climate events, risks, vulnerability, maladaptation, and potential adaptation measures.

 CHALLENGES AHEAD The ultimate goal for Colombia is to establish a mechanism to systematically integrate climate risks into development assistance framework. For successful mainstreaming results at the country-level (UNDAF and national policies and development plans), it is crucial that the process of climate risk screening be lead and championed by both national institutions and UN representative through a strong collaboration. This may require additional capacity development and developing a clear national climate change strategy through a consultative process. There was a sense that climate risk screening exercises should come from external projects such as this one, rather than being applied by project managers and decision-makers of particular policy, plan or programme. Although risk screening exercises of existing UNDAF are very useful to raise awareness and begin discussion on mainstreaming climate change, the more challenging and necessary activity is to influence the next UNDAF.