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Checklist for national and sub-national governments

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Key mechanisms

Multi-level governance and policy cycles

  • Build and maintain an inclusive governance arrangement that facilitates effective stakeholder engagement for transparent, participatory and gender-responsive decision making on climate resilience.
  • Empower local action by facilitating co-ordination and collaboration across levels of governance, and ensure that climate resilience strategies at national and sub-national levels are complementary and mutually reinforcing.
  • Develop governance arrangements that support adaptive decision-making processes for climate resilience in the context of the uncertainties presented by climate change.
  • Integrate climate risks and opportunities throughout the country’s policy cycle for sustainable development, making use of the National Adaptation Plan processes where relevant.

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Sector-level approaches to strengthening climate resilience

  • Establish clear linkages between a country’s national-level climate goals and sector-level policies and plans on climate resilience. 
  • Assess sector-specific climate hazards, analyse the exposure and vulnerability of key assets, stakeholders and natural capital within the sector, and identify actions to manage the climate risks, especially those to segments of society marginalised by e.g. their gender, race, age, (dis)ability and class identities.
  • Assess sector investment plans using suitable screening criteria and tools given the nature of the climate risks and broader socio-economic priorities (e.g. gender equality and social inclusion). 
  • Use environmental impact assessments and strategic environmental assessments to systematically evaluate the environmental implications of the proposed sector-level policies, plans and projects on climate resilience.
  • Make the financial sector climate resilient by engaging with domestic financial institutions and regulators.

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Financial management and instruments

  • Identify climate resilience priorities and assess the associated financial needs.
  • Integrate climate resilience into public financial management (e.g. public investment, fiscal risk management, budget tagging and expenditure review, social protection, tax and subsidy reforms to generate resources for climate resilience).
  • Elevate the role of finance ministries in facilitating the prioritisation, provision and mobilisation of finance for climate resilience. 
  • Maximise the benefits of risk insurance solutions as part of a comprehensive approach to manage climate risks.
  • Link action on financial inclusion and education with action on climate resilience.
  • Facilitate access of national and sub-national government entities, civil society and other domestic actors to climate finance from external sources.
  • Engage with the private sector to scale up investment in climate resilience (e.g. through policy reforms, knowledge exchange, capacity development, public-private partnerships and climate risk disclosure).

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Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL)

  • Invest in a national MEL system and the human and technical capacities required for it to respond to monitoring, evaluation and learning needs, including for climate resilience. 
  • Through stakeholder consultation, identify the objectives of a MEL framework and put in place mechanisms that facilitate a transparent and iterative approach to climate resilience guided by learning.
  • Complement understanding of what changes are taking place with how those changes have come about, and how policy shifts can strengthen climate resilience. 
  • Engage diverse stakeholders to determine data and information available as well as existing gaps, and develop indicators commensurate with the human and financial resources available.
  • Explore opportunities for aligning monitoring and reporting with existing MEL systems that may provide opportunities for aggregating data and information across sectors or levels of government.

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Enablers for actions

Data and information for implementation

  • Strengthen the institutional capacity of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.
  • Invest in weather, water and climate observations as a basis for data and information services that can inform climate risk assessments and climate resilience decision-making processes.
  • Prioritise investments in forecasting and early warning systems with user friendly platforms.
  • Facilitate participatory approaches to understanding local climate risks, and tailor climate and weather data and information to the capacities of intended users.

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Awareness and capacity across levels of government

  • Strengthen individual and organisational capacity (including that of sectoral ministries, sub-national governments, universities and centres of excellence) to understand and address climate risks.
  • Establish the authority and mandate of the ministry, agency or unit in charge of climate resilience to convene different stakeholders and to co-ordinate and subsequently see through the implementation of agreed climate resilience priorities.
  • Support piloting of climate resilience approaches, complement these with clear exit strategies, and enhance capacities and institutions for sustained implementation, replication or scale-up. 

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Technologies

  • Assess technology needs through consultation with different stakeholders based on multiple economic, social and environmental criteria, including gender-disaggregated needs for technologies. 
  • Invest in institutional arrangements and networks to facilitate development, adoption and dissemination of technologies in support of climate resilience.
  • Harness local and Indigenous peoples’ knowledge and understanding of local contexts to maximise the effectiveness of available technologies.
  • Strengthen supply- and demand-side policies to promote technology development and dissemination.

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Cite this content as: OECD (2021), Strengthening Climate Resilience: Guidance for Governments and Development Co-operation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4b08b7be-en