Climate Change Project Preparation Facility for Asia and the Pacific (ADAPT Asia-Pacific) Quarterly Report Fifth Quarter: October 1 to December 31, 2012

Many countries in the region already face flooding, drought, and intensifying storm events. Key economic sectors, especially in developing economies in the region, are also vulnerable to climate change. Globally, the financing needs for climate change adaptation in developing countries for 2010-2050 are estimated at $100B per year. In Cancun, Mexico in 2010, Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to provide new and additional "fast-start" financing amounting to $30B for 2010-2012, and set a goal of mobilizing $100B per year by 2020. Developing countries, however, face major capacity challenges in preparing project proposals to access these funds. To address this need, the USAID/Climate Change Adaptation Project Preparation Facility for Asia, initially covering 13 countries in Asia, was established. The geographic coverage of the project was later expanded to cover 14 Pacific Small Island Developing Countries. The title of the project was changed to "ADAPT Asia-Pacific" from "ADAPT Asia". ADAPT Asia-Pacific addresses capacity and information needs of eligible governments in the Asia region and selected Pacific islands countries in accessing climate change adaptation funds and accelerating investments in initiatives that increase resilience to the negative impacts of climate change. The principal objective of ADAPT Asia-Pacific is to establish a fully functional and self-sustaining adaptation project preparation facility that will not only support preparation of specific projects, but also build the capacity of the region's governments to independently access climate adaptation funds. To achieve this objective, ADAPT Asia-Pacific will work closely with funding organizations and government agencies from countries across the region in focused activities in five key areas: sustainable regional knowledge sharing platform, annual forum, climate change adaptation project capacity building program, technical assistance in preparing funding proposals, and overarching program management and coordination. During the first quarter of FY 2013 project implementation, AECOM continued with the development and implementation of various program initiatives at both the regional and national level. Key activity highlights and results are provided below by project task. Overall, the project progresses according to the work plan. Task One: Knowledge Sharing Platform achieved key accomplishments, including the completion of a draft Knowledge Management (KM) strategy paper, finalization of a new website, and development of concept papers for major e-CoP activities. The draft KM strategy will be circulated to partners for comments and considered by the Steering Committee of the Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) in the next quarter. The project also made progress in Task Two: Integrated KM Platform Website for APAN/ADAPT, which aims to develop and operationalize a web-based integrated KM platform serving both APAN's and ADAPT Asia-Pacific's needs and activities. The restructured and redeveloped platform will act as the primary gateway for disseminating information and knowledge products and outreach. This new platform will integrate the accumulated information and databases from the websites of APAN and Adaptation Knowledge Platform (AKP), as well as ADAPT Asia-Pacific's products, activities, and resources. The new platform will be launched in January 2013 following preliminary testing. In addition, the project made progress in Task Three: Online/Electronic Community of Practice for ADAPTAsia-Pacific (e-CoP), which aims to launch and operationalize e-CoP functionality as a crucial component of the redeveloped APAN platform. The e-CoP functions will provide interactive opportunities for discussion and learning among CoP members, including Annual Forum participants. In this quarter, e-CoP implementation plans were developed alongside concept papers for major e-CoP activities, which include an e-discussion facility and "Ask the Expert" sessions. The project has made significant progress in achieving its objectives, with a total of 41 pieces of new content created on the ADAPT Asia-Pacific website during the reporting period. The project also achieved a 25% increase in the number of stakeholders with adaptive capacity to cope with impacts of climate variability and change as a result of USG assistance. Additionally, the project completed 3,822 person hours of training in climate change supported by USG assistance, and facilitated access to finance for 3 climate change adaptation projects.