Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy National Adaptation Plan.

This National Adaptation Plan (NAP) is a 15-years nationwide cross-sectoral document aiming at strengthening holistic integration of climate change adaptation in Ethiopia's long-term development pathway, supported by effective institutions and governance structures, finance for implementation and capacity development and strengthened systems for disaster risk management and integration among different sectors, in order of achieving the Vision of creating a climate change impact resilient development for Ethiopia and its people. The Plan focuses on a number of sectors identified as most vulnerable, namely (i) agriculture; (ii) forestry; (iii) health; (iv) transport; (v) power; (vi) industry; (vii) water; and (viii) urban. Within these sectors, 18 adaptation options have been identified for implementation at all levels and across different development sectors, recognizing the considerable diversity in context and vulnerability across Ethiopia's regions and social groups. These options are 1.enhancing food security by improving agricultural productivity in a climate-smart manner; 2.improving access to potable water; 3.strengthening sustainable natural resource management through safeguarding landscapes and watersheds; 4.improving soil and water harvesting and water retention mechanisms; 5.improving human health systems through the implementation of changes based on an integrated health and environmental surveillance protocol; 6.improving ecosystem resilience through conserving biodiversity; 7.enhancing sustainable forest management; 8.building social protection and livelihood options of vulnerable people; 9.enhancing alternative and renewable power generation and management; 10.increasing resilience of urban systems; 11.building sustainable transport systems; 12.developing adaptive industry systems; 13.mainstreaming endogenous adaptation practices; 14.developing efficient value chain and marketing systems; 15.strengthening drought, livestock and crop insurance mechanisms; 16.improving early warning systems; 17.developing and using adaptation technologies; and 18.reinforcing adaptation research and development.
To help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, the NAP aims at (i) enhancing crop and livestock productivity by selecting resistant and tolerant varieties through switching and diversification, selection and breeding and by diversifying varieties; (ii) implementing effective systems for increased use of organic fertilizers and appropriate mechanization; (iii) implementing a strong system of monitoring of crops for diseases and pests; (iv) realizing improved breeding and feeding systems and improved pasture/grazing management; (v) enhancing veterinary services; (vi) enhancing water availability and use of appropriate agricultural technologies; and (vii) employing enhanced soil and water conservation methods; (viii) enhance natural resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change by enhancing healthy and well-functioning ecosystems; (ix) promote value added commercialization of timber and non-timber forest products along with payment for ecosystem services; (x) acknowledge and mainstream the contribution of forest resources to other production sectors, mainly energy, agriculture and industry; (xi) enhancing the adaptive capacity of forests and forest landscapes and improving forest-based incomes;
In order to make agriculture and forestry more productive and sustainable, main intervention will be directed to (i) rehabilitate degraded lands; (ii) increase irrigation in agriculture through improvement of soil water harvesting and water retention mechanisms; (iii) enhance climate smart production systems; (iv) enhance sustainable forest management; (v) protect and re-establish forests for their economic and ecosystem services, including as carbon stocks; and (vi) improve the resilience of value chains for livestock, crops, and forest products, and products from other sectors in order to facilitate improved production and marketing.
For a more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the document envisages (i) promotion of women and youth empowerment to enable them to equitably benefit from the outcomes of development; (ii) create insurance schemes for anticipated climate risks, including drought and flood leading to crop failure for both women and men; and (iii) improve access to credit giving special emphasis to women and impoverished communities.
The resilience of livelihoods to disasters will be increased by (i) integrating climate change adaptation in development policies and strategies at the national level, as well as Regional and district plans and strategies; (ii) building long-term capacities of institutional structures involved in the NAP; (iii) implementing effective and sustainable funding mechanisms; (iv) advancing adaptation research and development in the concerned area; (v) building collaborative partnerships among the relevant stakeholders and enhancing the thematic integration among different development sectors; (vi) ensuring adherence to designs that take into account emerging climate change impacts and create resilient infrastructures; (vii) emphasizing the sustainability of the power sector by enhancing ways of ensuring that power generation capacity withstands climate change impacts; (viii) emphasizing recognition of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) systems and, once they have been identified, standardized, integrated, and scaled-up, need to be incorporated into the implementation of adaptation action and programs; (ix) improving early warning systems related to both quick and slow onset disasters; (x) developing and using adaptation technologies; (xi) reinforcing adaptation research and development increasing the knowledge and lessons learned portfolio from adaptation experiences of different sectors and regional states; and (xii) promoting afforestation and reforestation practices.
As for the Governance, at the highest level, oversight of NAP is the responsibility of an Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee, a Management Committee and the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MEFCC). For efficiency, financing and implementation of NAP will be led by the existing Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) mechanisms, which are in place at national, regional and district levels.