Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are the key vehicle for expressing countries’ commitments to the Paris Agreement, including for planned adaptation action. Since most adaptation actions are local in nature, there is a need to establish a strong mechanism for linking local efforts and achievements and integrating them as a contribution toward NDCs. The localisation of NDCs’ commitments is therefore critical for increasing awareness of the roles and responsibilities of the communities and stakeholders to complement national commitments. In the meantime, stakeholders and communities at the local level are often the pioneers in devising and innovating adaptation solutions out of the situational needs as well as through the use of in-built indigenous, traditional and local knowledge (ITLK) systems.

So far, the inherent local potential remains disorganised and not fully capitalised for local
adaptation planning and resilience building in a sustainable manner. As a result, it is often hard to account for the local actions to complement NDCs. An environment, therefore, needs to be created whereby “locally led adaptation” interventions could be duly recognized and supported with necessary resources, technologies, scientific information and decision support tools. Installing such a system or mechanism will promote local innovation, strengthen the effectiveness of local adaptation efforts, and help to emerge as self-sustaining hubs of ‘local adaptation innovation’. Such a mechanism will make it easier to connect local-level efforts and feed them into national-level accounting of adaptation achievements.

Capacity gaps exist at the local level that not only prevent fully capitalising on the potential to innovate and lead appropriate adaptation actions in a sustainable manner but also communicate and link with broader national commitments such as NDCs. Capacity strengthening measures are needed on multiple fronts in a comprehensive manner so that local communities can recognise their potential and then start developing it by addressing identified internal weaknesses.

The overarching goal of the project is to catalyze local adaptation innovations by addressing capacity gaps at the local level. Specifically, the project will identify and address capacity gaps through the following four main objectives:

1. Supporting the understanding of climate risks and vulnerabilities at the local level;
2. Supporting locally led adaptation innovations stressing the use of indigenous, traditional and local knowledge (ITLK) systems;
3. Supporting bankable ideas towards establishing ‘local adaptation innovation hubs’; and
4. Strengthening local adaptation planning, implementation and governance systems to ensure inclusiveness, participation, transparency and better localisation of NDCs.