How Can Climate Change Adaptation Funding Work Effectively under the Multilateral Access Modality? A Case Study of a UNEP-implemented Adaptation Fund Project in Cambodia

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the differences between an Adaptation Fund (AF) project and past follow-up projects of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-implemented National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA), and then explore the impacts of these projects on vulnerability reduction. Our conclusions are twofold. First, the AF project differs in terms of its approach and management arrangements. The UNDP-implemented NAPA follow-up projects took a multi-sector, comprehensive, donor-driven approach, while the AF project implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme has taken a single-sector approach that emphasizes ecosystem-based adaptation, allowing for wider responsibility and discretion by the Cambodian Ministry of Environment and creating a space in which the project can align with its sectoral strategy and take a bottom-up approach. Second, impact drivers such as the financial sustainability of communities located near community protected areas (CPA) and the ability of local officers to understand the protocol have been insufficiently realized in the AF project. Communities tend toward maladaptation unless the project can show them visible signs of financially sustainable ecosystembased adaptation. More fundamentally, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) must create an institutional environment that enables an integrative adaptive approach to work effectively.