Why does this matter?
Adaptation knowledge gaps pose one of the biggest barriers to scaling up adaptation implementation. The UNFCCC’s knowledge-to-action hub on adaptation and resilience collaborates in subregions across the world to close adaptation knowledge gaps.
Priority areas in the West Asia-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and North Africa
Over the past six years, the Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative (LAKI) has fostered partnerships in seven sub-regions. The
West Asia-GCC and
North Africa are two of these subregions. Over 2020, despite the COVID-19 challenges, the initiative brought together 11 organisations working in the two subregions to discuss some of the most persistent adaptation challenges faced including water resource management, food security, coastal and marine ecosystems and drought management.
“ . . . with 60% of the water from transboundary origin, transboundary cooperation is incredibly important”. Maya Velis, World Bank.
“There’s a gap between initiatives [with] what is going on between international organizations and the national level with local actors. [There is a] need for mechanisms of knowledge sharing - there is a lack of lessons learned”. Nisreen Lahham, International Water Management Institute.
Identifying and codesigning collaborative actions
The organisations expressed interest to work together to address persisting adaptation knowledge gaps. The participants presented potential actions that can be co-designed and implemented with other organizations. Building on the ideas shared, a second meeting will be held in the next few months to support the next steps.
Over 2021, the LAKI partners will continue to convene relevant organisations to concretize actions which will contribute to closing persistent knowledge gaps in the West Asia-GCC and North Africa subregions.
More information
The LAKI is a joint action pledge made by the UNFCCC secretariat and UNEP through the Global Adaptation Network (GAN). For the West Asia-GCC and North Africa subregions, the NWP collaborates with the UNFCCC-WGEO Regional Collaboration Center for Middle East, North Africa and South Asia based in Dubai (
RCC Dubai), the UNEP Regional Office for West Asia and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
To learn more about the LAKI, go to: https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NWPStaging/Pages/laki.aspx
To get involved, please contact: nwp@unfccc.int.