The study was aimed at improving the capacity of Caribbean islands to develop and implement effective climate change adaptation policy and action. The specific objectives were to: • analyse the state of institutional capacity and readiness to implement climate change adaptation policies to identify strengths and weaknesses using the “Rapid Institutional Analysis for Adaptation” (ARIA) toolkit; • develop high-priority and low-cost next steps within national and regional policy contexts; • assess the level of transparency in adaptation policy-making and planning and the opportunities for public involvement; • conduct “deep dive” assessments into three priority areas selected by project participants for each country to better understand institutional capacity at the sectoral level; and • build civil society capacity to more meaningfully engage in these processes through use of the toolkit and interaction with relevant government agencies.