How can local authorities respond and adapt to climate change, plan and implement solutions for environmental and natural resource challenges and promote more sustainable ways of development? These questions have been discussed in the training course on “Climate Change and Resilient Cities”, organized by The Hague Academy from the 29 September – 10 October 2014 in the Hague, Netherlands. The course was designed to convey the latest insights on climate change adaptation and mitigation, and to present the tools available to local governments to recognize local vulnerabilities and the instruments to become more resilient.

In this context, UNCDF’s Regional Technical Advisor, Katiella Maï Moussa, and the Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) Programme Manager, Fakri Karim shared their experiences, best practices and lessons learned from the LoCAL programme, UNCDF’s investment facility in local level climate resilience. The facility channels global adaptation finance to local governments, who are at the frontline of dealing with the effect of climate change, and enables them to invest in building local resilience.

Katiella Maï Moussa and Fakri Karim worked with the participants on clearly differentiating between “coping” and “adaptation”, on how to design vulnerability assessments and vulnerability reduction strategies using regular local government planning processes, and on how to develop a climate change adaptation /investment menu based on local needs.

They presented the Performance Based Climate Resilient Grant (PBCRG) system, as a core approach of the LoCAL programme, and explained how the PBCRG works with reference to minimum conditions and performance measures.

Through their intervention they conveyed tools to assess local vulnerabilities with respect to climate, natural disasters and food security; strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation, and showed how coordinated efforts of stakeholders at the local, national and international level can help improving the quality of life of citizens and contribute to protecting the global environment.