24 September 2013: The Adaptation Fund Board has approved $5.4 million in funding for an adaptation programme in Guatemala that will increase resilience in two municipalities that are frequently exposed to severe floods and droughts.

The project, titled ‘Climate change resilient production landscapes and socio-economic networks advanced in Guatemala,’ will be implemented by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and will feature a grant-making facility to allow rural communities to develop and implement local adaptation responses.

The objective of the programme is to increase the resilience of production landscapes and socioeconomic systems to the effects of climate change, in the Suchitepéquez and Sololá municipalities. The programme will involve mainstreaming of climate change adaptation measures in multilevel development plans, strengthening the capacity of community-based associations, and developing and implementing production practices based on ancestral practices that will reduce the vulnerability of communities to climate change. The concrete adaptation measures will be executed through a community-based adaptation approach with specific interventions drawn from a catalogue of options that has been designed through a participatory consultative process. It also aims to strengthen the processes and mechanisms of recovery, processing, and dissemination of information for decision making at all levels.

The launch of the Guatemala programme was made possible by recent contributions to the Fund by the Government of Sweden and the Brussels Capital region. Seven approved adaptation projects remain in the pipeline, but have not been launched due to insufficient resources in the Fund. [Adaptation Fund Press Release] [Guatemala Project Proposal for the Climate Change Resilient Production Landscapes and Socio-economic Networks Advanced in Guatemala]