July 2010: In order to strengthen support to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in their work on climate change in the lead up to the negotiations in Cancun and beyond, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has committed US$5.6 million toward a programme on “Strategic Investment in Addressing Climate Change in LDCs.”

The purpose of the programme is to strengthen the programmatic capacity in the area of climate change of select LDCs through the provision of focused expertise at the regional and national levels during 2010-2011. This initiative will provide focused climate change expertise, including senior-level national climate change specialists in 24 LDCs. These National Officers, currently under recruitment, will be the focal point for in-country climate change work.

Specifically, the programme will aim to build country’s capacities as it relates to climate change in the following areas: policy dialogue and awareness raising; capacity development for participating in the international negotiations process; national low-carbon and climate resilient strategy and action plan definition; cross practice and mainstreaming; climate change proofing; knowledge management; methodology coherence; and financing instruments. The participating countries in this initiative are: Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Kenya, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Maldives, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Samoa, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Togo, Zambia and Yemen.

UNDP currently works in 49 LDCs that will face various climate change challenges from risk of inundation as sea levels rise, increased flooding of low-lying coastal areas, increased variability in rainfall, and hotter and drier climates. Tropical diseases such as malaria could increase and fragile genetic species could face the risk of extinction as a result of climate change. [UNDP Climate Change]