Scoping mission and preliminary assessment on climate change adaptation in Sri Lanka
The Adaptation Knowledge Platform is working towards building bridges between current knowledge on adaptation to climate change and various stakeholders. Activities have been initiated in the five pilot countries, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam, with local partner’s mobilized and key knowledge and capacity gaps identified. The management arrangements for the long-term development of the Platform in the pilot countries are in place. To move the Platform ahead, AIT-UNEP RCCAKP along with SEI and UNEP conducted its scoping mission in Sri Lanka. Though Sri Lanka has already endorsed climate change policies and adaptation plans, they are still on the drawing board and risks posed by the changing climate are yet to be incorporated into specific policies and programs. The issue of capacity building involved mainly the national-level stakeholders (government and civil society organizations), it became clear that the maximum support was needed at the provincial/divisional secretariat level, where interventions by the Adaptation Knowledge Platform would be most beneficial.