1. JAS – VERSION ZERO
Southern Voices Workshop
Kathmandu
April 2014

2. outline
• What are the Joint Adaptation Standards (JAS)
• How the JAS were developed
• What we are aiming for in this workshop
• Some questions to think about in the next two days

3. Why “Joint Adaptation Standards”
• “Joint” because
• they represent the views of civil society actors in
different countries
• they will be interpreted through dialogue between civil
society and government in each national context
• “Adaptation”: they apply to NAPs and any other
climate change adaptation plans and policies
• “Standards” as they express what civil society
considers to be necessary to ensure equitable
adaptation action

4. How will the JAS by used?
Each country can choose the best way to use them,
potentially including (among others):
• Identifying the issues that call for advocacy action
• Setting a common language for dialogue between
stakeholders
• Defining the topics where capacity building would be
useful, for both civil society actors and others
• Helping steer governments through the LEG guidelines
Least Developed Countries’ Expert Group Technical Guidelines for NAPs
• Enabling – transparency, participation, flexibility etc.
• Government-driven – modest expectations of civil society

5. JAS version 0
• Compiled from inputs in four categories
• How the national adaptation plan should be
developed (process)
• What mechanisms should the national plan set
up (framework)
• What actions should the national plan support
(content)
• How should funding be managed (finance)
• Synthesised into 15 draft principles

6. Clusters of
ideas
Clusters of
ideas
Clusters of
ideasClusters of
ideas
National
workshops
Bolivia,
Nicaragua,
Malawi,
Vietnam,
Cambodia
East and
Southern
Africa
regional
workshop
International
workshop,
Warsaw
Joint
Adaptation
Standards
VERSION
ZERO:
15
principles
JAS
VERSION
1
For testing
International
workshop,
Kathmandu
How the JAS has been developed so far

7. JAS
public launch
COP21?
Core
networks
Bolivia,
Nicaragua,
Malawi,
Vietnam,
Cambodia
Call for
proposals
from more
countries
JAS
VERSION
1
For testing
International
review
process
during 2015
Next steps for the JAS

8. How the national adaptation plan
should be developed
1. A national adaptation plan should incorporate
the traditional knowledge and experience of local
communities as it is developed
2. Communities affected by climate change must
be able to participate in defining options and
priorities of national adaptation plans
3. A national adaptation plan must be publicised in
ways that local people can understand and engage
with

9. Mechanisms the national plan
should set up
4. A national adaptation plan should link together
the work of national and local government, and of
people working in different sectors
5. A national adaptation plan should be periodically
monitored by a body on which civil society is
represented
6. A national adaptation plan should promote both
new adaptation initiatives and improve how existing
activities take climate change into account
7. Local adaptation plans should the building block
of a national programme of adaptation to climate
change

10. Actions the national plan should
support
8. A national adaptation plan should allocate
significant resources towards local plans developed
through community-based approaches
9. A national adaptation plan should identify and
prioritise people who are socially and economically
most vulnerable to climate change
10. A national adaptation plan should invest as much
in building skills and capacities of people affected by
climate change as in building infrastructure
11. A national adaptation plan should build the
resilience of women and men to climate change
equally

11. How funding should be managed
12. A national adaptation plan should enable
long-term programmes of support to vulnerable
communities
13. Adaptation funding should be made available
through a transparent process of allocation
14. Funding for adaptation should be explicitly
provided for within the national budget
15. There must be full public accountability for
how adaptation funds have been spent

12. Some questions for this workshop
1. Is there any other issue that is important for your
context but missing from the 15 principles?
2. Is 15 principles too many? If so, how do we condense
them into a workable tool?
3. Is “Joint Adaptation Standards” a useful name for this
instrument? If not, what would be better?
4. Any other suggestions for improving the standards
before they are introduced to a wider audience for
trying out in practice?

13. For next group session
1. Is there any other issue that is important for your
context but missing from the 15 principles?
2. Is 15 principles too many? If so, how do we condense
them into a workable tool?
(if you add something, what would you take out?)