Scaling Adaptation Finance through Country-Led Programmatic Approaches
Adaptation needs are rising rapidly as climate impacts intensify. While more countries are developing National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and strengthening resilience components in their NDCs, a persistent gap remains between planning and implementation. A key challenge lies not only in the volume of finance, but in how it is structured, with fragmented project-by-project approaches struggling to translate national priorities into investment-ready pipelines at scale.
Against this backdrop, Cadlas supported the technical input to the policy brief Country-Led Programmatic Approaches for Scaling Adaptation Finance in LDCs and SIDS, developed by the NDC Partnership’s Center for Access to Climate Finance and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). The brief draws on consultations with governments, development finance institutions, climate funds, and private sector actors to examine how country-led programmatic approaches can help structure and scale adaptation finance more effectively.
From planning to structured investment
Country-led programmatic approaches are increasingly seen as a way to move beyond fragmented funding toward integrated, nationally anchored investment frameworks. Cadlas previously explored this shift in our blog on national platforms for adaptation and resilience. The policy brief builds on growing global momentum around country-led programmatic approaches, including recent announcements at COP30 such as the launch of the Country Platform Hub, and examines how these approaches are being operationalized in practice across LDCs and SIDS.
At the core of the analysis is the Climate Investment Planning and Mobilization Framework (CIPMF), developed by the NDC Partnership and the Green Climate Fund. The brief uses the CIPMF as a lens to understand how countries can move from institutional arrangements to investment at scale.
The six stages of programmatic adaptation finance
The CIPMF outlines six iterative stages that help structure country-led programmatic approaches:
1. Investment Planning and Mobilization Capacity: Establishing governance arrangements, mandates, coordination structures, and core capacities to anchor adaptation within national systems.
2. Identifying and Prioritizing Investment Needs: Translating climate risk evidence and national plans into sequenced, high-impact investment priorities.
3. Financing Strategy: Mapping domestic and international public and private finance sources and aligning instruments with prioritized investments.
4. Programming with Finance Partners: Engaging development partners and private actors through structured dialogue to align pipelines with financing requirements.
5. Development of Projects and Programs: Converting priority areas into investment-ready proposals through standardized preparation and support mechanisms.
6. Project and Program Implementation: Channeling finance through national systems while strengthening monitoring, reporting, and learning processes.
Across case studies—including Bangladesh, Barbados, Brazil, Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Kenya—the brief shows that while models differ, certain features consistently matter: strong political ownership, anchoring in core institutions such as ministries of finance, structured stakeholder engagement, and investment in project preparation capacity.
What this means for adaptation finance
The analysis confirms that country-led programmatic approaches are not a universal solution. Structural constraints remain significant, particularly limited fiscal space, capacity gaps, lack of political appetite, and the continued dominance of project-based practices among financiers. Evidence of large-scale private finance mobilization for adaptation also remains limited. However, where designed carefully, these approaches can improve coordination across government and finance partners which strengthens the translation of NAPs and NDCs into structured investment pipelines; reduce transaction costs; align financing flows with nationally defined priorities and provide greater predictability across political cycles.
As global initiatives such as the Country Platform Hub and expanded GCF Readiness support reinforce this direction, country-led programmatic approaches offer a practical pathway for LDCs and SIDS to move from isolated adaptation projects toward longer-term, strategic resilience building.
Cadlas is pleased to have supported the NDC Partnership and GGGI in the development of this policy brief and to continue contributing to efforts that strengthen the systems underpinning adaptation finance.
