admin
Experts at a webinar organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute and the National Adaptation Plan team urged that climate adaptation be embedded within grassroots governance as Pakistan moves to district-level planning under its National Adaptation Plan. The event, supported by the United Nations Environment Programme with Green Climate Fund financing and implemented by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, brought together federal and provincial officials, UN representatives and civil society leaders.
Federal Secretary Aisha Humera Chaudhary said adaptation must produce tangible benefits for farmers, schoolchildren, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups facing floods, heatwaves and glacial melt, and she called for integrating local innovations into formal systems. She recommended provincial challenge funds, procurement reforms to include SMEs and tech entrepreneurs, and joint studies to identify barriers to scaling local solutions, stressing, “We already have solutions” and the central task now is scaling them.
Additional Secretary Dr Saad Khan warned that the National Adaptation Plan remains lesser known than other national frameworks and that adaptation needs elevation as a national priority. He highlighted a limited pool of climate specialists and bureaucratic delays that affect project timelines, and he said district plans should act as pilots rather than being mechanically replicated across provinces with different geographies and vulnerabilities.
SDPI’s Zainab Naeem emphasised that climate adaptation is a lived experience in Pakistani communities and urged rigorous Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessments so district plans address specific threats such as riverine and flash floods, drought and heatwaves. Evidence-based CRVAs, she said, are essential to avoid theoretical planning detached from local realities.
Humaira Jahanzeb, project lead for the GCF-NAP project at the ministry, outlined that the National Adaptation Plan was approved in August 2023 and submitted to the UNFCCC, identifying 117 adaptation measures across six sectors including the agri-water nexus, natural capital, human capital, disaster risk reduction, gender and social inclusion, and urban resilience. She framed the NAP as a strategic pathway for integrating adaptation in planning and finance.
UNDP’s Shiraz Ali Shah argued that adaptation must start at community level given Pakistan’s diverse landscape, pointing to UNDP’s flood recovery work after 2022 that emphasises resilient housing, infrastructure rehabilitation and community preparedness. Provincial officials described steps to translate district adaptation plans into budgets and programmes: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plans to incorporate district adaptation interventions into Annual Development Programmes from July 2026 and to revise earlier plans using standardized federal templates.
Punjab officials reported practical budget action, with climate budget tagging applied to the current fiscal year. Of the province’s Rs1,240 billion Annual Development Programme, Rs795 billion was tagged as climate-related and roughly Rs277 billion of that is allocated specifically for adaptation, reinforcing the need to downscale planning to district, tehsil and union council levels to ensure funds reach communities.
In Sindh, Chief Conservator Riaz Ahmed highlighted ecosystem-based adaptation through mangrove restoration carried out via public-private partnerships, and announced agreements to restore 100,000 acres of forest in Matiari and Jamshoro districts. In Balochistan, Director Mohammad Asghar described a Rs500 million allocation for community-led adaptation that funnels funds to district adaptation committees so communities can design and implement local solutions rather than rely solely on conventional bureaucratic channels.
Environmental journalist Afia Salam noted a persistent communication gap between policy language and community realities and urged simplification of climate terminology so planning drills down to union council and village levels. She cited grassroots practices such as glacier grafting in the north, Miyawaki urban forests, traditional low-carbon architecture, bamboo floating wetlands and permaculture as examples of “adaptation without optics” that deserve recognition and scaling.
The webinar highlighted the need to strengthen institutional capacity, expand access to climate finance and pursue gender responsive planning and multi-stakeholder coordination across governance levels so district adaptation becomes operational rather than symbolic. Neelam Pari of SDPI moderated the session and underlined that embedding climate adaptation into local governance is central to protecting lives, livelihoods and ecosystems across Pakistan.
Share this content:
