Catalyzing Change through Local Adaptation Plans for Actions in Karnali

Executive Summary

This report assesses the impact of the Nepal Climate Change Support Program (NCCSP and NCCSP2)1, which supports Local Adaptation Plans for Actions (LAPA), on climate action by municipality leaders. The analysis combines LAPA implementation data and the February–May 2023 RENT Local Government Survey (LGS-5) fifth round, and creates a comparison group of non-LAPA municipalities using nearest neighbor matching.

LAPA municipalities are more aware of climate change impacts on physical infrastructure than similar nonLAPA municipalities. LAPA officials have completed 2.4 climate responsibilities, significantly higher than the 2 fulfilled by non-LAPA officials (the difference is statistically significant at a 1% level). The mandated responsibilities involve the creation of Local Disaster Climate Resilience (LDCR) plans and the establishment of disaster management committees. The majority of LAPA municipalities – 80% – have implemented climate policy actions like building river embankments. This is 10 percentage points higher compared to non-LAPA municipalities. In contrast, climate budget allocation between LAPA and non-LAPA municipalities is similar with one-third of municipalities in both categories uncertain of climate budget allocation.

As legally mandated five-year terms, Nepali local governments can function as long-term internal players for community development, making these findings encouraging.  However, the similar budgetary behavior across LAPA and non-LAPA municipalities suggests that absence of mechanisms to raise additional financing may limit the benefits from LAPA. Looking ahead, we would encourage mechanisms that tie performance to financing (as in REDD+ schemes) and we also advise that future program rollouts be designed in a manner that enables improved causal evaluations.