Background

Sudan is endowed with rich natural resources including oil and gold. With its growing oil exports reaching a production of some 500,000 barrel per day, Sudan is already sub-Saharan’s third largest oil producer. The country has also increasing public resources to invest in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
However, climate change poses serious challenges to Sudan’s overriding development priorities in agriculture, forestry, water resource management, and health. According to the recent UNEP report, “an estimated 50 to 200 km southward shift of the boundary between semi-desert and desert has occurred since rainfall and vegetation records were first held in the 1930s. This boundary is expected to continue to move southwards due to declining precipitation. The remaining semi-desert and low rainfall savannah which represent some 25 percent of Sudan’s agricultural land, are at considerable risk of further desertification. This is forecast to lead to a significant drop (approximately 20 percent) in food production.”
In an attempt to address climate change and related issues, Sudan has already implemented and completed a number of activities. The ratification of the UNFCCC (1993) and the preparation and submission of its initial national communication (2003) were an important step toward addressing climate change and related issues. The Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources (HCENR), the Government of Sudan’s National Focal Point for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), plays an advisory policy-making role with regard to climate-related initiatives within the Government. The HCENR is also the national executing agency for the NAPA project through the National Execution Modality (NEX).

In August 2004, with the support of the Global Environmental Facility, UNDP launched the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) for Climate Change. This initiative is a process that builds on the synergies between climate change adaptation and existing national action plans for promoting sustainable development. The NAPA also builds on the strategies already proposed in the Action Plans of the Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA), such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (UNCBD); and United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD).

Objectives
The Climate Scenario Analysis, conducted as part of the preparation of Sudan’s Initial National Communication (INC), indicated the possible impacts of climate change on agriculture and forestry; human health; and water resources: the key factors of sustainable development in the country. Therefore, the NAPA process targets these three sectors in five states representing Sudan’s ecological settings. The primary goal of this programme is to broadly communicate to the international community the priority activities that address Sudan’s urgent needs for adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change through consultations with numerous actors, including local communities, the public sector, the private sector, NGOs and civil society groups.

The project’s specific objectives are:
• Ensure adequate stakeholder representation in the development of the NAPA document.
• Identify a comprehensive range of climate change adaptation strategies.
• Establish country-driven criteria with which to evaluate and prioritize climate change adaptation measures.
• Make consensus-based recommendations for adaptation to climate change activities.
• As needed, recommend capacity building, policy, programme, and institutional integration, as part of climate change adaptation priority activities.

Snapshots of the project's major achievements
• In preparing the National Adaptation Programme of Action for climate change undertook intensive scoping, comprehensive consultative and prioritization processes, involving a wide range of partners based in Gedarif, North Kordofan, South Darfur, River Nile and Central Equatoria States in Sudan, representing different ecological settings in Sudan. Three sectors were targeted - agriculture, water resources and public health.
• The National Adapation Programme of Action (NAPA) for Climate Change document prepared, which contains Sudan’s highest priorities for adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
• A significant contribution made in building the technical capacities of national experts and raising awareness at the state and local levels.
• Identified the key vulnerable groups in need of climate change adaptation activities.
• Identified key adaptation activities in agriculture, water resources and public health.
• Identified the locally driven criteria for selecting priority projects.
• Finalized a list of high priority activities targeting the five ecological zones and the agriculture, health and water sectors.