At the Paris Climate Change conference, attended by international dignitaries, including heads of state and government of more than 160 countries, Nepal, a Himalayan nation with a history of prolonged political instability, had a reason to rejoice: its climate change support program recognized as one of the best of such programs in the world.

National Program Manager of Nepal Climate Change Support Program, (NCCSP), NareshShama received the award for Nepal in the presence of a large number of people representing Least Developed Countries and experts from around the world.

"NCCSP was recognized as one of the five best cases out of 170 submissions received from various countries under Nairobi Work Program (NWP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)," according to Ministry of Environment and Population.

NCCSP received the recognition for adopting the good practice of linking climate change adaptation to local and national level planning process. Presenting the NCCSP case at a side event organized by NWP on 30 November 2015, Sharma, the National Program Manager, highlighted the replicable elements of the program and how other LDCs can benefit from its experiences. He alsohighlighted the challenges faced in implementing the program in climate vulnerable communities which are in the remote parts of the country.

Minister of Science, Technology and Environment BishwendraPaswan; Secretary, Dr. Krishna Chandra Paudel; Joint Secretary and National Program Director of NCCSP, Ram Prasad Lamsal of Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, attended the conference.

“All Nepalese need to be proud of the program as Nepal has made a remarkable progress in local adaptation process of mobilizing the local people. This is why the international community has recognized us,” said Sharma.

The program has been implemented in line with the aim of a 3-year plan of promoting green development, making development activities climate-friendly and resilient, mitigating the negative impacts of climate change and promoting adaptation.

NCCSP is part of NAPA’s priority in promoting community based adaptation through Integrated Management of Agriculture, Water, Forest and Biodiversity Sectors.

With an aim to ensure that the Nepal's poorest and most vulnerable people adapt well to climate change effects, the program targets to enhance the capacity of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment - MoSTE and Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development -MoFALD) and non-government (NGOs, CBOs, private sector and communities) institutions to implement the Nepal's Climate Change Policy (2011).

For the last two years, the program has been implementing the most urgent and immediate adaptation actions in order to increase the resilience of the climate vulnerable and poor people of Nepal.

NCCSP includes the components of building linkages with important cross-cutting themes such as improved governance, a strong commitment to women’s empowerment and the inclusion of the poor and socially disadvantaged groups and ecosystem sustainability.

The NCCSP will be linking the bottom-up (local) and top-down (national) processes. This approach will also ensure that climate adaptation is integrated into local development processes through local government, private sector and community based organizations.

Supported by UK Aid, European Union and UNDP, NCCSP supports development of plans for vulnerable community people to adapt to climate change and access adaptation services through the implementation of over 700 types of priority actions, benefitting over 40,000 individuals.

Sixty-three percent of these beneficiaries belong to 'most vulnerable' and 'highly vulnerable' groups.Implementation of Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA) has generated more than 60,000 person days of employment for climate vulnerable community people.

Nepal has implemented a series of programs in the last few years in the areas of adaptation and climate change. The recognition received by NCCSP is a milestone.