Given the wide variety of situations in which adaptation takes place there can be no fail safe, 'correct' formula for designing an adaptation implementation plan, especially as often adaptation is not the only motivation for change and adaptation options are being implemented as part of other initiatives. In many cases it may be hard to differentiate a climate change adaptation action and an action made for livelihoods improvement especially at the local level. For example: upgrading a water supply system in a coastal community which currently has no access to fresh water could be undertaken both as part of a climate change adaptation plan and to improve livelihoods. It is logical to assume that activities that contribute to community resilience (improving human health, economic, education and social linkages) would also contribute to being better able to adapt to changes in future. Thus the adaptation actions of the plan might look very similar to those in a sustainable community development plan, the only differences being that locations that are more vulnerable to weather-related risks and sectors that are more dependent on weather-related risks e.g. agriculture, fisheries, water management, and coastal infrastructure are more likely to get financial support to fund these activities.
Much existing guidance on adaptation planning focuses primarily on methods and tools, but especially in projects where the aim is to get stakeholder engagement, ownership and outcomes that build capacity to deal with climate change, agreement on underlying principles and the design of an open and inclusive process with the team implementing the plan is as least as important as describing specific tools. This part of the guidance aims to address both issues. The underlying motivations for the work during that emerged in the scoping phases of the adaptation process should be revisited at this stage to bring new people in and to reflect on how well they have been addressed in the option identification and appraisal stage. This is also an opportunity to think about what might be considered as a 'success', in terms of implementation, through developing shared principles and clarifying objectives at this stage, as this helps in designing the details of the process, what types of tools should be used and how the work can most effectively be monitored and evaluated (see the pathfinder section on Monitoring and Evaluation). .
The key constraints that can arise at this stage are:
In addition, further issues to be considered for the implementation of the plan:
