Peer Learning Strategy: Six insights from a decade of NAP Global Network’s South–South peer learning

Chi Pham and Christian Ledwell, NAP Global Network Secretariat (IISD)

Read full report

In 2017, Victor Santillan, communications officer for Peru’s environment ministry, travelled to Castries for an exchange with Saint Lucia’s government peers as they developed their first-ever communications strategy for the national adaptation plan (NAP) process. Santillan joined a national workshop where the Saint Lucian government engaged journalists and communicators in dialogue on climate change adaptation. When he returned home to Lima, taking inspiration from Caribbean peers, Santillan went on to work with his ministry to organize two national dialogues on adaptation, where Peru’s environment minister engaged with journalists and communicators on national adaptation priorities. 

“I learned to always give a human face to messages and communications products, and I found in NAP Global Network a key ally for my country in terms of communication, partnerships, and empowerment,” reflects Santillan. 

Santillan (front row, fourth from left) participating in Saint Lucia’s Understanding Climate Change Adaptation in the Saint Lucia Context for journalists and communicators in June 2017. 
Participants in the Peruvian National Communicators Workshop on climate change in 2018 with Peru’s then-minister of Environment, Fabiola Muñoz (front row, third from left). 

For almost 10 years, the NAP Global Network has facilitated South–South peer learning and exchange among adaptation practitioners and decisions. Peer learning is an accessible and practical approach to sharing relevant knowledge and expertise on adaptation across governments, sectors, and actors to strengthen capacity and develop effective, inclusive NAP processes. Since 2014, we’ve worked with more than 700 decision-makers on and organized 14 global-level events. 

To consolidate lessons from this decade of experience and shape how we take peer learning on the NAP process forward, the NAP Global Network Secretariat has just published a new Peer Learning Strategy.  

Though each country’s NAP process is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to adaptation planning, there are important benefits for NAP teams to have spaces to share their knowledge and experience through focused, honest conversations.  

Here are six key insights and lessons that we’re trying to take forward in our future peer learning work guided by our Peer Learning Strategy: 

Lesson 1. PowerPoint presentations are just one part of a well-balanced event.  

For well-balanced peer learning, the NAP Global Network Secretariat team tries to balance four complementary key factors in our activities:  

  • Technical inputs and framings – often formal presentations on topics within the NAP process. 
  • Relational opportunities – dynamic, interactive approaches to getting participants from different countries to exchange dialogue.  
  • Reflexive activities for country teams to reflect on what they’ve learned and how they can apply it in their home context.  
  • Experiential activities to observe and experience the host country outside of the conference room 
Figure 1. Four components of South–South peer learning and exchange. 

Lesson 2. Facilitation matters.

Adaptation planning is serious business—lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems are at stake. Governance of adaptation is often highly technical and complex. Learning and sharing about adaptation governance—especially across countries and cultures—requires dynamic, interactive approaches. 

Our peer learning activities are centred around participatory, interactive facilitation methods to bring out and capture “tacit knowledge”—what researcher Nicolas Burbules has defined as “know-how that has not been made explicit or codified, either because it is not easily accessible by the knowledge holders or they are not yet aware of their knowledge.”  

Designing dynamic and engaging activities to reduce barriers to communication is important for countries to be able to share information and knowledge. In 2019, we published some of our top facilitation methods here. 

Adaptation experts representing Thailand, Mexico, Fiji, and Tuvalu share approaches to monitoring, evaluation, and learning for NAP processes at a peer learning event in 2018.

Lesson 3. Peer learning should be an ongoing process rather than ad hoc events. 

Our new strategy emphasizes the “cohort model” we piloted with our former Targeted Topics Forums (TTFs) series from 2015 to 2020, which the Network has continued offering through ongoing Peer Learning Cohorts (PLCs). Through country “cohorts” that reconvene annually over the years to share and discuss NAP processes and lessons, we hope to help create a community of practice among NAP policy-makers and practitioners and reinforce knowledge sharing and ongoing collaborations. Cohorts established within and across geographic regions can also strengthen intra- and inter-regional partnerships on NAPs. 

Lesson 4. Virtual peer exchanges can complement in-person interactions and strengthen ongoing dialogue. 

Reflecting on virtual peer learning that took place during and after the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions, we have recognized that virtual convening has a role in long-term learning processes among countries. While in-person events provide the ideal setting for peers to meet and for relational and experiential learning, virtual sessions can help prepare for and sustain these conversations beyond the limits of a single event. 

Lesson 5. Peer learning should be strategically linked with the Network’s two other objectives—national-level action and knowledge—to better support partner countries.

We’ve observed a “value chain of NAP support” in which technical support, peer learning, and knowledge can be mutually reinforcing and complementary—helping learning to turn into action. By intentionally and strategically linking these pillars of support, we aim to improve the Network’s support to country partners.

Figure 2. A value chain for shifting learning to action: An example from private sector engagement in the NAP process (Source: Catherine Fisher)

Lesson 6. Keeping track of the changes that result from peer learning requires dedicated effort.

The longer-term results and precise changes that peer learning inspires can be difficult to identify and track—but tracking these changes is possible with the right tools and relationships.  

The NAP Global Network adopted a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework in 2023 (see page 32 here), aiming to better measure the impacts and changes that result from peer learning activities and share the stories of change that we identify.  

What’s next? 

As the Network Secretariat develops its next strategic plan, we remain committed to South–South peer learning and exchange as a pillar for how we support partner countries. We look forward to building on the network of adaptation decision-makers we’ve established and bringing new voices into the conversation. 

For more, read the NAP Global Network Peer Learning Strategy.  

Want to get in touch about participating in peer learning on the NAP process? Have a story about a change in your work inspired by South-South peer learning? Get in touch at info@napglobalnetwork.org.