With climate impacts intensifying across Southern and Eastern Africa—from prolonged droughts and their associated impacts on food security and energy generation, to flooding and ecosystem degradation—the urgency to mobilize finance for adaptation has never been greater.
In an effort to strengthen climate resilience across the region, the Government of Zambia, National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Global Network, and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) co-hosted an Adaptation Investment Matchmaking Symposium on Monday in Lusaka, Zambia, on the sidelines of NAP Expo 2025. This event was organized with funding from Global Affairs Canada and the Italian government.
By bringing together country teams and funders in a collaborative setting, the symposium marked a significant milestone in the region’s climate finance journey, laying the groundwork for more strategic, coordinated, and impactful adaptation investments across Southern and Eastern Africa. National adaptation planning teams from Zambia, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe gathered alongside leading climate finance institutions and organizations, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Adaptation Fund, International Finance Corporation, UNDP, United Nations Environment Programme, and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.
The symposium was designed to accelerate the implementation of NAPs by creating a dynamic space for countries to present their most pressing adaptation investment needs and engage directly with funders. It also focused on fostering regional coordination and identifying mature, investment-ready projects that can deliver tangible resilience outcomes.
Throughout the day, country representatives emphasized the importance of strengthening their adaptation portfolios to make them more attractive to investors. They agreed that peer learning, capacity building, and streamlined approval processes are essential to ensuring that adaptation efforts translate into real-world impact.
“It is important to raise climate investment portfolios by getting countries to work together through South-South cooperation to share experiences and improve NAP resources mobilization,” said Kasanda Bunda, Principal Climate Change Officer of the Department of Climate Change and Green Economy at Zambia’s Ministry of Green Economy and Environment (MGEE).
A key theme that emerged from the symposium was the strong potential for regional collaboration, particularly through shared natural resource management, which participants identified as a strategic entry point for cross-border cooperation. Countries emphasized the importance of leveraging regional institutions such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the Southern African Development Community to initiate high-level political engagement and support the readiness of adaptation projects. They advocated for innovation exchange and peer learning as powerful tools to build technical capacity, foster mutual understanding, and accelerate the development of investment-ready adaptation solutions that respond to the most relevant climate challenges.
“The Adaptation Matchmaking Investment Symposium showed us the power of conversation. It provided a unique opportunity for countries that have prepared NAPs to meet donors and financiers, exchange ideas and, critically, identify pathways to mobilizing adaptation finance. As UNDP’s representative at the symposium, I hope that the event marks the beginning of concerted action to rapidly scale up adaptation finance to implement NAP priorities in developing countries,” said Liam Fee, Climate Change Adaptation Specialist at the UNDP.
The symposium also served as a platform for funders to outline their strategic priorities and offer guidance to participating countries. Funders emphasized the importance of mature adaptation investments and strong country ownership in multi-country projects and advised focusing on transboundary initiatives only where clear shared challenges exist. They encouraged countries to invest in national teams capable of engaging directly with funders, understanding their processes, and aligning proposals with funder requirements. The Adaptation Fund informed the plenary of the creation of a community of practice for Direct Access Entities, aimed at fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange among institutions directly accessing climate finance.
“The GCF, together with our sister funds under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, stands ready to support developing countries in channelling catalytic climate finance toward the adaptation needs and priorities identified through their NAPs. We have been honoured to work with countries, under their leadership, in achieving significant milestones through GCF’s programming window and readiness support. We look forward to countries sharing their success stories with peers on how they have leveraged GCF finance to advance their NAP ambitions. With a reinforced commitment to delivering its mandate and providing services more efficiently, anchored on stronger country ownership, the Fund remains fully ready and committed to supporting this journey,” said GCF’s Climate Policy Specialist, Hansol Park.
As countries move forward, the partnerships and insights forged in Lusaka are expected to catalyze a new wave of climate action—one that is locally led, regionally aligned, and globally supported.
“This symposium was more than a meeting—it was a catalyst for action. By bringing together country teams and funders in one space, we created a unique opportunity to align investment-ready adaptation priorities with real financing pathways,” said Maribel Hernández, Senior Policy Advisor on Adaptation Finance at the NAP Global Network.
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