TAGUIG, Philippines — The Government of the Philippines, through the Climate Change Commission (CCC), together with British Embassy Manila as co-chair, convened the second technical-level meeting of the Philippines Adaptation Development Partners’ Coordination Group (DPCG), to focus on strengthening the country’s adaptation efforts, especially in local implementation.
The meeting was set to build on the agreements reached during the first technical-level meeting of the Philippines DPCG on 08 September 2025. The DPCG is crucial as it provides a structured platform to align resources, knowledge, and actions among partners. It helps avoid duplication, ensures efficient use of resources, and strengthens the country’s capacity to respond to climate risks in a coordinated way.
The meeting gathered government agencies, development institutions, and international partners to take stock of progress on previously agreed commitments, align support for priority adaptation initiatives, and endorse key workstreams that will guide the DPCG’s second year of implementation.
In his opening remarks, CCC Vice Chairperson and Executive Director Robert E.A. Borje underscored the importance of coherence and coordination in adaptation efforts.
“As adaptation initiatives grow across sectors and institutions, fragmented support produces fragmented outcomes. We need to look at this from a systems point of view, and a systems-based approach to adaptation is critical to the success of this group,” Borje said.
Borje emphasized that adaptation efforts must remain aligned with national priorities and responsive to local needs, noting that communities, local governments, and vulnerable sectors continue to face increasing climate risks, including extreme heat, water stress, sea level rise, and stronger weather disturbances.
British Embassy Manila Economic and Climate Counsellor Lloyd Cameron highlighted the progress made since the development of the Philippines’ first National Adaptation Plan and the growing recognition of adaptation as a central pillar of climate action.
“What this group is about is meeting that adaptation challenge in partnership with the multilateral system and with bilateral and international partners,” Cameron said. “Adaptation now has a status much closer to equal, and what matters is that we are having these conversations and working together to move them forward.”
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), as co-chair of the DPCG, through Undersecretary Analiza Rebuelta-Teh, reiterated the role of the DPCG as a platform for aligning partner-supported initiatives with the NAP and strengthening coordination between government and development partners.
“As we move further into implementation, the role of this group becomes more operationally significant,” Rebuelta-Teh said. “We are increasingly focused not only on defining priorities but on how they are translated into coordinated, risk-informed, and locally implementable investments aligned across partners and with national systems.”
A major focus of the meeting was accelerating the localization of adaptation action through the Adaptation Investment Learning Course (AILC), a joint initiative of the CCC, DENR, the Local Government Academy (LGA), and the British Embassy Manila.
The LGA reported that the pilot implementation of the AILC successfully trained local government and planning practitioners from seven provinces, helping strengthen capacities in climate risk assessment, adaptation planning, and the development of evidence-based adaptation project pipelines.
CCC Commissioner Rachel Anne S. Herrera also provided updates on the development of the National Adaptation Plan Gender Action Plan (NAP-GAP), a key initiative aimed at mainstreaming gender, disability, and social inclusion across adaptation planning and implementation.
Herrera noted that the NAP-GAP is designed to ensure that gender-responsive approaches are fully integrated into the country's adaptation agenda rather than treated as stand-alone interventions. She also highlighted upcoming regional consultations and a national validation workshop as part of the process toward finalizing the plan this year.
Participants discussed opportunities to scale up the program and strengthen support mechanisms for local governments, including the development of a broader climate learning network involving national agencies, academic institutions, technical experts, and development partners.
The meeting also reviewed outcomes from the recently concluded ASEAN Climate Week 2026, which highlighted the need to shift from adaptation ambition to adaptation delivery, strengthen enabling environments for adaptation finance, scale ecosystem-based approaches, and promote stronger institutional coherence across sectors and levels of governance.
The meeting brought together government agencies, development institutions, the private sector and academe to discuss priority adaptation workstreams for its first year, including NAP mainstreaming, localization, and finance mobilization. It also provided an opportunity to review the group’s Terms of Reference (TOR) and identify synergies for joint action.
To support these priorities, participants endorsed the continued development of several NAP-aligned frameworks, including the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) system, Adaptation Communications (AdComms), and the National Adaptation Plan Gender Action Plan.
Updates presented during the meeting highlighted ongoing efforts to establish a practical and institutionalized adaptation monitoring system that can support evidence-based planning, transparency, accountability, and international reporting obligations under the Paris Agreement.
Development partners reaffirmed their commitment to supporting the Philippines’ adaptation priorities, including NAP implementation, climate finance mobilization, resilience measurement, capacity-building initiatives, and adaptation reporting.
The meeting likewise endorsed the proposed process for expanding DPCG membership and confirmed priority workstreams for the group’s second year, including adaptation finance, localization, adaptation monitoring and reporting, gender-responsive adaptation planning, and strengthened partner coordination.
In closing, the co-chairs emphasized that the success of the National Adaptation Plan will depend on sustained collaboration among government agencies, development partners, local governments, civil society, academia, and the private sector.
The CCC underscored that the outcomes of the second DPCG meeting mark another important step toward translating adaptation priorities into concrete action and investments that strengthen resilience and improve the lives of vulnerable communities across the country. PR
