NABARD Climate Risk and Adaptation Management Tool

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is a national financial institution in India with a total balance sheet of over US$ 40 billion. It has the mandate of promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development through innovative, sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural prosperity by providing financial and technical support. Leveraging its long-standing partnerships and experience, NABARD intends to undertake low-emissions and climate-resilient sustainable development while managing climate risks better. This in turn requires processes and tools to support NABARD climate risks in a better way.

To support NABARD to manage climate risks in their portfolio and improve resilience of their portfolio projects, adelphi was tasked with the financial support of GIZ to develop a Climate Risk and Adaptation Management (CRAM) Tool for NABARD. The CRAM Tool developed by the project is based on a robust methodological framework and provides a rapid assessment that links climate risks with adaptation options and can be used for the Watershed Development Fund (WDF) and Tribal Development Fund (TDF) of NABARD. Building on a multi-hazard risk and vulnerability analysis, the tool links the climate risk rating for specific indicators with prioritized adaptation options. To make the tool context specific a basket of customized and appropriate indicators was selected tailoring the tool to the WDF and TDF project context. 

Building on the CRAM tool adelphi conducted pilots and capacity building measures for NABARD officials and project implementing agencies to support the mainstreaming of the CRAM tool in NABARD projects and development programmes. Those measures helped to identify adaptation measures for the participating projects. It also helped to select adaptation approaches and climate proofing procedures for upcoming NABARD programmes.