National Adaptation Programme of Actions (NAPAs) are documents specifying a list of priority activities that will communicate immediate and urgent needs of LDCs, considering their high vulnerability and low adaptive capacity to climate change. The development of a NAPA document is not only intended to identify and prioritise urgent adaptation needs of LDCs but also help build capacity for the development of NatComs and to meet their obligations to the UNFCCC. An overview of climate variability, and observed and projected climate change and associated actual and potential adverse effects of climate change should be documented.

This overview should be based on existing and ongoing studies and research, and/or empirical and historical information as well as traditional knowledge. The main characteristics of a NAPA is that, it should be easy to understand, action oriented, country driven, and set clear priorities for urgent and immediate adaptation activities identified by each individual country.

These adaptation activities and measures will also take into account the national planning processes, development goals and other multilateral environmental agreements and also identify potential barriers to implementation. The objective of a NAPA is to “serve as a simplified and direct channel of communication for information relating to urgent and immediate adaptation needs of LDCs”. The key outcome of the NAPA process is the identification of activities that should be pursued immediately, because further delay in implementing the activities could lead to increased vulnerability, or higher costs for delayed implementation. It has been highlighted by the UNFCCC that NAPAs should have a bottom-up action plan, not be just another lengthy document that joins the ranks of other action plans. The ending product should be a concise and well justified list of actions and projects to address priority vulnerabilities for the country or to build capacity to address those vulnerabilities.