APPENDICES 5 92 Appendices
APPENDIX A BACKGROUND TO DEVELOP<strong>IN</strong>G THE RAPTA GUIDEL<strong>IN</strong>ES The Scientific Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), responding to the GEF’s growing interest in assessing resilience and a request from the UNCCD Secretariat, commissioned the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to identify an indicator of the resilience of agro-ecosystems that can be applied at national level by the Parties to the UNCCD and used in the GEF’s projects and programs. It was intended to complement the current UNCCD indicators and be relevant to the UNFCCC and the CBD as a measure of land-based adaptation and ecosystem resilience, respectively. The effort supports integration in reporting to the Conventions, and enhances the recognition of the central role of the land in supporting sustainable development. O’Connell et al. (2015) reviewed the conceptual basis of resilience assessment and proposed the Resilience, Adaptation Pathways and Transformation Assessment (RAPTA), as an approach to the assessment of resilience as well as the related concepts of adaptation and transformation. The first version of the RAPTA was presented at the 2015 UNCCD Science Conference as the RATA Framework Version 1. 20 RAPTA was reviewed by experts from the GEF, the Rio Conventions, development agencies and research institutions, including experts in natural and social sciences and economics. Reviewers determined that the RAPTA approach has the capacity to support the Sustainable Development Goals and capture synergies across the Rio Conventions in areas of common interest in the management of human/ecological systems. The review process led to suggestions for refinements and the identification of elements that require further elaboration. It was recognized that co-development and testing with stakeholders in an applied setting is required before the RAPTA framework is ready for implementation and that simple guidelines for use are required. The GEF has indicated interest in applying RAPTA in their programs and projects. The Integrated Approach Pilot (IAP) on “Sustainability and Resilience for Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa” (Food Security IAP), approved by the GEF Council in June 2015, had an immediate need for methods to assess and report resilience. The Program Framework Document for the Food Security IAP refers to the use of RAPTA for monitoring and assessment. The CSIRO and collaborators were commissioned by the STAP to deliver a short project (September to November 2015) to develop guidelines for RAPTA, to enable its application in the design phase of the Food Security IAP. The project aims to: • understand the IAP program/project design, and how RAPTA can meet the needs and objectives of project developers • introduce the IAP countries and GEF agencies to the underlying theory and application behind RAP- TA and assist them with RAPTA implementation • produce, in consultation with the key collaborators, guidelines for RAPTA, which can be used to support their project planning. The RAPTA requires further piloting and testing beyond the development of these guidelines. 20 Further information: The first version of the RAPTA was called the RATA and was published in these reports: Technical Report: O’Connell, D., Walker, B., Abel, N., Grigg, N. (2015) The Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation Assessment Framework: From Theory to Application. CSIRO, Australia. Accompanying Case Study Report: Grigg, N., Abel, N., O’Connell, D. & Walker, B. (2015) Resilience assessment case studies in Thailand and Niger: Case studies to accompany a discussion paper for UNCCD STAP workshop 19–21 November 2014, Sydney, Australia. Both available at: http://www.stapgef.org/the-resilience-adaptation-and-transformation-assessment-framework/ Appendices 93