Trainee Handbook | Enhancing Climate Services for Infrastructure Investments (CSI)

Overview of CSI Training

This resource was submitted by the Climate Risk Institute for use by theCanAdapt Climate Change Adaptation Community of Practice.

This article is an abridged version of the original text, which can be downloaded from the right-hand column. Please access the original text for more detail, research purposes, full references, or to quote text.

Infrastructure adapted to the impacts of climate change is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A number of countries, including Brazil, Costa Rica and Viet Nam, have already launched efforts to increase the resilience of their infrastructure and have included infrastructure climate risk management in their National Adaptation Plans (NAP). For implementing their NAPs, the partner countries’ are required to establish Climate Services that are aligned to the requirements of decision-making and planning processes. A few international initiatives have begun to address this challenge, including the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS). The GIZ-CSI project translates the international framework of action of the GFCS into national level contexts and conditions in its partner countries and focuses on Enhancing Climate Services for Sustainable Infrastructure Investment (CSI).

It supports the country-specific institutional and technical design of structures to enable countries to make better use of Climate Services and to include them in their infrastructure planning system. This includes institutionalizing a sustainable interface between users (e.g. infrastructure planners, operators and owners) and Climate Service providers – commonly referred to as a Climate Service User Interface Platform (UIP). It promotes the concept of co-production of Climate Service products. This means including users of Climate Services right from the beginning in the development process of Climate Service products to become tailormade. Moreover, CSI also focuses on climate-sensitive infrastructure planning methods. Together with decision-makers, the project develops recommendations for adapting planning procedures and regulations in line with the climate-proofing approach, e.g. via cost-benefit analyses, the development of building standards or environmental impact assessments (EIA).

Based on the Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee (PIEVC) protocol that Engineers Canada developed to analyze climate risks to infrastructure, the project aims to build local capacity by means of a learning-by-doing approach. With support of NIRAS – IP Consult GmbH the CSI Training was developed and to disseminate this approach and to operationalize the adapted planning procedures and regulations following the Climate Proofing method originally developed by GIZ based in the Guidelines Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Cooperation (OECD 2009).

One essential component of the capacity development approach of the CSI project is training and ensuring that training capacities in the CSI partner countries are locally enhanced and sustained. Trainings are envisioned to accompany and complement activities of the project related to enhancing Climate Service provisions and their utilization for infrastructure investments. This specifically refers to the development of training approaches that are complementing learning experiences from selected infrastructure pilot activities focusing on the Climate Proofing of ports and transition lines (Brazil), bridges (Costa Rica), sluice gates (Viet Nam) and dams (Ethiopia-NBI).

With this course trainees will improve their skills and knowledge:

• to understand the concept of Climate Services and engineering aspects of risk assessment;
• to learn about a more technical approach towards cost-benefit analysis;
• to know how to identify potential entry points of climate change adaptation within infrastructure planning frameworks and cycles using the Climate Proofing method;
• to be able to provide feedback to policy development and integrate the results of climate proofing infrastructure investment into the context of NAP/ NDC-implementation, institutional reform and other enabling mechanisms for change;
• to become aware of challenges and enabling factors for the effective use of Climate Services in the context of Climate Proofing infrastructure investment;
• to learn to think in systems and understand in this context the importance of climate value chains and Climate Service products for climate change adaptation which involves the technical, organizational and institutional levels;
• to become aware how to balance interests of different stakeholder groups;
• to be able to reflect on applying Climate Proofing infrastructure investment projects, strategies and plans in their own specific contexts. Besides, trainees will further develop their personal capacities, namely:
• to enhance analytical skills;
• to learn to think strategically;
• to strengthen cooperation and dialogue skills;
• to learn to communicate in an audience-oriented and culture-sensitive way; and
• to enhance reflective skills such as creativity, innovation and adaptive management skills.

The target groups of this training are primarily professionals responsible for the planning and management of (public) infrastructure investment. Considering the interaction of public infrastructure investment with other sectors like environment, nature, health, economically productive sectors, finance etc., besides infrastructure operators, national ministries, local governments or research entities, stakeholder groups from cross-sectorial planning and management bodies should be considered. Thus, the training aims at decisions makers, planners, practitioners and technical staff from governments as well as civil society, academia, the private sector, investors, national and international staff in international or regional cooperation.

Trainers in partner countries receive tailor made Trainings of Trainers (ToT) to become able to design and implement CSI Trainings with support of the recommended methods, tools and materials.

How to Use this Trainee Handbook

This handbook is designed for trainees in a face-to-face training and its content is complemented by trainer and expert presentations (PPTs), peer discussion groups and interactive role plays. Thus, it shall support the development of the trainees’ planning capacities on integrating climate change adaptation into sustainable infrastructure investment and facilitate their understanding of the concept and use of climate services in the context of climate proofing sustainable infrastructure investments. The document provides basic background knowledge, methods and tools complemented by exercises which encourage the learning from experience with a case study in order to learn about:​​

• the context and objectives of the training (Module 1),
• the concept of climate change and relevance for infrastructure investment (Module 2),
• the concept and need for user friendly climate services (Module 3),
• the methodological approach of climate proofing developed by GIZ based on the OECD Policy Guidance ‘Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Development Co-operation’ published in 20091 (Module 4), and supported by:
• the brief description of the fictitious case of Metropolis City (Annex 1) which serves as a reference case for the exercises, and the glossary which explains terminology and concepts used in this handbook (Annex 2).