By Abbas Nazil
Tanzania has begun implementing its 10-year National Adaptation Plan aimed at strengthening the country’s resilience to climate change and protecting communities, livelihoods and critical economic sectors from growing climate-related risks.
The plan, submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in January 2026, contains 36 programmes covering 18 sectors across mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.
It is designed to address increasing threats from floods, droughts and rising sea levels, which are already affecting communities and putting agriculture, fisheries and livestock under pressure.
Weather-related risks are estimated to cost Tanzania’s agriculture sector at least $200 million annually through lost harvests.
The country’s challenge now is to translate the national plan into practical action in communities where the impacts of climate change are already being felt.
Sector-related ministries have started developing more detailed vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans focusing on coastal and marine areas, health and water.
Local governments, with support from the United Nations Capital Development Fund and CARE International Tanzania, have also commenced community-level vulnerability assessments to identify climate risks and appropriate responses.
Tanzania’s Vice President’s Office is preparing a concept note to seek support from the Green Climate Fund for the next phase of implementation.
The government has also established a permanent climate finance mechanism within the Ministry of Finance to track and mobilise funding for climate adaptation activities.
The National Adaptation Plan estimates that implementation will require about $37 billion, making access to adequate and sustained climate finance a major priority for the country.
Asia Akule, Environmental Officer and NAP Coordinator in Mainland Tanzania’s Vice President’s Office, said the development of the plan represented the beginning of a long-term transition towards climate-resilient development rather than the end of the adaptation process.
The plan followed nearly a decade of preparatory work, with early assessments conducted in 2016 identifying gaps in Tanzania’s adaptation planning.
From October 2022, Tanzania’s Vice President’s Office, supported by Green Climate Fund financing and the United Nations Development Programme, brought together government ministries, civil society organisations, academics, private-sector representatives and development partners to develop the national plan.
The process involved vulnerability assessments across mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, while civil society organisations helped strengthen connections between national planning processes, local governments and communities.
However, the development of the plan faced challenges, including delays in funding and gaps in climate data.
Feedback from the UN Climate Change Regional Collaboration Centre for East and Southern Africa, the UN Climate Change National Adaptation Plan team and the Least Developed Countries Expert Group was used to strengthen the draft before it was submitted.
Akule described the feedback from the Least Developed Countries Expert Group as productive and helpful in improving the plan.
Tanzania has also begun sharing its experience with other African countries developing their own National Adaptation Plans.
The UN Climate Change Regional Collaboration Centre for East and Southern Africa co-convened a peer exchange webinar in August 2026 with the Tanzanian government and the United Nations Development Programme.
During the session, Tanzania’s team shared lessons from the development of its adaptation plan, including approaches that worked, challenges that caused delays and areas where the country would adopt different strategies in future.
The experience highlighted the importance of sustained cooperation among government institutions, civil society organisations and communities in developing and implementing climate adaptation plans.
It also demonstrated the need for dedicated teams capable of keeping complex national planning processes on track.
Tanzania’s adaptation experience further underscored the importance of addressing climate-data gaps and financing constraints as countries move from developing national adaptation policies to implementing practical measures on the ground.
With climate-related threats already affecting agriculture, fisheries, livestock and vulnerable communities, the implementation of Tanzania’s adaptation plan is expected to remain closely linked to the country’s ability to mobilise the financing, data and institutional support required to translate its programmes into effective climate resilience measures.
