Aruba is developing a National Adaptation Strategy to strengthen climate resilience and guide future action. This IPDC-supported project helps translate existing climate knowledge into practical choices by identifying and prioritising adaptation options together with government, experts, and stakeholders. The project supports Aruba in moving from climate risk assessments to a clear and actionable strategy that can guide implementation and investment.

Objective

The project supports the development of Aruba’s National Adaptation Strategy (NAS-A). It aims to deliver a strategic framework for climate adaptation that can guide national planning, inform future adaptation plans, and strengthen collaboration between institutions, experts, and stakeholders.

Approach

The project builds on existing climate knowledge for Aruba, including risk assessments, climate scenarios, and earlier IPDC-supported work such as the Climate Impact Atlas and adaptation options database. These sources are brought together into a structured process to support decision-making.

The work follows four main steps:

• Establishing the foundation: reviewing policies, engaging stakeholders, and defining the strategic vision for climate adaptation.
• Identifying and prioritising options: developing a list of adaptation measures based on climate risks and exploring these through workshops and a community survey to capture societal priorities.
• Validation and action planning: working with stakeholders to validate priorities and explore how measures can be implemented in practice.
• Strategy development: translating all inputs into a National Adaptation Strategy with a roadmap for implementation.

The strategy is structured around key adaptation clusters, including nature and biodiversity, health and wellbeing, critical infrastructure and urbanization, energy and transportation, economy and work, and disaster preparedness and resilience.

Expected outcomes

The project will deliver Aruba’s National Adaptation Strategy and supporting outputs, including:

• a strategic vision for climate adaptation
• a prioritised set of adaptation options
• stakeholder workshop outcomes and survey insights
• a roadmap to guide implementation and future investment

These outputs provide a clear basis for decision-making and help Aruba access funding and move towards implementation.

Partners

The project is coordinated by the National Climate Resilience Council of Aruba and led by Impact Blue. It is implemented with support from partner organisations Stichting CAS, Deltares, the University of Aruba, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and an IPDC expert pool.

Role within the IPDC programme

This project is part of the IPDC Dutch Caribbean programme. It builds on earlier IPDC work on climate scenarios, digitisation, and adaptation options, and translates these into a national strategy that supports practical action on climate resilience.

For more information on the NAS-A, please visit the IPDC and NCRC websites. If you have specific questions or would like further details, you can contact the team directly at climate@ncrc-aruba.org.