The climate crisis poses a fundamental challenge to global development, with far-reaching consequences for economies, societies and ecosystems. Climate change impacts, including rising sea levels, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity, disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations. To address these challenges, the Paris Agreement, calls for countries to develop and implement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). These NDCs serve as policy instruments for realizing climate action, integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation into national planning, and mobilizing the necessary investment to achieve low-carbon, climate-resilient development. This requires a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, ensuring inclusive governance, robust investment frameworks and strong institutional coordination.
In light of these challenges, in 2017, UNDP launched the US$74.7 million NDC Support Programme (NDC SP), funded by the European Union and the governments of Germany and Spain. The goal of the programme was to support governments to achieve transformational change by scaling up public and private investments in climate change actions to deliver long-term sustainable development and championing the benefits of lowcarbon, climate-resilient development.
The programme focused on nationally-driven priorities and initiatives, ensuring country ownership of climate action, and provided long-term support, recognizing that transformational change requires sustained investment, technical assistance, and institutional strengthening over multiple years. It supported interlinked topics such as governance, policy coherence, finance, private sector engagement, capacity-building and gender equality and inclusivity to create a cohesive and effective response to climate challenges.
Over its lifetime (2017-25), the NDC SP supported 47 countries and territories. This case study explores the comprehensive work undertaken in Viet Nam and illustrates the activities, outcomes, achievements and key lessons from the implementation of the NDC SP. In doing so, it highlights in-country successes, while also identifying insights gained during the programme’s design and execution.
