Climate change is without doubt the most significant factor influencing the future of our life on earth, with extreme weather events already more frequent and intense, causing increasingly adverse impacts to lives and livelihoods felt globally. With knowledge of climate changes and strong preparedness plans, societies can both optimize opportunities, better cope with climate hazards, and reduce the losses incurred by such events. Program development, therefore, needs to consider climate risks and integrate measures to ensure that these risks are reduced to acceptable levels.

Climate proofing refers to  the process of assessing sensitivity of development outcomes to current and future climate and ensuring that climate risks are reduced and integrated in the planning, design, budgets, and implementation of development programs.
Climate proofing entails:

• analysis of the climate in the project area, which includes current climate variability and extremes, observable trends, and climate change scenario
• analysis of climate sensitivity of each program output/ outcome; and level of risk to the program output/ outcome.
• identification and prioritization of adaptation opportunities. These measures or adaptation opportunities are then scored for their adaptation value and the enabling environment for taking up such options.
• provision of recommendations for integration into project design and implementation.