Tackling the implementation gap of climate adaptation strategies: understanding policy translation in Brazil and Colombia

National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) have been characterized by complex implementation and coordination gaps, related to uneven framings in domestic contexts. This study analyzes these framing processes in Brazil and Colombia by examining the translation of global prescriptions into tangible policy instruments. It combines a policy translation analytical framework with the processes of layering, drift, conversion, and replacement. It draws on semi-structured interviews with institutional actors and it examines (i) agenda-setting and elaboration of the NAPs, (ii) the different roles and interactions of sector-based actors in agriculture and land-use, and (iii) the distinct concepts of adaptation put forward and their subsequent policy outputs in relation to national institutional trajectories. In Brazil and Colombia, the initial ambition of mainstreaming climate adaptation into sector-based policies resulted in a divergent patchwork of policies, which is characterized by limited means, capacity and other resources dedicated to coordination and implementation.Key policy insightsThe study examines the processes through which international prescriptions influence concrete policy outcomes.The ambition of establishing new climate policies resulted in a patchwork of policies, characterized by low levels of coordination and limited means of implementation. In Brazil, adaptation goals were layered in with existing sector-based policies with some operational capacity, while in Colombia the national adoption of several adaptation goals has not translated into implementation.The article addresses the politics of policy transfer, knowledge interpretation, and policy change. It considers the possibility of actors interacting to reframe concepts according to their ideas and interests, while also aiming to assure stability.Climate policy requires efforts to alter policy priorities at the sector level, to create cross-sectoral balances, and strengthen the means of implementation, actions which intimately relate to power relations and institutional settings.