Climate change and associated climate variability will severely impact future development trajectories and thus pose a serious challenge to multi-dimensional poverty reduction efforts around the globe. These challenges and impacts are expected to be severe in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Most LDCs have made some progress towards addressing the urgent and immediate effects of climate change through the development of National Adaptation Programme of Actions, as well as through progress on poverty reduction and Millennium Development Goal gains over the last decade. In the context of climate change, these countries now need to consider medium- to long-term planning within the framework of national priorities for low emissions and climate resilient development so as to align and sustain growth and poverty reduction. The National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process is one of several processes established to address this need.Parties have established that the NAP process is to be country-driven, continuous, participatory, progressive and iterative. The process will enable LDCs to identify, finance and implement appropriate medium- to long-term adaptation needs, and to balance sectoral and cross-sectoral priorities, at national, sub-national and local levels. Importantly, the medium- to long-term adaptation planning underpinning the NAPs should be multi-stakeholder oriented, and based on and guided by the best available science, rigorous collection and analysis of appropriate data, and consideration of experiences and good practices within, and outside, countries. At present, LDCs are implementing urgent and immediate adaptation needs, with most focusing on sector specific interventions. LDCs do not have access to well-organised knowledge to inform climate resilient planning processes, and the required medium- to long-term and cross-sectoral planning is seldom undertaken. LDCs do not have the required institutional structures and technical capacity for initiating a functional, cross-sectoral and iterative NAP process. A request was consequently made at the Durban COP-17 for United Nations agencies to consider support mechanisms to assist LDCs to advance their NAP processes. The preferred solution is to strengthen appropriate existing institutional frameworks, technical expertise, managerial capacity and decision-making processes within LDCs to facilitate the NAP process. This UNDP-UNEP programme, financed by the LDCF, will consequently establish a support mechanism around three main pillars: institutional support, technical support and knowledge brokering. The goal of this programme is to support LDCs to commence a process of integrating medium- to long-term planning for adaptation to climate change within, or aligned with, current development planning and budgeting processes. This will ensure that a successful NAP is not a stand-alone document, but will lead to the integration of adaptation into the existing mainstream development and poverty reduction plans and budgets of a particular country. The programme will strengthen institutional and technical capacities in all LDCs for iterative development of comprehensive NAPs that are country-driven, and based on existing national development priorities and strategies and processes. The programme goal and objective will be achieved by: i) developing operational and flexible NAP papers and implementing training to advance medium- to long-term adaptation planning processes in the context of LDC national development strategies; ii) making tools and approaches available to LDCs to support key steps in the NAP process; and iii) exchanging lessons learned and knowledge through South-South and North-South Cooperation.