The 12th session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN ), offers African Ministers a platform to discuss climate change adaptation. Ministers will also review progress made in the implementation of the action plan for the environment initiative of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Dialogues on financing adaptation and environmental programmes will be one of the key areas of discussion. 1 UNEP tasked the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and a group of experts from Africa (See Annex 2, list of authors) with producing a scoping paper on climate adaptation in Africa for the expert meeting of the 12 th Session of AMCEN. Based on key messages from this paper, UNEP has prepared a separate discussion paper to facilitate minister’s dialogue. Both papers aim to assist expert’s and minister’s discussion during AMCEN, and the output of these discussions will help plan adaptation activities in Africa and contribute to the current UNFCCC negotiations for a post 2012 agreement on climate change.