Abstract

Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plays a critical role in informing and improving adaptation policies and activities. It helps us to understand what works (or not) in what circumstances and why, guide more efficient and transparent adaptation investment decisions, and ensure that future adaptation efforts ‘stand on the shoulders’ of past projects and programs.

A portfolio of resources by the UKCIP has been produced in response to demand for guidance and support, including the AdaptME Toolkit. Organizations that have undertaken adaptation activities now face the challenge of evaluating what worked, what didn’t, how and why. This toolkit responds to a growing demand for practical support in evaluating adaptation progress and performance, and enhances Step 5 of the UKCIP Adaptation Wizard.

AdaptME will help you to think through some of the factors that can make an evaluation of adaptation activities inherently challenging, and equip you to design a robust evaluation. You will be able to ‘tweak’ a single part of your evaluation design or use multiple tools to build a new approach. This toolkit will help you to:

• Refine your evaluation purpose and objectives
• Reflect on what you are trying to evaluate and the logic behind this
• Understand how specific traits of climate adaptation can make evaluation challenging and how you can overcome these challenges
• Draw out, understand and re-evaluate your assumptions
• Consider how progress and performance might be best measured and evaluated
• Identify examples, good practice and techniques which may help ensure your evaluation is robust in the context of climate change
• Prioritize your evaluation activities, recognising that evaluations need to be proportionate to the investment and are resource limited

AdaptME does not seek to provide a comprehensive evaluation framework as it is clear that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to evaluating adaptation. Often climate adaptation may be just one aspect of a broader evaluation. Although the toolkit focuses on the process of evaluation, it is also relevant to the development of monitoring frameworks.