Abstract

The second edition of this report comes at a critical moment. Climate change threatens to reverse progress towards sustainable development and threatens lives and livelihoods around the globe, either directly through its physical impacts or as a compounding factor towards existing vulnerabilities. Governments, development agencies, the private sector, and other stakeholders can and should address climate change directly and strongly – and many are doing so already. 

The next question is what works, what does not, why, and how? We currently don’t have a fully comprehensive picture in that respect. Climate change adaptation and resilience-focused policies, programmes, and projects need to effect change from international governance down to individual behaviour change, and everything in between. These interventions need to be embedded in an analysis of a threat unprecedented in human history, but deliver change at the household level as well.

This report represents a synthesis and summary of frameworks for the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of climate change adaptation and resilience (CCAR) interventions, with a specific focus on international development projects and programmes. 

The objective of this report is to:

• Provide an easy-to-read synthesis of current adaptation and resilience M&E resources, frameworks, and approaches so that practitioners are able to more easily identify the information and tools that are most relevant to their needs.
• Provide a short analysis of the ‘state of play’ of adaptation and resilience M&E guidance, identifying key themes and reflecting upon gaps and future priorities.

We recognise that the resources reviewed here were developed for different, and sometimes specific, purposes. As a result, we have not sought to recommend or ‘score’ tools, as their value and relevance will depend on the context in which they are applied. Instead, we have aimed to provide a subjective assessment of each resource in terms of its purpose, a summary of content and approach, its potential application, and the contribution it makes to our broader understanding of adaptation M&E. There is now a growing and dynamic body of work in this field and, in some cases, the resources reviewed in this report are also evolving. Consequently, this report provides a ‘snapshot’ review at a given point in time.

The first edition of this report was published in October 2013; this second version has been revised and updated to include new materials that have since been released.