July 2011: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a working paper entitled “Harmonising Climate Risk Management: Adaptation Screening and Assessment Tools for Development Co-operation,” which analyzes and makes recommendations on methodological tools to screen for climate change risks in development projects.

This paper, by Anne Hammill and Thomas Tanner, is based on extensive interviews with users as well as developers. It investigates the extent to which tools meet user needs and opportunities for streamlining them. Although the paper identifies three types of adaptation tools based on their primary functions (data and information provision tools, knowledge sharing tools, and process guidance tools), the paper focuses on the latter, which include both screening and assessment tools.

Among the paper’s main recommendations are that: the development community should increase partner country ownership of risk screening and assessment tools/processes; the gap between process guidance tools and data and information provision tools should be narrowed; guidance for users on how to move from analysis to action should be provided; and collaboration should be initiated on harmonizing guidelines. [Publication: Harmonising Climate Risk Management: Adaptation Screening and Assessment Tools for Development Co-operation]