March 2015: The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Global Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation (PROVIA) have launched an initiative to strengthen the scientific basis for measuring, monitoring and evaluating adaptation.

The initiative includes a number of commissioned papers that explore different aspects of monitoring and evaluation (M&E): the M&E of programmatic and institutional interventions; establishing two-way linkages between project-level indicators and national-level outcomes; drawing lessons from M&E of development interventions for climate change adaptation; and addressing the data and information needs of M&E.

Zero-order drafts of these papers were presented at a workshop held in Mumbai, India, from 22-24 January 2015. The workshop and draft papers resulted in several messages: an important tool for establishing the validity and value of adaptation interventions, M&E often faces barriers due to under-investment and lack of commitment from stakeholders, while there is a need to invest in M&E activities; learning has to be one of the main objectives of M&E systems, and it is important to recognize the role of failure, which can be useful for learning; and M&E of projects needs to evolve into building M&E systems at the national level, with country-based M&E systems tracking progress and outcomes of adaptation interventions that will need to be mainstreamed into M&E of development interventions.

The commissioned papers are expected to be published in the form of a technical report by early summer 2015. The initiative is intended to support multilateral funding agencies, such as the GEF and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), as well as countries as they move towards scaled-up action on adaptation.

The PROVIA Secretariat is hosted by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). [PROVIA March 2015 Newsletter] [STAP Website] [PROVIA Website]