25 November 2011: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a working paper titled “Monitoring and Evaluation for Adaptation: Lessons from Development Cooperation Agencies,” which argues that monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks for adaptation should combine qualitative, quantitative and binary indicators, and which calls for complementing individual project and program evaluations with overall assessments of trends in the country’s vulnerability to climate change.

The Environment Working Paper, by Nicolina Lamhauge, Elisa Lanzi and Shardul Agrawala, analyzed 106 project documents involving six bilateral development agencies. The authors determined that results based management, the logical framework approach and the accompanying logframe are the most common M&E approaches used by development cooperation agencies to distinguish between outcomes, outputs and activities.

The authors write that their analysis found that the use of any single category of indicator for M&E frameworks for adaptation did not suffice, so they recommend combining qualitative, quantitative and binary indicators. The paper also recommends clearly defined baselines, milestones and targets that take into account the longer time horizon of potential climate change impacts and possible barriers to program or project success.

Drawing on a wider lesson from the M&E of other types of development interventions, the authors argue for linking individual project or program assessments with national level assessments to broaden the focus from the means of achieving outcomes (individual interventions) to the desired end result (making a country less vulnerable to climate change). [Publication: Monitoring and Evaluation for Adaptation: Lessons from Development Cooperation Agencies]