16 October 2018: The UNFCCC Secretariat has published a report on the expert meeting on national adaptation goals/indicators and their relationship with the SDGs and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). The report highlights ways to enhance effective and functional adaptation monitoring and evaluation (M&E) on goals/indicators in collaboration with the SDGs and the Sendai Framework.

The report was considered by the 14th meeting of the Adaptation Committee (AC), which convened from 24-26 October 2018 in Bonn, Germany.

The AC, in its 2016‐2018 workplan, agreed to convene a meeting in 2018 to exchange views on national adaptation goals/indicators and the ways in which they relate to SDG and DRR indicators. The expert meeting, which met from 24-25 July in Tokyo, Japan, discussed the need for improved coherence regarding implementation and monitoring of progress on the post‐2015 agendas, namely the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Sendai Framework and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The report calls for linking data gathering and reporting systems for the SDGs, Sendai Framework and climate change adaptation.

More specifically, the expert meeting aimed to:

• exchange views on national adaptation goals/indicators and related data collection, M&E and reporting frameworks;
• inform Parties on options regarding such goals/indicators and their relationship to the global goal on adaptation;
• provide technical support and guidance on M&E of adaptation actions; and
• mobilize knowledge and experience for national adaptation planning and implementation processes.

The report, inter alia, underscores: individually defined approaches to measuring progress on adaptation and alignment of M&E systems with national adaptation objectives; and the multiple benefits of improved coordination, including a reduced reporting burden, improved political oversight and enhanced cost effectiveness of measures that cut across the three agendas.

In addition, the report discusses using the momentum associated with the SDGs to support mainstreaming adaptation and DRR into national-level strategies, and collaborative work among different government levels to link their M&E systems.

Going forward, the report recommends, inter alia: that the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC invite Parties and relevant stakeholders to strengthen linkages with the SDGs and the Sendai Framework; developing a user‐friendly format information product to disseminate meeting outcomes; and continuing, as part of the next Adaptation Committee’s work plan, work on national adaptation goals/indicators in relation to the SDGs and the Sendai Framework. The report also suggests enhancing technical capacity for data collection and assessment of adaptation, linking data gathering and reporting systems for the SDGs, the Sendai Framework and climate change adaptation, and linking sub-national and national M&E programmes. [Publication: Report on the Expert Meeting on National Adaptation Goals/Indicators and Their Relationship with the SDGs and the Sendai Framework for DRR]