Monitoring & Evaluation
National-level adaptation M&E
Effectively managing adaptation to climate change at national level requires an understanding of whether adaptation is taking place and what the outcomes of adaptation are. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) can support government and non-government organisations in assessing the results of their adaptation efforts and tracking progress towards climate resilient development. GIZ has developed a number of support tools to inform the development of national adaptation M&E systems:
A guidebook for the development of (sub)national adaptation M&E systems
Description
Target Group: Policy-makers and technical advisors involved in the development of (sub)national adaptation M&E systems
Type of resource: Step-by-step guide

A Guidebook to develop national Adaptation M&E Systems (GIZ & IISD 2015)
Développer des systèmes nationaux de suivi et évaluation de l’adaptation : guide méthodologique (GIZ & IISD 2015)
Desarrollo de Sistemas Nacionales de Monitoreo y Evaluación de la Adaptación: una Guía (GIZ & IISD 2015)
An overview and analysis of national adaptation M&E systems
A Factsheet series about national adaptation M&E systems has been updated in 2017. Each factsheet is describing the national adaptation M&E system in detail including the institutional arrangements, the M&E method and the data and indicators used. The intention is to make national adaptation M&E systems more tangible and illustrate how they can be designed.
The factsheets are available in English, French and Spanish.
The series builds on an initial study from 2014, which you can find below.
Target Group: Individuals involved or interested in national adaptation M&E systems

Downloads:
Comparative analysis of 10 adaptation M&E systems at the national level (8.4 MB)
This report presents a comparative analysis of 10 existing national adaptation M&E systems and a factsheets for each to quickly grasp and learn from these cases.
Seguimiento y Evaluación de la Adaptación a Niveles Agregados: Un Análisis Comparativo de Diez Sistemas (8.8 MB)
Spanish Translation of the Comparative Analysis of ten national Adaptation M&E Systems
Suivre et évaluer l’adaptation au changement climatique à haut niveau (9.4 MB)
French Translation of the Comparative Analysis of ten national Adaptation M&E Systems
Systematic collection of adaptation indicators of national-level adaptation M&E systems
Description
- climate parameters
- climate change impacts
- adaptation actions
- adaptation results
The examples have been taken from currently proposed national adaptation M&E systems (i.e. they reflect the first generation of indicators). For each indicator, its adaptation relevance, limitations, data needs and sources are described.

Target Group: Individuals involved or interested in national adaptation M&E systems
Type of resource: Repository of indicators
Downloads:
Repository of adaptation indicatots at national level (PDF) – GIZ 2014 (1.6 MB)
Illustrative repository of adaptation indicators including their application context from numerous countries. It includes an identical Excel file as attachement.
Repository of adaptation indicators at national level (Excel) – GIZ 2014 (193.4 KB)
Excel file of the repository (Content identical to the PDF version)
Repositorio de Indicadores de Adaptación – GIZ 2014 (1.6 MB)
Spanish Translation of the Repository of Adaptation Indicators
An approach to monitor climate resilience at the national level
Description
The discussion paper suggests two approaches for an assessment: defining (proxy) indicators for each dimension of each capacity or employing household surveys. A list of generic indicators with global data availability is provided, although applications need to be tailored to the needs and objectives of each country.

Type of resource: Conceptual framework, repository of indicators
Downloads:
Assessing and Monitoring Climate Resilience (2.6 MB)
Assessing and Monitoring Climate Resilience. Discussion paper.
Assessing and Monitoring Climate Resilience – List of Indicators – GIZ 2014 (109.8 KB)
Valoración y Seguimiento de la Resiliencia Climática (1.8 MB)
Un Documento de Debate. (Spanish Translation of “Assessing and Monitoring climate resilience”)
An approach to assess capacities for implementing NDCs
Description
If you have questions or comments on the SNAP tool please contact Nikola.Rass@giz.de or Till.Below@giz.de
Target Group: NAP focal points, technical support units for NAP, donor agencies, organisations supporting NAP planning, and the wider public interested in the NAP process

Downloads
SNAP: Stocktaking for National Adaptation Planning – Assessing Capacity for Implementing NDCs (English)
The following presents a number of further resources on adaptation M&E with a particular focus on applications at the national level.
IIED’s Tracking Adaptation and Measuring Development (TAMD) approach focuses on monitoring climate risk management (institutions, policies, capacities) as well as adaptation and development outcomes. Scorecards can be used to tailor indicators to the respective context. TAMD has been applied in several countries at national and community level. The Government of Cambodia, for instance, has decided to use TAMD for its national adaptation M&E framework. GIZ has partnered with IIED to develop sector specific indicators in Cambodia for health, agriculture and transportation. The Cambodian M&E framework and sector indicators are described in a detailed report from 2015. All TAMD resources, including a step-by-step guide, are available on IIED’s website.
UKCIP, as part of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, has developed a synthesis of tools, frameworks and approaches for the monitoring & evaluation for climate change adaptation and resilience (2014). It also has published guidance notes related to M&E of adaptation: Twelve reasons why climate change adaptation M&E is challenging, Selecting indicators for climate change adaptation programming, Theory of Change approach to climate change adaptation programming.
In 2015 the online community of practice Climate-Eval published a good practice study on “Principles for Indicator Development, Selection, and Use in Climate Change Adaptation Monitoring and Evaluation”.
In relation to the German Adaptation Strategy, Germany’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA) developed an indicator system (English Summary: p. 1-15) to monitor climate change impacts and adaptation responses. The monitoring system is also described in this factsheet as part of GIZ’s comparative analysis study of adaptation M&E systems. The first adaptation monitoring report based on the indicator system was published in 2015 (currently only available in German).
The OECD published a report on methodological challenges of adaptation M&E in 2014 and a report on early practices of national adaptation M&E systems including case studies of Germany, Kenya and the Philippines (complementary to the study by GIZ).
The European Environment Agency published an overview of adaptation M&E efforts by its European member countries in December 2015. The report has been presented alongside the GIZ national adaptation M&E guidebook at the Adaptation Futures Conference in May 2016 in Rotterdam.
In 2013 the Adaptation Committee under the UNFCCC conducted a workshop on monitoring and evaluation of adaptation at national level. The workshop report and presentations can be found here.
The journal New Directions for Evaluation published a special issue in 2015 on adaptation M&E including an article on how to link national and subnational adaptation M&E Systems.