The Adaptation Forum was scheduled to have taken place within the 6th Adaptation Futures Conference that was scheduled in New Delhi from 29 September to 1 October 2020. Due to current travel restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been postponed.

This 3-hour event, co-organized by the UNFCCC Adaptation Committee (AC), UNDP/UNEP NAP Global Support Programme and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), will look at the topic of adaptation monitoring and evaluation (M&E) from different angles in three thematically different, though related, sessions:

Part I: Sharing existing knowledge and tools on measuring progress of adaptation actions

M&E of progress made by adaptation interventions is the final step of the process to formulate and implement national adaptation plans, as well as adaptation strategies, programmes and actions at different levels, including under the UNFCCC process. The Adaptation Committee will share insights from previous work undertaken under the UNFCCC on M&E, including on measuring adaptation progress in vulnerable groups, communities and ecosystems. The session will highlight additional perspectives and dimensions of M&E, focused on exchanging knowledge and tools on measuring progress of adaptation with a view to contributing national capacity to respond to the new possibilities emerging from the Katowice Conference.

Part II: Communicating M&E results

M&E of adaptation is not conducted as an intellectual exercise – it is intended to inform future adaptation interventions and thereby improve the capacity of communities, businesses, and governments to mount effective responses to the changing climate. To have this effect, the results of M&E efforts must be communicated to different stakeholders in a meaningful and understandable way. Governments, agencies, and other actors who have carried out M&E can reflect on their experiences of explaining the results, including offering insights on questions such as: How can we effectively tailor our communications about adaptation M&E to different groups? What are challenges and what are techniques that have succeeded?

Part III: Masterclass on monitoring and evaluation of adaptation action

a) M&E of Adaptation Projects (GIZ)

This will offer a learning experience on the design and development of results-based monitoring systems at project level, applying a five-step approach developed by GIZ. The masterclass is addressing representatives of governments, other bilateral and multilateral donors and NGOs engaged in planning and implementing adaptation projects. Practice examples from GIZ will be featured to facilitate the participants’ understanding of the context specificities of M&E systems.

b) M&E of adaptation at different scales- experiences, implications and lessons for practitioners / UNDP-UNEP National Adaptation Plan Global Support Programme (NAP-GSP)

M&E of adaptation depends upon institutional context, level of governance and scale at which adaptation is happening – national, sectoral and local.  This masterclass is an interactive session geared towards providing examples of real cases of adaptation M&E at national and sub-national levels with opportunities for reflection. It will present an example on the design and development of a results-based monitoring framework for an urban ecosystem-based adaptation initiative, and a framework for assessing the status of adaptation, sharing results from Asia and the Pacific and others. It will highlight an example of a national level M&E effort in agriculture and reflect on the implications for a long-term systems change that is required.

Outcomes:

Participants will learn about the work of the UNFCCC and its Adaptation Committee on adaptation M&E. It will hear about effectively communicating M&E results to different audiences and explore new perspectives and tools to successfully measure M&E progress in practice.