Measuring Progress in Adapting to a Changing Climate

Guidance for case study structure

Adaptation policy context

• Overview of adaptation as a policy priority (providing short historical context) and main national adaptation policies (key strategies and documents such as NAS, NAP, NDC and sectoral);

• Brief characterisation of responsibility for designing, implementing and reporting on adaptation policies at national level, across sectors, and at sub-national levels of government

• Brief characterisation of whether and how policy objectives are formulated (quantitatively, qualitatively, on a sectoral level, disaggregated to local level, etc.)

• What informs national priority setting process and how? (hazard, risk assessments, or similar)

  • Hazard assessment: definition; types of climate hazards are assessed; level of downscaling and coverage; frequency of updates;

  • Vulnerability, exposure, risk assessments: definition, types of risks assessed; level of downscaling and coverage; frequency of updates;

  • Other: description of other key characteristics of the risk assessment process (including on how it has evolved, if several iterations have been conducted)

• Discussion of strengths and challenges, such as: how well has the actual hazard/risk assessment informed priority setting process? Can this be improved, and how? How clearly have objectives been formulated in the main policy documents? Can this be improved, and how?

Measuring progress in implementing adaptation policies

• Overview of main approaches/efforts to measure progress in implementing adaptation policies/adaptation measures,

  • Description of main approaches/efforts

• Characterise what gets measured and how (i.e. indicators1 or other)?

• Institutional arrangements

  • What is the role of the lead ministry in steering the measurement process?

  • What is the role of other actors at national and subnational levels? How do national and subnational actors interact?

  • What is the role of non-government actors, if any?

• Characterise the process to determine indicator (or other measurement type) selection, including:

  • Who decides and how and on the basis of what objectives?

  • Do they apply to specific sectors?

  • Is data availability the key criterion for selecting an indicator or is the criterion itself the objective and on that basis the data collection is strengthened?

• Characterise the data collection method underlying the indicators or other:

  • Responsibility for information collection, reporting process, reporting frequency and method, etc

• Information sharing

  • Are there central repositories sharing information that gets collected?

  • If so, how frequently are there updated? How easily accessible are they?

• Opportunities and challenges: Discussion of country experience in establishing indicators and data collection processes; description of current strengths and weaknesses; discussion of specific measurement challenges such as uncertainty.

Use of adaptation data & indicators for measuring implementation progress and effectiveness

• Do collected data & indicators inform policy decisions at different levels of government and across sectors? If so how?

• What role do collected data & indicators play in informing project appraisals of specific adaptation measures (including in CBA’s, CEA’s, MCA’s or similar)? Are different data sets generated for such appraisals?

  • Characterise the use of methods, data and indicators to appraise different types of adaptation measures?

  • What types of adaptation measures get evaluated based on project appraisal methods (e.g. physical measures or organisational measures (e.g. changes in planning prescriptions, or similar))?

  • What are the challenges posed in the appraisal process?

• Do collected indicators inform (causal) impact evaluations, i.e. the effect of implementation of adaptation policies on the reduction of certain climate related risks? If so, could you characterise when and how and by whom such studies are carried out and what relevance they have in policy making?

• Use of nationally collected data to report on internationally agreed objectives/commitments

  • How does collected information feed into SDG, Sendai Framework reporting, if at all?

• Discussion of opportunities and challenges

Note

← 1.  The bullets below are examples of categories for indicators, which can be different in different country practices.

• Adaptive capacity (e.g. capacity of exposed individuals, systems or institutions to adjust or cope with potential impacts from climate change) (e.g. percentage of communities with local building code regulations integrating adaptation requirements

• Adaptation process (Implementation of strategies and plans through policy action or allocation of financial and human resources (inputs) (e.g. percentage of transport infrastructure revised to account for climate change)

• “Intermediate” outcomes (results of adaptation policies and plans on climate risks (e.g. increase in the water supply coverage of previously water deprived communities)).

• Others.