Guidebook for Monitoring and Evaluating Ecosystem-based Adaptation Interventions

The Guidebook for Monitoring and Evaluating Ecosystem-based Adaptation Interventions is a practical guide for planners and practitioners to better understand the outcomes and impacts of on-the-ground projects that work with and enhance nature to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on people (or ‘Ecosystem-based Adaptation’ –EbA).

The Guidebook describes key considerations and components for each step of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of EbA projects and points to additional tools and methodologies that can be used in specific circumstances. The guidebook is structured around the four steps identified for designing and rolling out an M&E process for EbA:

Step 1: Developing a results framework

Step 2: Defining indicators, baselines and targets

Step 3: Operationalising the monitoring and evaluation system

Step 4: Using and communicating the results

Throughout the different sections, the Guidebook refers to additional resources (e.g. tools, methodologies) that provide more detailed guidance, and uses examples from actual EbA interventions to illustrate how M&E has been applied on the ground.

The Guidebook should be consulted in the early stages of designing an EbA intervention to help clarify the logic underlying the measures, including the intended pathway of change. It can also be used if an intervention has already begun to help make improvements to the project logical framework and M&E systems, if these exist, or to develop them if they are not yet in place. This Guidebook is primarily aimed at practitioners and planners who design and implement EbA on the ground and who are interested in assessing and understanding the results of their interventions in relation to helping people adapt to climate change.

The Guidebook is a joint publication by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and Friends of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (FEBA) under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Guidebook was funded by the Global Project Mainstreaming EbA, implemented by GIZ on behalf of BMU IKI.