Strengthening Evaluation Capacity in Organisations to Improve Adaptation Outcomes

Evaluation is an essential part of climate change adaptation efforts; it can help stakeholders to improve their processes to produce better outcomes as well as to build legitimacy and trust among partners, facilitating collaboration. However, carrying out a process of evaluation depends on the evaluation capacity of organisations implementing and
participating in adaptation efforts. Drawing upon Climate Change Adaptation in Africa (CCAA)-supported projects, this paper looks at the challenges to and opportunities for
improving evaluation capacity in organisations.

This working paper provides a conceptual framing of evaluation and evaluation capacity building, underlining their role in climate change adaptation. It considers the challenges to effectively evaluating climate adaptation in Africa and to building related capacity within organisations, and makes suggestions for overcoming them based on the experience of CCAA projects. The paper draws lessons useful for building evaluation capacity around adaptation within African organisations and for cultivating an evaluative culture. In addition to their importance for adaptation, such capacity and culture are necessary to access and manage adaptation finance.