Earth Today | Adaptation Fund launches Evaluation Policy at COP28

THE ADAPTATION Fund recently hosted a ceremony to officially launch its Evaluation Policy, adopted by its board in April 2022 and which came into force in October 2023.

As the Evaluation Policy is a key fund-wide policy, a special launch ceremony was organised in early December at the joint Climate Funds Pavilion at the global climate talks (COP28) held in Dubai between November 30 and December 12.

The event was opened by the head of the Adaptation Fund, Mikko Ollikainen, who emphasised the value of evaluations as a tool for learning and accountability and as a key factor for informed decision-making in future adaptation programming.

The opening remarks were followed by a short presentation by the chair of the Technical Evaluation Reference Group of the Adaptation Fund, Debbie Menezes, who detailed the overall approach of the policy and its implications to implementing entities. She also emphasised that the entry of the policy into force marks the transition from a compliance approach to evaluations to a ‘value-generation approach’.

Menezes further explained that the policy implementation will be accompanied by trainings for implementing entities, as well as by a series of guidance notes, some of which are already available on the Adaptation Fund here.

The presentations were followed by a question and answer session; and a reception attended by representatives of Adaptation Fund implementing entities and numerous other stakeholders.

The Adaptation Fund has since 2010 committed more than US$1 billion for climate change adaptation and resilience projects and programmes across the developing world.