Measuring the Effectiveness of Adaptation: Insights from IFAD and GEF Projects | CGIAR Climate Impact Platform Webinar #5

As the world inches closer to breaching the 1.5°C pre-industrial warming threshold, the urgency of adapting to climate change and mitigating its effects becomes increasingly critical. The agricultural sector, which contributes approximately one-third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is also one of the most vulnerable to climate impacts. The sector faces a dual challenge: reducing its own emissions while rapidly adapting to ensure food security.

Adaptation involves adjusting to actual or expected climate change and its effects, aiming to reduce the vulnerability of communities, ecosystems, and economies. This includes measures to cope with extreme weather, rising sea levels, and shifting
agricultural zones. Effective adaptation enhances resilience, enabling systems to withstand and recover from climate-related disruptions.

The question remains, are current adaptation efforts effective?

As global investments in adaptation projects grow, accurately measuring their effectiveness is crucial for informing policy and improving practices.

In this webinar, we will explore methodologies and tools used to measure adaptation effectiveness and resilience with insights from projects supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Our
speakers will share knowledge on tracking progress, identifying gaps, and refining strategies to enhance resilience in relation to the Global Goals on Adaptation.

Adaptation metrics are among the most significant constraints to scaling up adaptation by various actors, particularly those from the private sector. A collaboration between the International Fund for Agriculture Development and the Ministry of International Cooperation, the Government of Egypt is currently designing a resilience credit which establishes a new asset class to align public and private capital for investment into projects and businesses that address social, economic and environmental drivers of vulnerability, to increase the ability of households and communities to cope with or recover from the impacts of climate change. The resilience credit uses IFAD’s Ability to Recover index (ATR), which is already deployed across a portfolio of impact assessments and shows that tailor-made investments in value chains increased the resilience of more than 38 million people around the globe. Establishing transparent fit-for-purpose measurement approaches is critical for mobilizing resources toward climate adaptation goals in vulnerable communities. Dr. Jyotsna Puri, Associate Vice-President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department at IFAD, will discuss resilience credits. During the conversation, Dr Puri will present the thinking behind using the data and evidence-driven ATR index as the basis for monetizing resilience benefits and introduce the ecosystem in which market transactions for a resilience credit will operate.