1st International Conference (2008)
From
to
Venue:
Alexandria, Egypt
The Global Environment Facility Evaluation Office (GEFEO) in partnership with Bibliotheca Alexandrina organized the international Conference on Evaluating Climate Change and Development on May 10 to 13, 2008 in Alexandria, Egypt.
The conference promoted the sharing of experiences in evaluating the often complex projects and programs aimed at the nexus between climate change and development. In particular, it focused on the way in which efforts to mitigate climate change or to adapt to changes are tied into, support and promote sustainable development. Evaluations that looked at institutional and policy changes, or address concerns of financial, economic and social sustainability, as well as environmental sustainability were the primary topics covered in the event. Mitigation of climate change has a relatively well established tradition and several areas of technological achievements, in reducing green house gas emissions, or the development of renewable energy sources. Adaptation to climate change, on the other hand, is a relatively new area of attention and is to some extent uncharted territory.
Participants presented good practices in evaluating mitigation and possibilities to evaluate adaptation policies and interventions in the future. A number of the presentations are now condensed in the World Bank publication Evaluating Climate Change and Development edited by Rob D. van den Berg and Osvaldo Feinstein. Also, more than 350 people expressed interest in joining a community of practice that would fulfill the networking and knowledge-sharing potential presented at the conference. post-conference survey to more than 500 professionals. Thus, in 2010, the Climate-Eval community of practice was formed.
Conference Agenda
May 10, 2008 (Pre-conference events)
Afternoon session on regional networking, Side-event focusing on Egypt. Banquet dinner and opening address speakers to officially begin the conference.
May 11, 2008 (First day)
Introductory overview presentation of issues: climate change & sustainable development. Experiences, current practices, and challenges in evaluations. Presentations of synthesis papers on the themes of the workshop. Further presentations and discussions in working groups. Open poster and booth sessions on workshop themes.
Keynote Address
- Rob D. van den Berg (Director, GEF Evaluation Office - GEF EO)
- Robert Picciotto (Visiting Professor, King's College, London; Former Director General, Evaluation, World Bank)
Evaluations on Cliamte change and Development & Emerging Practices and Challenges
- Siv Tokle (Global Environment Facility, Evaluation Office) "An Overview of Mitigation Evaluations"
- Marylyn Hedger (Institute for Development Studies - IDS) "An Overview of Adaptation Evaluations"
Meta-Evaluations Presentations
- Vinod Thomas (World Bank Independent Evaluation Group - IEG) "Evaluation Findings on Environment and Development"
- Alain Ries (French Development Agency - AFD / French GEF- FFEM) "Learning lessons from analysis of AFD/FFEM renewable energies and energy efficiency portfolio"
Current Evaluation in Adaptation and Mitigation
Four parallel subgroups which consist of short presentations and roundtable discussions, and/or panel debates. (with Session Manager and Rapporteur).
- Energy (Energy Policy & Renewable Energy)
- Urban Development (Energy Efficiency and Transport)
- Adaptation (Forests/Land Use & Agriculture/Water Use)
- Vulnerability (Natural Disasters, Human Development & Gender)
Third Day - May 13, 2008 (morning only)
Media event. Distinguished panel to offer various institutional perspectives, conclusions and next steps.
May 12, 2008 (Second Day)
Further presentations of synthesis papers on gaps and challenges, reporting to plenary discussion, identification of next steps. Open poster and booth sessions on workshop themes. Closing remarks.
Vignettes
Conference participants including development evaluators, researchers, and educators from all over the world share their impressions on climate change and development
Scoping Information
The Global Environment Facility Evaluation Office has commissioned scoping materials pertaining to on-going and completed evaluations of projects and programs for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Their purpose is to describe the current state of the evaluation field in international development, build a common understanding of how evaluations can benefit work on reducing the impacts of climate change, and identify the key areas that have yet to be addressed in terms of methodologies, indicators and results.
These materials are divided into three reports, which cover three different topic areas and include current practices as well as recommendations for the future:
- Monitoring and Evaluation of GEF Adaptation to Climate Change Projects - This piece is a review of adaptation projects implemented via the Global Environment Facility's Strategic Priority on Adaptation, the Special Climate Change Fund and the Least Developed Country Fund. It proposes a series of recommendations on how the GEF might develop and expand the scope of its evaluation work with an "M&E Framework for Adaptation".
- A Desk-Review: Evaluation of Adaptation to Climate Change from a Development Perspective. The paper aim is to present an overview of approaches relevant to or used for the evaluation of interventions intended to support adaptation to climate change and to identify main gaps in evaluation of adaptation interventions.
- A Meta-Evaluation of Adaptation and Natural Hazard Risk Management Projects: Results Assessment - This report proposes a framework for the meta-evaluation of adaptation efforts to deal with the growing impacts of climate change. It is based on evaluations of natural hazard risk programs, which served as proxies for adaptation programs, and extracts the lessons learned from a portfolio of case studies from the public and private sectors.
More studies will be featured in the Climate-Eval studies page.
Sponsors
The conference was generously sponsored by the GEF Council, the Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, the Federal Office for the Environment of Switzerland, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) of Germany, the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Netherlands, the The World Conservation Union (IUCN), International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Agence Française de Développement (AFD) French GEF and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The workshop is organized by the GEF Evaluation Office.
