Evaluation of Interventions for Climate Change Adaptation: Synthesis Report

With annual commitments of more than EUR 2 billion, Germany is currently one of the largest international donors for adaptation finance. Although the Federal Government achieves the majority of its financing objectives, there is an increasing international funding shortfall and clear potential to optimise German adaptation financing. This applies to support for especially climate-vulnerable countries and small island developing states in particular.

In particular, objectives in German development cooperation‘s priority areas, such as enhancing the enabling environment in the major adaptation-relevant sectors of agriculture and water and in the area of coastal protection, are barely achieved. Nature-based solutions and infrastructure interventions were found to be most effective for adaptation, ideally in combination with informational/educational interventions. In order to increase adaptation effectiveness, German development cooperation should increase the funding of these interventions.

Neither in the climate risks assessment nor in the design and implementation of interventions did German development cooperation apply the binding requirements for avoiding negative climate impacts caused by interventions, for exploiting beneficial opportunities arising from climate change and for increasing adaptive capacities. In order to strengthen the climate resilience of its partner countries, German development cooperation should implement adaptation mainstreaming effectively.

The evaluation was completed in 2023. This is a summary of the results and recommendations; you can find the complete results and recommendations in the report.