How are climate actions evaluated? A review of United Nations food security evaluations

Abstract

Established in Article 14 of the Paris Agreement, countries must evaluate progress toward climate adaptation, mitigation, and financial goals via the 2023 global stocktake. Yet, the extent of climate integration into evaluation in response to the rapidly approaching stocktake mandate remains unclear. Many United Nations agencies recognize the importance of mainstreaming climate action into food security and broader development programming, which presents an opportunity to learn from experiences documented in United Nations food security evaluation reports. Our goal is to examine how United Nations food security programs are evaluating climate action. Using a systematic search and screening process, we included evaluations that described any aspect of food security, evaluated completed programs, and were published between 2014 and 2019. We examined the extent of climate change mainstreaming into food security evaluation by developing and applying an assessment rubric. We also identified, compared, and characterized evaluation challenges and opportunities using thematic analysis. Of the 136 relevant evaluations, 69% (n = 94) assessed food security programs that integrated climate action. While many evaluations reported adaptation outcomes, considerations of climate action in the evaluation approach were often insufficient. Based on our analysis, challenges to climate evaluation included inadequate resource allocation, weak monitoring and evaluation systems, dependency on food security evaluation, and limited climate focus in programs and evaluations. The assessment rubric provides a tool for understanding and encouraging climate change integration into evaluation, and through this, helps countries prepare for the upcoming global stocktake.