What we do

The Technical Evaluation Reference Group of the Adaptation Fund (AF-TERG) works on improving the quality and effectiveness of the Adaptation Fund work through three functions: evaluation generation, evaluation utilization, and evaluation capacity building. We are an independent evaluation advisory group directly reporting to the Adaptation Fund Board and responsible for the independent implementation of the Fund’s Evaluation Policy.

Our functions include:  

  1. Generation of evaluations – Facilitating the generation of quality, useful evaluations via three responsibilities:
    • Management responsibility: Independently manage, commission, and oversee evaluations included in the Board-approved work programme at the Fund and strategic levels. Report to the Board on lessons, findings, conclusions, and recommendations from relevant evaluation reports. 
    • Advisory responsibility: Develop draft guidance, templates, and other evaluation resources for Board approval to support and operationalize the Evaluation Policy and uphold a reliable, timely, and useful evaluation function that contributes to the Fund’s mission and vision. Also, conduct evaluation capacity development to support evaluation and learning across the Fund. 
    • Oversight responsibility: Provide quality assurance over the evaluation function at the Fund, and track implementation of Board decisions related to evaluation recommendations. This includes advising the Board in its efforts to incorporate evaluation findings and recommendations into policies, strategies, and procedures. 

2. Evaluation utilization – Support relevant knowledge management functions of the Fund to ensure that evaluative evidence is available and encouraged across the Fund. In addition to sharing insights from individual evaluations; synthesize and present to the Board any key lessons from strategic evaluations and targeted evaluation syntheses for the improvement of the Fund’s performance and the climate change adaptation (CCA) capacities of its partners; report to the Board on incorporation of lessons and recommendations from strategic-level evaluations as they relate to the AF-TERG’s functions.

3. Evaluation capacity development – Update the Fund’s evaluation knowledge, capacity development, and evaluation utilization to position the Fund at the forefront of evaluation innovation and adaptation practice; optimize the Fund’s effectiveness via continuous improvement in learning and reinforce the Fund’s reputation and relevance as a thought leader in global climate adaptation efforts; in close collaboration with the Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat and implementing entities (IEs), develop Fund evaluation guidance that is relevant and user-friendly; pursue local institution-building, decision-making, learning, and accountability; ensure evaluation guidance options for IEs’ continuous adaptive management learning; nurture networks and opportunities for South-South evaluation sharing of evaluation outcomes and evaluation techniques, and evaluation capacity exchange with other organizations with Climate Change Adaptation interests.

Evaluation utilization and evaluation capacity development are key functions of the AF-TERG. This means that in addition to generating evaluative evidence, we aim to ensure that the knowledge, lessons, and evidence reach the stakeholders for whom the evidence was generated. One way we do this is through outreach, in the form of presentations, articles, blogs, webinars, and events.

Lean more about our outreach here. 

For more information, read the AF-TERG Terms of Reference here. 

How we work

The following ten principles, derived from the AF-TERG strategy and work programme, guide the AF-TERG work.  

The Second Multiyear Work Programme (2024 – 2027) of the AF-TERG focuses on building partnership and creation of value and learnings for all Adaptation Fund stakeholders. It continues to build evidence through its main function, evaluation generation, with a growing emphasis on the new functions included in the revised AF-TERG ToR: evaluation utilization and evaluation capacity building.  

For more information on the AF-TERG current and previous work programmes click here.

How we maintain independence

The AF-TERG is comprised of an independent group of experts in evaluation, called the AF-TERG members, who are led by a Chair. The Manager of the Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat is also an ex officio member. The AF-TERG members act in their personal capacities, and do not represent their employers, governments or the Fund’s entities.  

The Board, through the Ethics and Finance Committee (EFC), oversees our performance, in a manner that does not infringe on the independence of the AF-TERG in terms of content and conclusions of evaluations.  

AF-TERG members are functionally independent from the Adaptation Fund Board secretariat, the Board and the Board committees. Our primary focal point within the AFB secretariat is the Manager who also participates in AF-TERG meetings as member ex officio, but does not oversee technical aspects of the AF-TERG’s work.

The AF-TERG is supported by a full-time AF-TERG Secretariat, led by a Secretariat Coordinator.

Meet the AF-TERG members and Secretariat here. 

Adaptation Fund Evaluation Policy

The Evaluation Policy of the Adaptation Fund is a Fund-wide policy that came into effect in October 2023.* The purpose of the Policy is to identify the fundamental expectations, processes, and protocols to support a reliable, useful, and ethical evaluation function that contributes to learning, decision-making, and accountability for the Adaptation Fund.  

The Evaluation Policy outlines the evaluation function for the Fund and its entities, and lays out the evaluation function’s goals, criteria, and principles. It also brings a more consolidated approach to stakeholder roles and responsibilities in relation to evaluation.  

Guidance notes on the Evaluation Policy are available here in English, Spanish and French. These aim to facilitate the implementation of this policy in line with the Fund’s strategic priorities. 

*From October 2023 all projects under implementation must comply with the Evaluation Policy.