What we do

The Technical Evaluation Reference Group of the Adaptation Fund (AF-TERG) is an independent evaluation advisory group, accountable to the Board, established to ensure the independent implementation of the Fund’s evaluation framework.

Specifically, the AF-TERG provides:

  1. Evaluation Function: Independently commission the evaluation of the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the Fund through its overall operation, including its supported projects and programs as well as implementing entities and report to the Board on lessons, findings, conclusions, and recommendations from relevant evaluation reports;
  2. Advisory Function: Set minimum evaluation standards within the Fund in order to ensure improved and consistent measurement of results;
  3. Oversight Function: Provide quality control of the minimum evaluation requirements and their practice in the Fund and track implementation of Board decisions related to evaluation recommendations. This includes providing advice to the Board in its efforts to incorporate findings and recommendations of evaluations into policies, strategies and procedures.

The AF-TERG will commission and oversee independent evaluations and relevant tasks on behalf of the Board and its Committees according to the evaluation framework, with administrative support from the AF-TERG Secretariat. As part of its advisory role the AF-TERG aims to develop guidance notes, synthesis reports, recommendation papers or any relevant document for consideration by the Board.

More information on the AF-TERG can be found in the group’s terms of reference (in annex III of the linked Adaptation Fund Board meeting report).

 

Completed work

The AF-TERG strategy and work programme was approved by the Board in June 2020 and takes a longer-term planning perspective covering FY21 to FY23 for the work items, and FY21 to FY22 budget-wise. The three-year planning timeframe of the work programme will allow the AF-TERG to consolidate its work approaches and modalities towards the intended intermediate and long-term outcomes outlined. It is also responding to the requests from the Board to review the Evaluation Framework of the Adaptation Fund and to carry out a mid-term and final evaluation of the Medium-Term Strategy of the Fund.

Three studies were commissioned in October 2019 and completed by May 2020.

  1. Evaluability assessment: This study assessed the evaluability of Adaptation Fund approved proposals and more precisely their performance and impact evaluability using different criteria and best practices in the field.
  2. Ex-post evaluation study: A mapping of ex-post practices in the evaluation field informed the development of a Fund specific approach to conduct ex-post evaluations, three to five years after project closure, focusing both on the human and natural systems.
  3. Innovative monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) for adaptation study: The aim of this study was to identify and assess innovative MEL practices in the climate adaptation space, using a rapid scan, search and appraise method, with the final step analyzing opportunities for using these MEL innovations in the Adaptation Fund environment.

The findings of the studies informed the multi-year strategy and work programme, as did consultations with the AFB Secretariat, Board, Board Committees, (N)IE key stakeholders and civil society, among others. The study reports will inform ongoing work and a synthesis of the studies’ findings is posted on the AF-TERG publications page.

An overview of completed work part of the implementation of the AF-TERG work programme is presented below:

  • Mid-term Review of the Medium-Term Strategy of the Adaptation Fund: The Mid-term Review focused on the Medium-Term Strategy and its Implementation Plan with the aim to (1) assess progress in the implementation, (2) inform adaptive management and (3) feed into the development of a future strategy. Click here for more information.

 

Ongoing work

An overview of ongoing and developing work part of the implementation of the AF-TERG work programme is presented below:

  • Continued consultations: Consultations with Board members, Implementing Entities, Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat staff and other key Fund stakeholders will continue to take place to get keep abreast of their needs and to inform the implementation of the work programme;
  • Review and Revision of the Adaptation Fund Evaluation Framework: The objectives of the review and revision are to (1) identify and propose necessary revisions to the Fund’s Evaluation Framework; and (2) produce a draft Evaluation Framework for the Adaptation Fund to be presented to and discussed with the Ethics and Finance Committee (EFC) of the Board for its consideration with a view to its subsequent approval by the Board;
  • Thematic evaluation on innovation: The topic of innovation was selected as one of three thematic evaluation topics. More will be added here in due course;
  • Thematic evaluation on accreditation and readiness: The topics of accreditation and readiness were selected as one of three thematic evaluation topics. More will be added here in due course;
  • Thematic evaluation on knowledge management and learning: The topics of knowledge management and learning were selected as one of three thematic evaluation topics. More will be added here in due course;
  • Foundational documents and processes: AF-TERG internal processes will be further clarified and streamlined, and the foundational documents that will guide our work, like the AF-TERG theory of change and work principles, will be reviewed and finalized as ‘living documents’.

More work elements will be added as the implementation of the work programme progresses, and outreach will take place through the AF-TERG social media channels..