Strategies for monitoring and evaluation of climate change adaptation: localizing global approaches into Andean realities

While there is increasing progress made at the global scale on understanding climate change (CC) impacts and implementing adaptation solutions, there is still a major gap in documenting and assessing the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems for CC adaptation. This is particularly challenging if we consider the diversity of local perceptions and interpretations of what CC adaptation concretely means and how to measure it. We evaluate how global approaches on M&E to CC adaptation are being localized in the design and implementation of public policies and territorial strategies for CC adaptation in the Andes in four national and local case studies in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The analysis is based on a review of the status of national programs for M&E of CC adaptation and the implementation in those countries of the project “Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts in Water Resources in the Andes” (AICCA). The M&E systems in the four case studies differed widely in the way in which global M&E approaches are localized, reflecting the diversity of conceptions, goals, strategies and contexts in which adaptation is being implemented as well as power relations among actors and scales. Despite the diversity of implementation contexts and the complexity of monitoring the responses of socio-ecological systems, the M&E proposals share a focus on biophysical indicators over sociopolitical and institutional indicators. In addition, this study emphasizes the need to further implement participatory M&E systems from the community, to improve the territorial articulation of M&E proposals in the Andean region.