Page - (000100) - in Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable Development

Keywords Climate change • Swiss International Cooperation • Effectiveness • Measurement and reporting •Lessons 5.1 Introduction Astronger focus on results has become common among international development agencies over the last decade. This is also the case for Switzerland and its two development agencies, the SwissAgency forDevelopment andCooperation SDC1 (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs) and the State Secretariat for Economic AffairsSECO2(FederalDepartmentofEconomicAffairs,EducationandResearch). ForSDCandSECOit is important andofgreat interest to understandwhatworked and which interventions were effective, which interventions have not produced tangible results and what the reasons for success or failure are. Consequently, Switzerland regularly produces thematic Reports on the Effectiveness of the Swiss International Cooperation. Following effectiveness reports onWater (2008) and on Agriculture (2010),3 the third Report on Effectiveness (2014) was dedicated to Climate Change. Taking stock of results achieved in international cooperation on climatechangeisachallengingexercise.Onehas todealwithamassof information, a broad andhighly diverse portfolio and a variety of actors. The consultants had to build on poorly developedmethodologies and few internationally recognized stan- dards formeasuring climate changeadaptation.Theywere also confrontedwith the lackofexplicit climatebaselinedataand thedifficulties inattributing(andaggregat- ing) the effects ofmitigationmeasures toSwiss interventions. Informing theparlia- mentandthegreaterpublicontheresults inasynthesizedbutstill relevantmanneron thebasisofacomprehensiveandhighlytechnicalreportwasanotherdemandingtask. Themainreasonfor thosesignificantchallengeswas thefact that theassessment of the International Cooperation portfolio of 423 climate change relevant projects covering the timeframe 2000–2012, was a pioneer undertaking. Switzerland was oneof thefirst bilateral donors commissioning suchanassignment.Consequently, thisassessment isof specificoriginalityandcanbeconsideredasapioneerventure of a bilateral donor in putting the climate lens on a longstanding development cooperationportfolio. The authors’ perspective is that of a donor administration. In this chapter the results of the assessment are briefly presented. However, the chapter is mainly focused on the process and presents the lessons of commissioning and conducting thestocktakingon12yearsofSwissInternationalCooperationonClimateChange. It also presents lessons on how to improve the evaluability of climate change 1www.deza.admin.ch 2www.seco.admin.ch 3Available under https://www.eda.admin.ch/deza/de/home/resultate_und_wirkung/wirkungs-_ und_jahresberichte.html and http://www.seco-cooperation.admin.ch/themen/01033/01130/ 05122/index.html?lang¼en 82 M.EggerKissling andR.Windisch