CLIMATE ADAPTATION WITH ENVIRONME
“I
t is the belief of many that a climate change adaptation intervention should be naturally good for the environment. It is assumed S. Nanthikesan that climate resilience is going to build environmental resilience. We have found that this is not always the case. Climate resilience may not always work towards environmental resilience without conscious efforts to marry them. The challenge is to achieve environmental, climate and economic resilience together”. S. Nanthikesan, Lead Evaluation Officer at the Independent Office of Evaluation (IOE) of IFAD, put this finding on the table during the event entitled ‘Integrating Environment into Evaluations’. The finding emerges from IOE’s recent Thematic Evaluation of IFAD Support to Smallholder Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change. In his intervention, Nanthikesan highlighted the thematic evaluation’s approach and methodology to assess the environmental sustainability of climate adaptation interventions and to analyse the complex nexus between human systems and ecosystems. Held on 16 November, the Evaluation Practice Exchange (EPE) learning event of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) was organized by the Working Group on integrating environmental and social impact in all development evaluations. The session was organized to take stock of the progress within the UN development system and to bring experiences from outside such as the ongoing work of the Footprint Evaluation initiative of the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI). Juha Uitto, Director of the Independent Evaluation Office at the Global Environment Facility (GEF), moderated the event which featured introductory remarks by Michael Spilsbury, Director of the Evaluation Office of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). S. Nanthikesan’s intervention was complemented by those of other high-level experts, including Johannes Dobinger, Chief of the Independent Evaluation Division of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), David Todd, technical specialist in evaluation for several UN evaluations and member of the UNEG Coordinating Committee, and Andy Rowe representing Footprint Evaluation. 46
