Chapter 6
An Analytical Framework for Evaluating
a Diverse Climate Change Portfolio
Michael Carbon
Abstract The Climate Change Sub-programme (CCSP) of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) has four components: Adaptation, Mitigation,
REDDþ and Science and Outreach. It cuts across all UNEP divisions located in
Nairobi and Paris, and relies a lot on partnerships to drive its work and scale up its
impact. The CCSP evaluation conducted by the UNEP Evaluation Office over the
period 2013–2014, aimed at assessing the relevance and overall performance of the
CCSP between 2008 and 2013. The complexity, geographical spread and rather
weak results framework of the CCSP, coupled to rather limited evaluation resources
and a shortage of evaluative evidence, required the Evaluation Office to develop an
innovative analytical framework and data collection approach for this evaluation. It
combined three areas of focus (strategic relevance, sub-programme performance
and factors affecting performance), five interlinked units of analysis (UNEP corporate, sub-programme, country, component and project level), a Theory of Change
approach and an appropriate combination of data collection tools. This chapter
discusses the overall evaluation approach and process, followed by a summary of
lessons learned which could be useful for future similar exercises.
Keywords Programme evaluation • Complex evaluation • Theory of change •
Climate change • UNEP
6.1 Introduction
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been working on
climate-related issues for more than 20 years,
1 but UNEP has a formal Climate
Change Sub-programme (CCSP) only since the Medium-Term Strategy (MTS) for
M. Carbon (*)
Evaluation Office, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
e-mail: michael.carbon@outlook.com
1 UNEP 2010, Climate Change Strategy for the UNEP Programme of Work 2010–2011. Web link:
http://www.unep.org/pdf/UNEP_CC_STRATEGY_web.pdf
© The Author(s) 2017
J.I. Uitto et al. (eds.), Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable
Development, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43702-6_6
95
An Analytical Framework for Evaluating
a Diverse Climate Change Portfolio
Michael Carbon
Abstract The Climate Change Sub-programme (CCSP) of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) has four components: Adaptation, Mitigation,
REDDþ and Science and Outreach. It cuts across all UNEP divisions located in
Nairobi and Paris, and relies a lot on partnerships to drive its work and scale up its
impact. The CCSP evaluation conducted by the UNEP Evaluation Office over the
period 2013–2014, aimed at assessing the relevance and overall performance of the
CCSP between 2008 and 2013. The complexity, geographical spread and rather
weak results framework of the CCSP, coupled to rather limited evaluation resources
and a shortage of evaluative evidence, required the Evaluation Office to develop an
innovative analytical framework and data collection approach for this evaluation. It
combined three areas of focus (strategic relevance, sub-programme performance
and factors affecting performance), five interlinked units of analysis (UNEP corporate, sub-programme, country, component and project level), a Theory of Change
approach and an appropriate combination of data collection tools. This chapter
discusses the overall evaluation approach and process, followed by a summary of
lessons learned which could be useful for future similar exercises.
Keywords Programme evaluation • Complex evaluation • Theory of change •
Climate change • UNEP
6.1 Introduction
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been working on
climate-related issues for more than 20 years,
1 but UNEP has a formal Climate
Change Sub-programme (CCSP) only since the Medium-Term Strategy (MTS) for
M. Carbon (*)
Evaluation Office, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
e-mail: michael.carbon@outlook.com
1 UNEP 2010, Climate Change Strategy for the UNEP Programme of Work 2010–2011. Web link:
http://www.unep.org/pdf/UNEP_CC_STRATEGY_web.pdf
© The Author(s) 2017
J.I. Uitto et al. (eds.), Evaluating Climate Change Action for Sustainable
Development, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43702-6_6
95