Chapter 13
What Do Evaluations Tell Us About Climate
Change Adaptation? Meta-analysis
with a Realist Approach
Takaaki Miyaguchi and Juha I. Uitto
Abstract Evaluating climate change adaptation (CCA) interventions has yet
proved to be a difficult task, as they involve a number of different stakeholders,
time and geographical scale and political jurisdictions. As one effort to shed light
on the subject, this paper presents the methodology and the results of a metaanalysis of ex-post evaluations of CCA programmes using a realist approach. This
paper analyses CCA programmes in nine countries: Armenia, Egypt, Malawi,
Mozambique, Namibia, the Philippines, Tanzania, Turkey and Zimbabwe.
Together with their respective host governments, these programmes were
implemented by either UNDP or various United Nations partner agencies and
have already been evaluated by independent evaluators. Based on the analytical
frameworks for evaluating CCA interventions, the authors hypothesized a number
of key context, mechanism, and outcome configurations, which are considered vital
in realist evaluation approach but have not yet been widely tested in the field of
CCA. Although ex-post evaluations of multi-donor funded projects tend to be
prepared out of bureaucratic requirement, the analytical method used in this
paper, if used carefully, can unearth otherwise hidden important lessons and
provide useful explanations. The results of the analysis can indicate that adopting
a realist approach to complex development projects, such as these CCA
programmes, is indeed a useful way of providing applicable explanations, rather
than judgments, of what types of interventions may work for whom, how and in
what circumstances for future CCA programming.
Keywords Realist approach • Climate change adaptation • Meta-analysis
T. Miyaguchi (*)
Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan
e-mail: takaakinet@gmail.com
J.I. Uitto
Independent Evaluation Office, Global Environment Facility, Washington, DC, USA
e-mail: juitto@thegef.org
© 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_13
235
What Do Evaluations Tell Us About Climate
Change Adaptation? Meta-analysis
with a Realist Approach
Takaaki Miyaguchi and Juha I. Uitto
Abstract Evaluating climate change adaptation (CCA) interventions has yet
proved to be a difficult task, as they involve a number of different stakeholders,
time and geographical scale and political jurisdictions. As one effort to shed light
on the subject, this paper presents the methodology and the results of a metaanalysis of ex-post evaluations of CCA programmes using a realist approach. This
paper analyses CCA programmes in nine countries: Armenia, Egypt, Malawi,
Mozambique, Namibia, the Philippines, Tanzania, Turkey and Zimbabwe.
Together with their respective host governments, these programmes were
implemented by either UNDP or various United Nations partner agencies and
have already been evaluated by independent evaluators. Based on the analytical
frameworks for evaluating CCA interventions, the authors hypothesized a number
of key context, mechanism, and outcome configurations, which are considered vital
in realist evaluation approach but have not yet been widely tested in the field of
CCA. Although ex-post evaluations of multi-donor funded projects tend to be
prepared out of bureaucratic requirement, the analytical method used in this
paper, if used carefully, can unearth otherwise hidden important lessons and
provide useful explanations. The results of the analysis can indicate that adopting
a realist approach to complex development projects, such as these CCA
programmes, is indeed a useful way of providing applicable explanations, rather
than judgments, of what types of interventions may work for whom, how and in
what circumstances for future CCA programming.
Keywords Realist approach • Climate change adaptation • Meta-analysis
T. Miyaguchi (*)
Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan
e-mail: takaakinet@gmail.com
J.I. Uitto
Independent Evaluation Office, Global Environment Facility, Washington, DC, USA
e-mail: juitto@thegef.org
© 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_13
235