Chapter 5
Lessons from Taking Stock of 12 Years
of Swiss International Cooperation
on Climate Change
Monika Egger Kissling and Roman Windisch
Abstract A stronger focus on results achieved in international cooperation on
climate change has become common in the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation SDC (www.eda.admin.ch/sdc) and the State Secretariat for Economic
Affairs SECO (www.seco.admin.ch). In 2014 these agencies have commissioned
an assessment on the effectiveness of more than 400 of their climate change
interventions over the timeframe of 12 years (2000–2012). This paper presents the
methodological approach of the assessment and its results. In a second step and
most importantly, it summaries the challenges and lessons learnt of commissioning and conducting such a stock-taking exercise in the field of climate change.
These lessons are addressed to evaluators, practitioners and policy makers. In
general, the paper concludes that preparing such a report on the effectiveness of
the international cooperation in climate change is indeed a very challenging
exercise. More specifically, the paper argues that firstly many more efforts are
needed from evaluators to identify best methodological practices in dealing with
such a mass of information, the wide and highly diverse portfolio and a lack of
good quantitative and qualitative data. Secondly, practitioners need to invest more
in project design and in monitoring in order to provide accurate data as a basis for
sound assessment. Finally, policy makers should be well aware of the significant
investments needed for such assessments as an instrument of accountability. This
paper thus contributes to the debate among interested stakeholders on the need for
better results measurement and results reporting in international cooperation on
climate change.
M. Egger Kissling (*)
Evaluation and Corporate Controlling Division, Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation, Berne, Switzerland
e-mail: egger.consulting@bluewin.ch
R. Windisch
Quality and Resources Division WEQA, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO,
Berne, Switzerland
e-mail: roman.windisch@eda.admin.ch
© 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_5
81
Lessons from Taking Stock of 12 Years
of Swiss International Cooperation
on Climate Change
Monika Egger Kissling and Roman Windisch
Abstract A stronger focus on results achieved in international cooperation on
climate change has become common in the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation SDC (www.eda.admin.ch/sdc) and the State Secretariat for Economic
Affairs SECO (www.seco.admin.ch). In 2014 these agencies have commissioned
an assessment on the effectiveness of more than 400 of their climate change
interventions over the timeframe of 12 years (2000–2012). This paper presents the
methodological approach of the assessment and its results. In a second step and
most importantly, it summaries the challenges and lessons learnt of commissioning and conducting such a stock-taking exercise in the field of climate change.
These lessons are addressed to evaluators, practitioners and policy makers. In
general, the paper concludes that preparing such a report on the effectiveness of
the international cooperation in climate change is indeed a very challenging
exercise. More specifically, the paper argues that firstly many more efforts are
needed from evaluators to identify best methodological practices in dealing with
such a mass of information, the wide and highly diverse portfolio and a lack of
good quantitative and qualitative data. Secondly, practitioners need to invest more
in project design and in monitoring in order to provide accurate data as a basis for
sound assessment. Finally, policy makers should be well aware of the significant
investments needed for such assessments as an instrument of accountability. This
paper thus contributes to the debate among interested stakeholders on the need for
better results measurement and results reporting in international cooperation on
climate change.
M. Egger Kissling (*)
Evaluation and Corporate Controlling Division, Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation, Berne, Switzerland
e-mail: egger.consulting@bluewin.ch
R. Windisch
Quality and Resources Division WEQA, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO,
Berne, Switzerland
e-mail: roman.windisch@eda.admin.ch
© 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_5
81