The Independent Evaluation of SDC’s Engagement in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, 2015-2020 has just been published by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It was led by Julian Caldecott, with Warren Olding as senior expert and inputs by Tino Smaïl, Mariam Hamad, Daniel DiMarzo and Julia Schwarz of Particip GmbH, as well as by national consultants Dominica Chingarande (Zimbabwe), Lidija Fajdiga (North Macedonia and Kosovo), Pankaj Kumar (India), Marina Marill (Perú) and Mario Zenteno (Bolivia). The evaluation ranged across SDC’s whole climate portfolio, and took a system-level view on major patterns, lessons and opportunities. It was based on: (i) a Portfolio Study to describe key patterns in SDC climate change expenditure; (ii) a Design and Performance Study to assess design quality, performance (effectiveness, impact and sustainability) and transformative potential among a sample of 31 climate change projects; and (iii) a Capacity and Partnership Study to examine the strengths and weaknesses of SDC’s key delivery mechanisms.

Considering the rapid pace of global environmental change, the SDC Senior Management Team noted that: “The evaluation is an important piece of evidence that SDC has developed a portfolio of projects that benefit both people and the planet. The evaluators highlighted in particular the suitability of initiatives building on locally adapted and owned solutions for sustainable development challenges (what the evaluators refer to as ‘nature and community based solutions’ approach). This approach is not only considered to be highly effective, but also has a significant transformative potential. The SDC’s senior management is committed to build on this strength and continue the investment in projects that apply a nature- and community-based solution approach, alongside the continuation of selected regional and global endeavours. The significance of potential of co-benefits is considered as an important insight that proves that investment decisions between poverty reduction and climate change adaptation/mitigation should not be seen as a zero-sum game.”