Measuring what matters: Understanding the role of metrics in measuring climate adaptation and resilience impact

In line with the dictum “What gets measured gets managed,” the use of appropriately designed metrics is recognised as an essential practice to track progress and assess impact of adaptation and resilience measures. It can provide evidence, improve transparency, help scale interventions and drive investment towards larger adaptation goals. Evaluation of initiatives can enable a better understanding of the factors and approaches that lead to successful outcomes, which can guide future efforts. However, since there are no universally acceptable standards for metrics or frameworks in assessing adaptation impact, practitioners were often face challenges in reflecting the impact of their work appropriately to the broader world.

This report presents the effort of Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA) member organisations to identify metrics commonly used to measure the success of initiatives, as well as alternative metrics used by them in cases where the data was deficient. Members acknowledged gaps and challenges in selecting metrics across different contexts, articulating the need for more pragmatic frameworks in impact assessment.