Climate Adaptation Monitoring and Evaluation Training Course

Course overview

Climate adaptation programmes are increasingly expected to demonstrate more than activity delivery: they must show whether vulnerable groups are less exposed to climate hazards, whether adaptive capacity has improved, and whether investments remain effective as risks change. Programme teams often struggle with weak theories of change, indicators that measure outputs rather than resilience outcomes, incomplete baseline data, and reporting systems that cannot distinguish adaptation results from seasonal variation, market shifts, or wider development trends. This course addresses those practical monitoring and evaluation challenges.

Participants learn to design an adaptation-focused M&E system from results framework to evaluation use. They develop climate risk-informed theories of change, select outcome and proxy indicators, establish baselines and targets, build indicator reference sheets, plan disaggregated data collection, and assess contribution to adaptation outcomes. The course applies OECD DAC evaluation criteria and the IPCC AR6 risk framework to adaptation programmes in agriculture, water, urban resilience, livelihoods, and disaster risk reduction. Participants also practise analysing monitoring data in KoboToolbox and Microsoft Power BI, and communicating findings through decision-focused dashboards and learning products.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical sessions with worked examples, group design clinics, data-analysis exercises, and a multi-day adaptation programme case. Each participant develops a practical M&E package for a current or realistic climate adaptation intervention: a climate-risk-informed results framework, indicator matrix, baseline and sampling plan, data collection workflow, evaluation questions, and reporting dashboard specification. This deliverable can be refined and used directly in programme design, implementation, donor reporting, or an upcoming evaluation.

The course is designed for professionals who already work with development, humanitarian, resilience, or climate programmes and need to make M&E systems credible, useful, and proportionate to operational realities.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Construct a climate-risk-informed theory of change linking hazards, vulnerability, adaptation actions, and resilience outcomes
• Develop an adaptation results framework with outcome, output, process, and contextual indicators
• Write indicator reference sheets defining numerator, denominator, disaggregation, source, frequency, and data-quality checks
• Design a baseline, target-setting, and sampling plan for climate adaptation interventions
• Apply the IPCC AR6 risk framework to select indicators for exposure, vulnerability, hazard, and adaptive capacity
• Configure a KoboToolbox data collection form with skip logic, validation rules, and disaggregation fields
• Analyse adaptation monitoring data in Microsoft Power BI using trends, disaggregation, and contextual risk data
• Formulate OECD DAC-aligned evaluation questions and an evidence plan for assessing adaptation contribution

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Managers — who must build credible evidence systems for adaptation portfolios
• Climate Adaptation Programme Managers — who need to track whether interventions reduce risk and strengthen resilience
• Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction Specialists — who must translate climate-risk analysis into measurable programme outcomes
• Development and Humanitarian M&E Officers — who need adaptation-specific indicators, baselines, and evaluation approaches
• Donor-Funded Project Coordinators — who must meet results-reporting and learning commitments for climate finance
• Evaluation Consultants — who assess adaptation relevance, effectiveness, sustainability, and contribution to resilience outcomes

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with a project logframe or results framework and basic M&E concepts such as indicators, baselines, targets, data sources, and disaggregation. Experience working on development, humanitarian, disaster risk reduction, natural resource management, or climate programmes is strongly recommended. Participants should be comfortable working with tables in Excel or similar spreadsheet software; no advanced statistics, coding, GIS, or Power BI experience is required. The course introduces KoboToolbox form design and Power BI analysis at an applied level, so prior access to those tools is not required.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses short instructor-led inputs followed by design and analysis work on a continuing climate adaptation case. Participants critique real results frameworks, convert climate-risk findings into measurable pathways, draft indicator reference sheets, and build a KoboToolbox form. Small groups test sampling choices, review data-quality risks, and interpret a Power BI dashboard containing disaggregated outcome and hazard data. Facilitated peer review is used to challenge assumptions about attribution and equity. The final session is an application-planning clinic in which each participant completes an M&E package for workplace use.

Course outline

Day 1: Adaptation results and climate-risk pathways

• Climate adaptation, resilience, and vulnerability measurement distinctions
• IPCC AR6 risk framework: hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity
• Climate-risk-informed problem analysis
• Adaptation theory of change construction
• Assumptions, external factors, and maladaptation risks
• Outcome pathways for agriculture, water, livelihoods, and urban resilience
• Equity, gender, disability, and locally led adaptation considerations

Workshop: Participants construct a climate-risk-informed theory of change for a drought-resilient livelihoods programme and identify testable assumptions.

Day 2: Indicators, baselines, and monitoring architecture

• Adaptation output, outcome, and impact indicator selection
• Proxy indicators for adaptive capacity and resilience
• Indicator reference sheet design
• Baseline feasibility and secondary-data assessment
• Target setting under climate uncertainty
• Disaggregation by gender, age, disability, location, and livelihood group
• Monitoring plan, data flow, and reporting calendar

Workshop: Participants produce an indicator matrix and two completed indicator reference sheets for the case programme.

Day 3: Data collection and quality assurance

• Mixed-methods monitoring design for adaptation programmes
• Sampling frames, sample size logic, and panel versus repeated cross-sectional surveys
• Household survey questions for exposure, coping, and adaptive capacity
• Participatory monitoring methods and outcome harvesting
• KoboToolbox form design and XLSForm structure
• Skip logic, constraints, required fields, and validation checks
• Data-quality assessments, enumerator protocols, and safeguarding

Workshop: Participants build and test a KoboToolbox monitoring form with disaggregation fields, skip logic, and data-validation rules.

Day 4: Analysis, evaluation, and adaptation learning

• Data cleaning and analysis plan development
• Trend analysis against baseline, target, and seasonal context
• Contribution analysis for complex adaptation interventions
• OECD DAC evaluation criteria applied to climate adaptation
• Evaluation questions, evidence matrices, and mixed-methods triangulation
• Microsoft Power BI dashboard design for adaptation results
• Learning loops, adaptive management, and decision triggers

Workshop: Participants analyse a case dataset in Microsoft Power BI and draft an evidence matrix for a mid-term adaptation evaluation.

Day 5: Reporting and workplace application

• Interpreting results without overstating attribution
• Communicating uncertainty, limitations, and contextual shocks
• Adaptation dashboard narratives for programme management
• Donor reporting for climate adaptation and resilience results
• Evaluation findings, recommendations, and management responses
• M&E budget, staffing, and implementation risk planning
• Ninety-day adaptation M&E implementation roadmap

Workshop: Participants present a complete adaptation M&E package and receive peer and instructor feedback before finalising a 90-day implementation roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

KoboToolbox, Microsoft Power BI, OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria, IPCC AR6 risk framework

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions