Number of beneficiaries as an indicator for adaptation: do the numbers add up?

Abstract

Like any other climate fund, the GCF faces the difficulty to measure the results and effectiveness of the adaptation projects it supports (see UNFCCC, 2019). The GCF’s current core indicators to track adaptation impacts are the expected ‘total number of direct and indirect beneficiaries‘ and ‘the number of beneficiaries relative to total population’ (GCF, 2014). However, the six projects that were approved at Board Meeting 25 in Geneva in March (FP124-FP128 and SAP013) use different methods and underlying assumptions to identify the number of direct and indirect ‘beneficiaries’. The GCF‘s project portfolio demonstrates wide diversities across projects in terms of the numbers of beneficiaries and the characteristics of such benefits. This raises the question how meaningful the indicator is. In the context of the GCF’s current efforts to update and improve its Results Management Framework, this GCF Monitor analyses the ‘number of beneficiaries’ and its underlying sub-indicators in the GCF’s current project portfolio.