Do governments track the implementation of national climate change adaptation plans? An evidence-based global stocktake of monitoring and evaluation systems

Highlights: • More than 60% of countries that adopted a national adaptation plan (NAP) are not tracking its implementation. • 23 countries have published a NAP implementation report and 15 have undertaken a NAP evaluation, almost twice as many as 2017. • Almost 40% of countries reporting on NAP implementation are developing countries but only three are Least Developed Countries. • The number of countries engaged in developing or using mechanisms to track NAP implementation has increased by 40% since 2017. • NAP M&E systems support reporting on adaptation progress under the Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement. Although over 70 countries adopted a national climate change adaptation plan (NAP), little is known about the extent to which these plans are implemented. NAP monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems can play an important role in tracking implementation but have rarely been studied. Based on a systematic review including outreach to country representatives and international organizations, a comprehensive inventory of NAP M&E systems is compiled documenting government practices from over 60 countries. In contrast to previous studies, this stocktake does not rely on stated intentions of M&E but requires evidence such as monitoring and evaluation reports. The extent of NAP M&E involvement globally and countries' respective status are determined and compared to a baseline from the 2017 Adaptation Gap Report of the United Nations Environment Programme. Results show a 40% increase in the number of countries that are developing or using NAP M&E systems and almost a doubling of published NAP evaluations. However, over 60% of countries that adopted a NAP do not systematically assess its implementation, leaving a critical gap in understanding the impacts of NAPs. These findings support calls for greater attention to the quality of adaptation planning and for assessing its implementation and effectiveness.