Linking Monitoring & Evaluation for CSA to the SDGs – synergies vs. trade-offs among CSA pillarsDay 3 – 10th Oct | 14:00 – 15:30Ixora room

Brief Description

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is fundamental for tracking progress of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) initiatives toward food security, productivity, resilient livelihoods, climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives and adaptive management of projects and programs. Many actors are currently implementing CSA initiatives using different M&E frameworks and indicators. A substantial portion of international funding for climate change in the agriculture sector is channeled through CSA investment programs financed by multilateral development banks and the private sector. CSA can also contribute to a multitude of SDGs and features in many Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). There is a great need to align the indicators and M&E frameworks of major donors with those of the international agreements. It would greatly benefit countries in their domestic and international reporting if frameworks for M&E were harmonized. In practice, however, many issues arise: technical capacity, misalignment among institutions, double counting, etc. For countries, this is exacerbated by the reporting burden under multiple global agreements, such as the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Countries need coherent CSA M&E frameworks that meet multiple goals. There is hence great potential to align CSA M&E frameworks to the reporting under the global agreements, in particular on the SDGs, and to strengthen institutional capacity to meet demands for accountability to nationally defined CSA objectives and internationally agreed climate and development objectives.

The side event will focus on the question of how to measure synergies vs. trade-offs among CSA pillars, and in turn how this outcome (the assessment of the trade-offs among pillars) affects the decisions made on courses of action (selection of CSA practices/activities) and thus the contribution of these activities to the SDGs. This will of course vary depending on the way a given CSA practice/activity and its contributions to each dimension of sustainability are weighted, and the way the synergies/trade-offs are calculated. (The objective is to eventually develop a practical methodology to conduct this type of assessment.).

To explain: the three dimensions of sustainability are economic, social and environmental. In a sense, these all function within an overarching institutional/governance framework.

M&E is what informs the decisions made based on the assessment of synergies/trade-offs among these dimensions, which in the end influences the contributions to the SDGs based on the weights assigned and the contributions of each practice/activity.
Thus, the short presentations (5 minutes) at the start of the event would ideally address how their M&E frameworks look at synergies/trade-offs from an organizational, operational and/or design point of view.

We would then ask the audience 3 questions in order to inspire their thinking on how this might be done:

1. What are the economic synergies/trade-offs; how can these be assessed; to which SDGs do they link?
2. What are the social synergies/trade-offs; how can these be assessed; to which SDGs do they link?
3. What are the environmental synergies/trade-offs; how can these be assessed; to which SDGs do they link?

The side event intends to develop recommendations for harmonizing operational M&E frameworks for CSA at project level, and how these can be linked with countries’ national level efforts on monitoring progress towards the SDGs. Drawing on the cumulative expertise and experience of the conference participants, the event aims to collect and generate ideas for developing practical solutions to this challenge and what is needed to get there.

Background Documents:

Executive Summary Dare to Understand and Measure (DaTUM) Executive Summary.

Operational guidelines for the design, implementation and harmonization of monitoring and evaluation systems for climate-smart agriculture.

Climate-smart agriculture and the Sustainable Development Goals: Mapping interlinkages, synergies and trade-offs and guidelines for integrated implementation.