Climate adaptation projects supported by LDCF and SCCF continue to deliver strong results across least developed countries, even as risks to sustaining those results intensify.
These funds operate in high-risk contexts where financing constraints, shocks, and institutional capacity shape long-term resilience. This evaluation fills a gap by examining whether recent project cohorts convert satisfactory completion ratings into durable outcomes, learning, and institutional change.
Projects in least developed countries face greater risks, financing constraints, and sociopolitical challenges that affect the likelihood of sustaining outcomes.
Evaluation overview
- Performance is stronger where projects demonstrate clear institutional commitments, effective stakeholder engagement, improved M&E design, and gender actions embedded at higher levels, including recovery from early implementation delays.
- Sustainability ratings continue a downward trend, driven by COVID-19 disruptions, weak exit strategies, unclear cofinancing arrangements, and gaps in baselines and indicators for measuring vulnerability reduction.
- Strengthen quality at entry, clarify cofinancing expectations, improve vulnerability indicators and baselines, formalize sustainability planning, and continue targeted support to address contextual risks in LDCs.
Methodology
The evaluation covers 44 completed LDCF and SCCF projects totaling $257 million, with $1.18 billion in cofinancing. The evaluation draws on a portfolio review and synthesis of terminal evaluations, analysis of outcomes, sustainability, gender, and vulnerability, and validation of Management Action Record progress.
