Evidence Gap of Climate Change Adaptation in Low to Middle Income Countries

Overview

In the face of the predicted and actual severity of climate change, there is rising interest in understanding what works and what does not to increase the ability of human and environmental systems to adapt to climate change. A global overview of the evidence for adaptation actions has been lacking despite an increasing evidence base. The evidence gap map takes stock of the high-quality evidence related to the actions and outcomes of adaptation in low to middle-income countries. This enables adaptation actors to explore the findings and quality of the existing evidence on adaptation to facilitate evidence-based decision-making in the design and implementation of future adaptation projects. Results from the 464 included studies indicate large variations in evidence by region, sector, intervention, and outcome. Evidence on adaptation actions is concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Asia & Pacific. Evidence gaps are in Latin America & Caribbean, Middle East & North Africa, and Central Asia. Most of the evidence is concentrated in the agricultural sector; the largest evidence gap is the water sector. Nature-based solutions are the most studied adaptation actions, while actions related to policy and infrastructure are the least studied. The digital version of this evidence gap map presents the key results. It highlights the actions and outcomes of adaptation for which high-quality evidence exists and where there are evidence gaps. Systematic reviews in the online EGM are denoted by "(SR)", which precedes the publication title.

This work is a result of the collaboration of the Independent Evaluation Unit (IEU) of the Green Climate Fund and the German Institute for Development Cooperation (DEval) and has been financed by the aforementioned institutions.

The following individuals contributed to the creation of this work: Nathalie Doswald, Luis Sánchez Torrente, Andreas Reumann, Gerald Leppert, Kevin Moull, Jerónimo José Rocio Pérez, Alexandra Köngeter, Guido Fernández de Velasco, Sven Harten, and Jyotsna Puri.

Further details about this study can be found on the IEU's webpage: https://ieu.greenclimate.fund/evidence-review/adaptation