Climate Change Resilience and Adaptation

Disaster READY Project Phase Two – CARE Baseline Report (English)

The Disaster READY Project (DRP) is a five-year initiative (2022-2026), funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Australian Government, aimed at strengthening the capacity of communities, local civil society organizations, and government entities in Timor-Leste to effectively prepare for and respond to disasters while addressing climate change challenges. Implemented by five Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP) INGOs, including CARE, the project targets 20,729 individuals, with CARE focusing on 7,575 community members in Viqueque Municipality across several administrative posts. The baseline survey conducted in late 2022 involved 141 community members, including individuals with disabilities, and aimed to assess knowledge of disaster preparedness plans, local civil society capacity, and government effectiveness in disaster response. Key findings highlighted the need for improved awareness of early warning systems, the establishment of active disaster management committees, and enhanced capacity among local civil society to manage disaster preparedness efforts. The report emphasizes the importance of inclusive planning processes, particularly regarding gender and disability considerations, and suggests integrating disaster risk reduction into broader community and climate adaptation strategies to foster resilience against natural disasters and climate change impacts.

Donor: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australian Government
Total Page Count: 39 Read More...

Enhancing resilience through improved food security, disaster risk reduction and peaceful co-existence In South and East Darfur

This base line survey was conducted for the project “Enhancing resilience through improved food security, disaster risk reduction and peaceful co-existence in South and East Darfur.” The baseline was designed to collect data in the targeted communities in South and East Darfur State to assess the situation before the start of the project and determine the benchmarks for the designed project indicators. The baseline used mixed methods for data collection, including: desk review of project documents, individual interviews with household leaders using structured questionaires, FGDs with representatives from different groups in the communities, KIIs with institutional representatives.
The targeted areas in East and South Darfur are suffering from acute and chronic malnutrition. It is widespread and poses a significant public health problem, caused by acute food insecurity, unstable livelihoods, limited health services, poor hygiene practices and the lack of access to adequate safe drinking water and sanitation practices.
Women and children travel far distance to fetch water. During the rainy season, people may get poor quality water, which negatively affects their health. The government institutions have very poor capacity and lack the required logistics to provide good and sustainable water supply.
Women and girls are vulnerable to GBV, especially when they go far distances seeking different services such as water collection, firewood, farming, marketing and markets.
Women also face a very high burden, as they are responsible and participating in all household chores such as childcare, farming, fetching water, and transporting products to markets. This negatively affects children's nutrition and hygiene practices and exacerbates malnutrition. On other hand they have a limited access to resources and income-generating activities, and do not share any responsibilities in community structure, where men alone control and have access of most resources and have more decision-making power than women.
847,126 people in South Darfur and 124,351 in East Darfur are in IPC Phase 3 or higher and unable to meet their immediate needs. Kass and East Jebel Mara in South Darfur have the highest number of people experiencing acute food insecurity at 25% and 35% respectively, which need urgent intervention to contribute in reduction of acute food insecurity caused by currency devaluation, inflation, and local conflict is hitting both states.
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Farmer Field Business Schools and Village Savings and Loan Associations for promoting climate-smart agriculture practices: Evidence from rural Tanzania

How can stakeholders (e.g., governments and their extension services, private sector, policy makers and NGOs) effectively stimulate the adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices among small-scale farmers in developing countries? Changes in temperatures and rainfall lead to new risks of drought as well as erratic and excess rainfall (Ericksen et al., 2011; WMO, 2020). Many farmers experience climate change as a threat since crop yields that farmers needed to sustain themselves are adversely affected (IPCC, 2014; WMO, 2020). At the same time, the agricultural sector also contributes to climate change since agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (nitrous oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide) are among the significant drivers of global warming (CCAFS, 2021). Read More...

Learning From Failure 2022

In 2019 and 2020, CARE published Learning from Failures reports to better understand common problems that projects faced during implementation. Deliberately looking for themes in failure has helped CARE as an organization and provides insight on what is improving and what still needs troubleshooting. This report builds on the previous work to show what we most need to address in our programming now.
As always, it is important to note that while each evaluation in this analysis cited specific failures and areas for improvement in the project it reviewed, that does not mean that the projects themselves were failures. Of the 72 evaluations in this analysis, only 2 showed projects that failed to deliver on more than 15% of the project goals. The rest were able to succeed for at least 85% of their commitments. Rather, failures are issues that are within CARE’s control to improve that will improve impact for the people we serve.
To fully improve impact, we must continue to include failures in the conversation. We face a complex future full of barriers and uncertainties. Allowing an open space to discuss challenges or issues across the organization strengthens CARE’s efforts to fight for change. Qualitative analysis provides critical insights that quantitative data does not provide insight into the stories behind these challenges to better understand how we can develop solutions.
CARE reviewed a total of 72 evaluations from 65 projects, with 44 final reports published between February 2020 and September 2021 and 28 midterm reports published between March 2018 and October 2020. Seven projects had both midterm and final evaluations at the time of this analysis. For ease of analysis, as in previous years, failures were grouped into 11 categories (see Annex A, the Failures Codebook for details).

Results
The most common failures in this year’s report are:
• Understanding context—both in the design phase of a project and refining the understanding of context and changing circumstances throughout the whole life of a project, rather than a concentrated analysis phase that is separate from project implementation. For example, an agriculture project that built it’s activities assuming that all farmers would have regular internet access, only to find that fewer than 10% of project participants had smartphones and that the network in the area is unreliable, has to significantly redesign both activities and budgets.
• Sustainability—projects often faced challenges with sustainability, particularly in planning exit strategies. Importantly, one of the core issues with sustainability is involving the right partners at the right time. 47% of projects that struggled with sustainability also had failures in partnership. For example, a project that assumed governments would take over training for project participants once the project closed, but that failed to include handover activities with the government at the local level, found that activities and impacts are not set up to be sustainable.
• Partnerships—strengthening partnerships at all levels, from government stakeholders to community members and building appropriate feedback and consultation mechanisms, is the third most common weakness across projects. For example, a project that did not include local private sector actors in its gender equality trainings and assumes that the private sector would automatically serve women farmers, found that women were not getting services or impact at the right level.
Another core finding is that failures at the design phase can be very hard to correct. While projects improve significantly between midterm and endline, this is not always possible. There are particular kinds of failure that are difficult to overcome over time. Major budget shortfalls, a MEAL plan that does not provide quality baseline data, and insufficient investments in understanding context over the entire life of a project are less likely to improve over time than partnerships and overall MEAL processes.
Some areas also showed marked improvements after significant investments. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL), Gender, Human Resources, and Budget Management are all categories that show improvements over the three rounds of learning from failures analysis. This reflects CARE’s core investments in those areas over the last 4 years, partly based on the findings and recommendations from previous Learning From Failure reports. Specifically, this round of data demonstrates that the organization is addressing gender-related issues. Not only are there fewer failures related to gender overall, the difference between midterm and final evaluations in gender displays how effective these methods are in decreasing the incidence of “failures” related to engaging women and girls and looking at structural factors that limit participation in activities.
Another key finding from this year’s analysis is that projects are improving over time. For the first time, this analysis reviewed mid-term reports in an effort to understand failures early enough in the process to adjust projects. Projects report much higher rates of failure at midterm than they do at final evaluation. In the projects where we compared midline to endline results within the same project, a significant number of failures that appeared in the mid-term evaluation were resolved by the end of the project. On average, mid-term evaluations reflect failures in 50% of possible categories, and final evaluations show failures in 38% of possible options. Partnerships (especially around engaging communities themselves), key inputs, scale planning and MEAL are all areas that show marked improvement over the life of the project.
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Enhancing adaptive capacity of women and ethnic smallholder farmers through improved agro-climate information in Mai and Samphanh district, Phongsaly Province, Laos

The Agro-Climate Information for the Adoption of Resilient Farming Practices by Women and Ethnic Minority Farmers (ACIS2) is implemented by CARE International in Lao PDR. The project financed by the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development (MECDD) in Luxembourg, is designed to support poor and vulnerable households in remote, rural areas and to enable women and ethnic minority farmers in Mai and Samphanh districts (Phongsaly province) to better anticipate risks and opportunities related to climate variability thus improving their response through participatory and equitable agro-climatic planning. The project’s aim is to contribute to SDG 13 by increasing climate resilience of women and ethnic minority farmers in northern Laos.
The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the project’s success in implementing activities and in attaining the project’s goals and expected results. The ACIS2 has implemented a wide variety of activities to increase the resilience of ethnic communities to climate change and climate variability. The project has been successful in achieving its objectives and expected results. Project provide the weather forecast and agriculture advisory and support for cardamom production, intercropping galangal, pineapple, fruit trees, bee keeping, vegetable gardening, improved rice production and support to women’s savings and loans groups which has resulted in reducing the impact of climatic hazards and improving farmers’ incomes.
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Disaster READY Project Phase I- Endline Evaluation Report (English)

The Endline Evaluation Report for the Disaster READY Project assesses the project implemented by the Australian Humanitarian Partnership consortium in Timor-Leste from 2018 to 2022, led by CARE and involving partners such as Caritas Australia, Oxfam, Plan International, and World Vision. Aimed at enhancing local humanitarian capabilities, the project focused on community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) and inclusivity for women, people with disabilities (PWDs), youth, and effective coordination among stakeholders across nine municipalities. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the evaluation revealed significant increases in community knowledge of disaster risks, the establishment of effective coordination structures (DMCs), and improved representation of marginalized groups. The project successfully implemented early warning systems, with local leaders actively disseminating information. Concluding that the project fostered a paradigm shift in attitudes toward marginalized groups in disaster preparedness, the report recommends future efforts to enhance capacity building, integrate early warning systems, and advocate for including resilience and livelihood initiatives in disaster risk management.

Donor: Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP)
Total Page Count: 44 Read More...

My Forest, My Livelihood, My Family program (FUTURES) Baseline report

The FUTURES—My Forest, My Livelihood, My Family program (FUTURES) serves communities in the Yayu Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve (YCFBR) located in Southwestern Ethiopia, in Oromia Regional State. The YCFBR encompasses the Hurumu, Yayo, Bilo Nopa, Alge-Sachi, and Doreni woredas of Illu-Abba Bora zone and Chora woreda of Buno Bedele zone and includes protected forest area as well as designated areas for economic activities like coffee and spice production, commercial forest plantations and eco-tourism, and areas where many traditional and modern agricultural practices take place.
Households in the area depend on a combination of small-scale agricultural and forest management systems dominated by traditional agronomic practices and characterized by a lack of crop diversity and low productivity. Deforestation, degradation, and increased loss of biodiversity are major concerns for sustainable agricultural and livelihood practice in the region. Social, gender, and cultural barriers have historically limited women’s and youth’s engagement in agricultural and economic sectors. High rates of early and forced marriage, and limited availability of reproductive health and family planning services, especially youth-friendly services, may further limit women and youth from participating meaningfully in agricultural practice and livelihood generation. Government services and local civil society organizations in the area operate at a limited capacity, and their offices are male-dominated and do not meaningfully incorporate a gendered approach to their work (Gebrehanna and Seyoum, 2020).
The three-year FUTURES project was launched in April 2021 to address many of the health, environment, and livelihood concerns of the YCFBR region. The project is implemented by CARE Ethiopia and its three local partners, Oromia Development Association (ODA), Environment and Coffee Forest Forum (ECFF), and Kulich Youth Reproductive Health and Development Organization (KYRHDO). The FUTURES project evaluation, funded by USAID, and led by Data for Impact (D4I), aims to understand the impact of the FUTURES project on key health, agricultural, and livelihood and conservation behavioral outcomes, and to contribute to knowledge about the implementation of cross-sectoral programs, including monitoring, evaluations, and learning (MEL) of such programs. Read More...

Climate Learning and Advocacy for Resilience (CLAR) Programme

Climate Learning and Advocacy for Resilience (CLAR) was a CARE Denmark global programme that during the years 2018-2021 provided technical support to CARE country programmes. The overall objective of CLAR was “Adaptive capacity and resilience of vulnerable communities to climate change impacts, risks and uncertainties has increased.” The programme had three interrelated specific objectives, focusing on (1) demonstrating good practice, innovation and impact in climate resilience, and generating new evidence and learning, (2) improving capacity and influence among CSOs and networks on global and national policies, plans and projects on climate change adaptation and finance, and (3) strengthening of climate knowledge brokering for multi-stakeholder, cross-discipline and South-South learning and coordination.
The intention with CLAR was to link practical approaches and outcomes in climate change adaptation work with influencing policy and planning processes, in particular national adaptation plans (NAPs) and finance. CLAR was to add value to CARE country programmes through the provision of technical support for integration of climate change adaptation implementation as well as cross-country learning and knowledge sharing. CLAR targeted both local, national, and global policy spaces to promote pro-poor, equitable and effective adaptation policies, and mechanisms. Through the Southern Voices on Adaptation (SVA) advocacy community of practice, CLAR supported the sharing of experiences and best practices in different contexts on how to influence adaptation policies and adaptation finance. Read More...

Gender Analysis of CARE Ethiopia-Resilience in Pastoral Areas Activity (RiPA) North Project

The purpose of the gender analysis is to provide information on gender-related rights in pastoral context and unpacks issues, factors and reasons on how gender relations will affect the achievement of the RiPA goals. Moreover, it also aims at identifying the key and existing discriminatory social and gender norms that are relevant to and responsible for perpetuating gender inequality in the pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the targeted Regions and Woredas. To achieve this, CARE’s gender analysis framework called the ‘Good Practices Framework’ was used. The study was conducted in Somali, Afar and Oromia. Eight Woredas were selected from the 3 regions namely: Shabelle, Kebrebeya, Erer and Afdem from Somali region; Gewane and Afambo from the Afar region, and Babille and Meiso from the Oromia region. The survey, 40 KIIs and 56 FGDs data collection techniques were used to collect data from the targeted groups. A total of 402 (325 female and 77 male) participants took part in the survey. Read More...

Information for Adaptation in Vietnam (InfoAct)

Enhanced livelihoods and increased resilience of poor ethnic minority women and men rural areas to the effects of climate change and variability.
The “Information for Adaptation in Vietnam” Project (InfoAct) is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, abbreviated BMZ, and jointly implemented by CARE Vietnam (CVN) and three local partners, named Center for Community Development (CCD), Lai Chau Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and Lai Chau provincial Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU). The project sites include four communes of Dien Bien province and four communes of Lai Chau province, namely: Muong Phang and Pa Khoang communes (Dien Bien district); Ang Cang, Ang Nua communes (Muong Ang District); Than Thuoc, Trung Dong, Ho Mit and Nam So Communes of Tan Uyen district, Lai Chau province. The overall objective of the InfoAct Project is to enhance livelihoods and increase the resilience of poor ethnic minority women and men in rural areas to the effects of climate change and variability. This is to be accomplished through a specific objective (outcome) to ensure ethnic minority households in rural areas have improved access to and use of climate information, and resources to help increase their climate resilience. The InfoAct Project is focusing mainly on two target groups: (1) 5,000 ethnic minority households, especially women, in Dien Bien and Lai Chau provinces and (2) government authorities and service providers, namely Department of Hydro-Meteorology, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and the provincial VWU and CCD. As InfoAct was going to phase out after three years’ implementation and close all its activities by November 2021, an independent final evaluation was conducted to understand the project’s impacts/outcomes and key lessons learned.
The Final Evaluation applied a mixed-method approach by using qualitative and quantitative data from primary and secondary sources. The primary data was collected from the key informants and household survey. The household survey was implemented with 363 and 266 people in Dien Bien and Lai Chau provinces, respectively. A total of 49 In-deep Interview (IDI) was conducted with stakeholders. In addition, 34 women and 39 men in two provinces participated in Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Read More...

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