UNDERPIN is championing the 2025-2026 work programme of Thematic Working Group for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (TWG-MEL) within the MIP4Adapt Community of Practice. The MIP4Adapt has several Thematic Working Groups on themes like climate services, citizen engagement, and adaptation finance, with the intention to foster collaboration and align efforts for higher impact.
The TWG-MEL had a productive first meeting earlier this year, covering the topic: Developing a Framework for Tracking Adaptation Outcomes. Participants joined from various Mission-funded climate adaptation projects across Europe, to explore conceptual and practical foundations for developing monitoring and evaluating metrics to assess climate adaptation results. Three topics were discussed: 1. assessing climate adaptation outcomes: Frameworks, indicators, and learning across sectors; 2. principles for an adaptation outcome-tracking framework, and 3. challenges in developing adaptation outcome indicators.
The following findings emerged:
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- Adaptation monitoring and evaluation systems must shift from output-focused reporting toward outcome- and impact-oriented approaches capable of capturing long-term resilience effects.
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- Strong support for shared principles, interoperable indicators, and common reporting logics to enable comparability, aggregation, and collective learning across projects, plans and governance levels.
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- Persistent methodological constraints—including attribution challenges, data gaps, limited monitoring timelines, and institutional capacity limitations—continue to hinder robust assessment of adaptation outcomes.
The next TWG-MEL meeting is planned for summer.
About UNDERPIN
UNDERPIN is a Horizon Europe project supporting the objectives of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change. The project brings together partners and pilot regions from across Europe to design, co-develop, and validate a new monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) framework and outcome indicators that address critical gaps in climate adaptation monitoring while fostering a coordinated approach to resilience-building in Europe. Find UNDERPIN in the Mission Portal.
Read the report.