Factors Contributing to Effective Climate Change Adaptation Projects in Water Management: Implications from the Developing Countries

The adaptation finance gap is widening as the impact of climate change grows more disruptive around the globe. Although progress in adaptation planning and implementation has been observed across all sectors and regions, this trend of a widening resource gap calls for more ‘effective’ climate adaptation projects. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis to explore potential factors contributing to the effectiveness of climate change projects in developing countries with a particular focus on water management financed under multilateral funds that have been implemented on the ground, completed and documented. Thirty-five projects from the multilateral funds were collected and analyzed for this purpose. Project evaluation documents have been studied, and the effectiveness rating at completion has been assessed against possible contributing factors through regression analysis. The results showed that the factors contributing to project effectiveness converge around several elements: (i) capacity building and education (|r| > 0.3); (ii) healthy and resilient livelihoods (|r| > 0.2); and (iii) climate data and a robust theory of change (stated by >30% of projects). The implications from this study can provide a useful quantitative ground for discussion around the effective adaptation projects in water management as well as inform relevant international processes such as the Global Goal on Adaptation and global stocktake.