IEU publications
IEU publications
To serve the needs of our stakeholders, the IEU issues a variety of publications related to our work, including in the context of evaluations and learning. Keep up with the IEU’s latest publications here.
Featured publications
Final Report of the Independent Evaluation of the GCF’s Approach to Indigenous Peoples
This report presents the findings and recommendations of an independent evaluation of the Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) approach to Indigenous Peoples (IPs), undertaken by the Independent Evaluation Unit (IEU).
Final Report of the Independent Evaluation of the GCF’s Result Area “Health and Wellbeing, and Food and Water Security” (HWFW)
In 2024, the IEU undertook the Independent Evaluation of the GCF’s Result Area “Health and Wellbeing, and Food and Water Security” (HWFW) in line with its Board-approved 2024 work plan.This evaluation was launched in March 2024.
GEvalBrief 03: LORTA 2020
June 2021
The multi-year Learning-Oriented Real-Time Impact Assessment (LORTA) programme keeps track of the impact of GCF investments. Its goal is to assist GCF projects measure their impact in lowering greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing resilience to climate change, and if so, by how much. LORTA’s assistance includes, among other things, building and clarifying theories of change, co-building real-time and longer term measurement systems and helping projects use quantitative and qualitative...
GEvalBrief 03: LORTA 2019
June 2021
The multi-year Learning-Oriented Real-Time Impact Assessment (LORTA) programme keeps track of the impact of GCF investments. Its goal is to assist GCF projects measure their impact in lowering greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing resilience to climate change, and if so, by how much. LORTA’s assistance includes, among other things, building and clarifying theories of change, co-building real-time and longer term measurement systems and helping projects use quantitative and qualitative...
GEvalNote 03: LORTA 2019
June 2021
The multi-year Learning-Oriented Real-Time Impact Assessment (LORTA) programme keeps track of the impact of GCF investments. Its goal is to assist GCF projects measure their impact in lowering greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing resilience to climate change, and if so, by how much. LORTA’s assistance includes, among other things, building and clarifying theories of change, co-building real-time and longer term measurement systems and helping projects use quantitative and qualitative...
GEvalNote 11
June 2021
A request for proposal (RFP) is a business document that announces a project, describes it and solicits bids or responses from qualified entities to complete it. Assistance includes, among other things, building and clarifying theories of change, co-building real-time and longer term measurement systems and helping projects use quantitative and qualitative approaches to analysing data. This 2-page brief provides decision makers with an overview of the key points in the IEU’s independent rapid...
GEvalBrief 11
June 2021
A request for proposal (RFP) is a business document that announces a project, describes it and solicits bids or responses from qualified entities to complete it. Assistance includes, among other things, building and clarifying theories of change, co-building real-time and longer term measurement systems and helping projects use quantitative and qualitative approaches to analysing data. This 4-page summary provides a quick, reader-friendly overview of the key points in the IEU’s independent...
Approach Paper for the Rapid Assessment of the GCF's Request For Proposals Modality
May 2021
The objective of this assessment is to examine, primarily, the relevance of the RFP modality to the mandate of the GCF, to look at its effectiveness, and to inspect the implementation process of the modality. It will look at past RFPs to draw lessons from their implementation and find recommendations for the modality’s improvement. The assessment will not, however, focus on recommending topics for future RFPs.
Behavioural science, decision making and climate investments
May 2021
This paper builds a bridge between how climate interventions are conceived and implemented and the nascent field of behavioural science as a practical, low-cost but potentially rewarding route for increasing the effectiveness of climate interventions.
Assessing the likelihood for transformational change at the Green Climate Fund
March 2021
This paper reviews the project documents of GCF investments through March 2020. It uses bivariate statistics and multivariate cluster analysis to examine whether mitigation, cross-cutting or adaptation thematic areas show the greatest likelihood of contributing to transformational change.
Final report on the Independent evaluation of the adaptation portfolio and approach of the Green Climate Fund
February 2021
In climate change science, adaptation means preparing for and adjusting to climate change's current and future effects. This evaluation of the GCF’s adaptation portfolio and approach assesses what it takes for the GCF to contribute to adaptation interventions with greater scale, depth and duration in developing countries. It highlights how the GCF can facilitate scaling and growth through its unique ability to finance projects at scale. The evaluation shows how the GCF: Can apply its convening...
GEvalNote 09
February 2021
In climate change science, adaptation means preparing for and adjusting to climate change's current and future effects. This 2021 2-page note introduces decision makers to the key points in the IEU’s evaluation of the GCF’s adaptation approach and portfolio. It describes in easily understood terms the evaluation’s context, purpose, scope, methods, country engagement and output and timing..
GEvalBrief 09
February 2021
In climate change science, adaptation means preparing for and adjusting to climate change's current and future effects. This 2021 4-page brief introduces decision makers to the key points in the IEU’s evaluation of the GCF’s adaptation approach and portfolio. It describes in easily understood terms the evaluation’s context, background, findings, recommendations and methods.
LORTA Inception Report 2020
December 2020
The 2020 inception report for the Learning-Oriented Real-Time Impact Assessment (LORTA) programme by the Independent Evaluation Unit (IEU) of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) outlines the continued efforts to integrate real-time impact evaluations into GCF projects. It details the methodologies used, progress made, and lessons learned from the impact evaluations conducted during this period.
Evidence gap map and intervention heat map: Evidence review on results-based payments
December 2020
The evidence gap map presents a systematic, multisectoral search of publications in the academic and grey literature. The search was restricted to quantitative studies published between 2000 and 2020 that assessed the effectiveness of one or more RBP interventions using experimental, quasiexperimental or non-causal designs. Based on sector-, intervention- and implementation-related characteristics extracted from a sample of 428 studies that met these inclusion/exclusion criteria, we developed...
Going the Last Mile: Behavioural Science and Investments in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
November 2020
This paper makes the case for behavioural science analysis and interventions in project design. Current approaches to behaviour change in the GCF portfolio are likely to ignore several psychological barriers. We base our analysis and recommendations on both portfolio-level data as well as case studies of 11 purposively-chosen projects from a random sample of 20 projects in the GCF portfolio. This is a revised and extended version of the paper presented to the Climate2020 online Conference.
How to bridge the gap between complexity science and evaluation - A new analysis tool as a first step
November 2020
This paper builds a bridge between the science of complexity and climate change adaptation activities conducted in the field. It provides an introduction to complexity science, introduces a diagnostic tool for mapping complex human–climate systems, and concludes with lessons that may be learned for designing, managing and evaluating climate projects.
Final report on the Independent Evaluation of the Relevance and Effectiveness of the Green Climate Fund's Investments in the SIDS
October 2020
SIDS are an exceptionally heterogeneous group of countries. But they all have one thing in common: they are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. SIDS face numerous climate threats, including rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, flooding, drought, reduced availability of fresh water, coral reef decline and sea level rise. SIDS suffer inordinately more from climate change than they contribute to it through greenhouse gas emissions. They have been vocal about...