How CARE Triangulated Global Climate Data, Research With Partners, and Program Data To Work Towards Climate Justice

Background 

CARE empowers poor and marginalized people to take action on the climate crisis and to build knowledge for global change. We know that climate change affects poor and marginalized people the most. Extinction means that people who rely on biodiversity for survival can no longer produce food. Extreme weather events destroy the shelters and homes of people who don’t have insurance or savings to rebuild. Women and girls face higher rates of sexual and economic abuse as their families face economic hardship.

CARE’s recent study with the Southern African Resilience Academy (SARA) and partners showed that food and livelihood programs need to integrate gender transformative approaches, climate adaptation, and resilience building, as well as systems strengthening, to support inclusive and sustained growth in communities vulnerable to climate change, conflict, and poverty. So, 3 years into our CARE’s Vision 2030 strategy, CARE examined how well we are integrating these factors - especially in geographic areas most vulnerable to climate change.

Triangulating data for research-inspired analysis 

We triangulated data from the three sources below, and based our analysis on the research findings and context:

1. CARE impact data. CARE’s Program Information and Impact Reporting System (PIIRS) records impact from every project implemented by CARE and/or partners, measured through indicators that correspond to SDGs and CARE’s Vision 2030 strategy. We analyzed impact data on livelihood recovery in humanitarian emergencies, food security, and climate resilience and adaptive capacities.

2. CARE program quality (PQ) data. We assessed the percent of programs that met minimum CARE PQ standards for gender, resilience building, and climate adaptation.

3. Climate vulnerability scores from the University of Notre Dame’s Global Adaption Initiative (ND-GAIN) Country Index. This tool ranks countries based on their climate vulnerability and readiness to implement climate adaption solutions.

For the countries that we have a presence in, we plotted each country’s impact (from our identified relevant indicators) against the percent of projects that met the minimum PQ standards (for our identified relevant standards) in each country. This showed where our programming was impactful and tested our research finding that integration leads to higher impact. To go even deeper, we then looked at this relationship among the countries that have the highest ND-GAIN index climate vulnerability score, among countries that CARE has a presence in (Figure 1). We further used historical internal program data to examine these relationships and came to two major conclusions.

Our findings

1. Among countries that CARE works in, CARE is making an impact in some of the most highly climate vulnerable countries (Somalia, Chad, Niger, etc.) but there are opportunities to better integrate gender, resilience, and climate in these locations. Countries where we have higher integration and more reported impact tend to be countries like Ethiopia (not shown), Niger, Uganda, and Zimbabwe (not shown) where climate vulnerability capacity analyses (CVCA) have been applied for several years, where locally led adaptation approaches have been applied, and which have established and sustained institutional funding - in line with the conclusion from the SARA research that integration leads to impact and quality programming.
2. Some countries highly vulnerable to climate change report no impact (Sierra Leone, Burundi, Sudan, Tonga) but that does not mean we are not doing important work there. Impact is measured in the long-term and often after a project is completed, so while this finding shows areas to ramp up programming, which we know how to do from the research findings, it also flags places where we are already working and should be prepared to measure impact later on.

Action resulting from the combination of analysis and research insights

This analysis is a prime example of using triangulation of data from various sources in combination with research-based evidence to inform programming.

As an organization, CARE is continuing to leverage our existing technical capacity in climate justice programming in Asia and MENA - regions that face climate vulnerability.

As a research community, we should continue to openly share data and methods to allow for analysis such as these. Additionally, we should share evidence-based research like the SARA paper, to inspire analysis and programs. We can also continue to embed gender in our research by assessing how gender affects outcomes such as climate vulnerability and readiness, and being critical of sources that do not include gender in analysis.

As a global community, we can deepen our investment in gender transformative approaches and climate adaptation for systems transformation. This analysis highlights the positive relationship between integrating gender, resilience and climate and impact, and shows that community-led approaches and strong institutional funding make for a bigger impact. Using this data - donors, programs, and policy makers can expand efforts in gender-inclusive strategies and climate adaptation.