Care International (CARE) is a leading international NGO and aid agency working in 87 countries around the world to help the world’s poorest people find routes out of poverty.
CARE commissioned us to undertake a review of their organisation-wide climate change sector strategy – the Climate Change Strategic Plan (CCSP). We were required to assess CARE’s climate change results under the strategy as well as inform the evolution and strategic direction of the CCSP in the future.
The focus of the review
A particular focus of the review was on how best to ‘mainstream’ climate change concerns across CARE’s network of 70 country offices and 12 Members so that, as a coherent whole, its field programming and advocacy activities efficiently, effectively and sustainably address the threat posed by climate change. We looked at how best to raise CARE’s profile and effectiveness as an international NGO advocating on climate change issues on behalf of climate vulnerable households and communities.
Our approach
Our climate change M&E expert, was directly approached and engaged by the CARE Poverty Environment and Climate Change Network (PECCN) to conduct the CCSP review. Based on a mixed method combining interviews, web surveying and document analysis, we presented a practical and manageable set of recommendations aimed at further enhancing the management efficiency, climate outcomes and impact, and organisational sustainability of the strategy.
Recommendations
Our specific recommendations were subsequently implemented by CARE’s Climate Change Team. These related to developing a more coherent and explicit theory of change for the CCSP, more clearly defining the respective roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders within the CARE ‘family’, and enhancing the CCSP’s results focus through the design of a simple yet robust M&E system to identify and credibly claim success.
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