Adapt or Perish: Evaluation Insights on Adaptation Finance

What lessons can we draw from evaluations and the wider literature about delivering climate change adaptation impact? Drawing on evidence from 55 independent evaluations and other industry reports from 2014 and 2025, this paper explores what enables Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), governments, and their partners to effectively design adaptation projects and deploy adaptation finance, and to turn this finance into resilience. This Connecting the Dots issue is structured around two complementary dimensions: (1) The “upstream institutional enablers” which create the conditions for scaling-up adaptation finance; and (2) The “downstream delivery” examining what is needed to translate adaptation finance into tangible, climate-resilient outcomes.