Our research finds that local projects labelled adaptation and funded by donors and national governments, do not always directly address climate change risks. This presents difficulties for tracking adaptation finance. There are also challenges in accessing information from some donors and national government agencies on how adaptation funds are actually dispersed.

The study also looks at the institutions shaping the delivery of adaptation finance at the sub-national level, identifying roles for different actors in assuring transparency and accountability. Sub-national level analysis has not been widely explored, so evidence at this scale is new.

A number of fund- and country-specific, and generic recommendations are made on the basis of these tracking experiences of how to enhance accountability for adaptation funds.