ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part shows the importance of using a multi-disciplinary approach in the evaluation of natural disaster prevention and mitigation projects. It argues that the selection and design of climate change interventions should be based on existing evidence of what works and what does not, why, and at what cost. White argues that such analysis has been under utilized, resulting in misallocation of resources at both the global and national level. The part suggests that evaluation offers both opportunities and challenges in a complex social and environmental scenario: opportunities to acquire more knowledge, to measure progress and to make crucial adjustments; and challenges due to the context of uncertainty and adaptive capacity that evaluators have to take into account, particularly in the case of Africa. It addresses how interventions should be evaluated in future.
