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Agreeing on the purpose for the MRE scheme is key

Communicating and agreeing on the purpose for monitoring and evaluating is a key factor when developing an MRE scheme (EC, 2013b) along with acknowledging the tensions and synergies between these different purposes (Spearman and McGray, 2011). The self-assessment survey shows that MRE can be used for a range of purposes thus it is not surprising that it also seems that a variety of approaches are being developed to meet these distinct objectives. This demonstrates that countries are tailoring their approach to meet the purpose of their scheme and recognising that adaptation is context- specific. However, it is recommended that MRE schemes should go beyond considering ‚‘Did we do what we said we would do?’ and explore the unintended and unexpected outputs and outcomes which may stem from a policy or project (Pringle, 2011). Often some of the most valuable adaptation insights and innovations stem from things we didn’t know would happen and these are not revealed if we stick to a rigid examination of performance against predetermined objectives. For example if a city had planned to increase its blue and green infrastructure by creating a park  and water body to reduce urban heat and be used as a flood management intervention. There could be unintended issues related to biodiversity, however these could be both positive – extension of habitat for existing species or, negative - arrival of a new vector-borne disease. This may be where some of the most important adaptation lessons can be learnt.