Climate-Responsive Project Design

It’s clear that we need to take action to ensure that SRHR projects are responsive to climate risks - but how can we assess whether a particular project - whether proposed or in progress - is responsive to climate change?

How can we evaluate whether activities and interventions put forward are likely to yield meaningful benefits not only for SRHR outcomes, but also for climate resilience? 

Learn more about why this intersection matters on the Climate-SRHR Evidence Hub: Why This Matters.

I am a program designer who wants to make sure the concept I am developing will be climate resilient.

I want to read through everything. 

This section outlines strategies for developing and identifying climate-responsive SRHR project.

I am a funder who wants to evaluate the climate-responsiveness of active or proposed Climate-SRHR programming.

I am a funder who wants to develop a strategy to integrate climate into a health and gender portfolio.

Step-by-Step Strategy Guidance

Elements of Climate-Responsive Project Design

There is no set definition of what it means for a climate-SRHR project to have a “climate-responsive” design. In general, a project with a design that effectively responds to climate change is one that is responsive to local climate hazards across all elements of the project, from the rationale and activity selection to learning and budgeting. Climate-responsive design is key for ensuring activities meet the needs of climate-vulnerable populations, can continue in climate-affected contexts, and meaningfully contribute to climate adaptation and resilience. 

There are a few common elements that are important to consider: 

01 Evidence-based understanding of the climate context

Projects should demonstrate a thorough understanding of how climate change is affecting the specific region of implementation. Using high-quality scientific evidence, they should be able to explain the direct and indirect effects of the specific climate hazards to which the project responds. They should also use evidence to justify why they have prioritized specific climate hazard(s) and corresponding effects of those hazards. 

✅ Positive Signs

  • Strong evidence: Cites academic articles, high-quality grey literature, and/or climate documents like the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), National Adaptation Plan (NAP), and Health National Adaptation Plan (HNAP).

  • Accurate: Provides accurate information about climate risks and impacts

  • Specific: Responds to specific climate hazard(s) 

  • Clear mechanisms: Uses evidence to describe the mechanism of climate impacts it will address or seek to avert, including impacts on SRH

  • Sound focus: Accurately prioritizes which climate hazards and mechanisms of impacts to address

✅ According to Tanzania’s Health National Adaptation plan…

✅ Extreme heat and heatwaves are a priority challenge…

✅ A major flood last year resulted in the destruction of key health infrastructure and halted supply chains

✅ Positive Signs

  • Clear goal: Sets out clear, measurable, and specific goals, outcomes, and outputs related to climate and SRHR

  • Logical: Provides a sound and logical description of how and why change will occur

  • Evidence-based: Uses evidence to justify the proposed impact pathway 

  • Comprehensive: Accurately and comprehensively considers the full context, including enabling factors, contextual adaptations, and risks

✅ This project’s goal is to reduce the adverse effects of extreme heat on maternal mortality.

✅ In a pilot project, this activity resulted in…

✅ Because there are existing shortfalls in SRH service delivery in this region, this project will need to…

⚠️ Warning Signs

  • No evidence: Does not cite any sources, or only cites sources which are not credible

  • Inaccurate: Provides inaccurate climate information (e.g., includes events that are not climate hazards, such as earthquakes or tsunamis)

  • Vague: Does not respond to specific climate hazards (e.g., only addresses “climate change” or “climate adaptation” at a general level)

  • Weak mechanisms: Provides an inaccurate, incomplete, or non rights-based understanding of the mechanisms of climate impacts it seeks to address

  • Misplaced focus: Focuses on climate hazards and mechanisms which are not high priority, high impact, or justifiable

❌ It is common knowledge that…

❌ Climate change is an urgent issue..

❌ Earthquakes are a major threat

❌ Climate change is driven by rising population

02 Sound theory of change and clear aims

Projects should have a sound theory of change that articulates a logical process by which activities will contribute to specific outputs, outcomes, and goals. Climate and SRH should be embedded throughout (as applicable). This theory of change should be context specific: it should reflect the unique combination of the implementing organization’s skills and activities with the beneficiary community’s desires, needs, and resources. 

⚠️ Warning Signs

  • Vague goal: Puts forward goals, outcomes, and outputs that are vague, not measurable, or not clearly related to climate and SRHR

  • Illogical: Describes a process for change that is illogical, incomplete, or not likely to succeed 

  • Not evidence-based: Does not cite any evidence for the impact pathway or activities

  • Incomplete: Does not consider how important contextual factors might shape implementation

❌ This project’s goal is to build climate resilience.

❌ Training women as beekeepers will improve SRH outcomes and mitigate climate change  

❌ Project implementation will be the same across all three countries

03 Climate just, adaptive interventions and implementation strategies

Projects should articulate interventions and implementation strategies that embed principles of climate justice and gender justice throughout. They should be adaptive to the specific climate-related needs and vulnerabilities of the implementation region. They should reflect a strong understanding of the implementation context.

✅ Positive Signs

  • Climate just: Forwards climate justice principles - including equity, inclusivity, human rights, and sustainability - throughout activities 

  • Adaptive: Describes how the activities are adaptive to climate change - that is, how they are different from previous approaches and/or how they respond to specific climate-related vulnerabilities 

  • Evidence-based: Uses evidence to justify the proposed activities 

  • Implementation plan: Has a plan for adapting activities in the event of climate-related emergencies 

  • Participatory design: Describes how stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in design of the project and/or serve as co-implementers, and integrates expertise from multiple sectors

✅ Capacity-building training will be delivered via multiple modalities to account for the needs of different groups, including men, women, and people with disabilities 

✅ Indigenous community members with traditional expertise in cultivation will serve as trainers…

✅ These activities were developed through a series of workshops with key community groups including…

✅ Installation of white roofs and cooling systems in maternity wards will reduce the effects of extreme heat on pregnant people 

✅ Positive Signs

  • Climate-responsive budget: Budget reflects expenses of added climate expertise, multi-sectoral partnerships, adapted programming approaches, climate-related emergencies, etc.  

  • Risk planning: Includes climate change-related events in risk planning, with comprehensive plans to reduce risks and respond to these vents 

  • Adaptive learning: Uses programmatic evidence to learn and adapt to climate-related challenges

✅ Our budget allocates funds towards post-emergency rapid assessments and learning so we can better document our impact 

✅ Cyclones may affect project delivery. Our plan for responding to cyclones is…

✅ In the event of a flood, our team will debrief afterwards to assess the effectiveness of our work and identify opportunities to improve

⚠️ Warning Signs

  • Lack of inclusivity: Puts forward an approach that does not consider intersectional inclusivity or climate justice 

  • Unresponsive: Does not describe activities that are responsive to specific climate-related risks or vulnerabilities, or does not describe how activities are different from previous approaches 

  • Not evidence-based: Does not cite any evidence for the activities 

  • Limited planning: Does not consider how climate hazards might affect project implementation or how to respond 

  • Limited stakeholder engagement: Does not include stakeholders and beneficiaries as experts and partners in design and implementation of the project and/or integrates expertise from only one sector

❌ Capacity building training will be delivered to community members 

❌ No community groups were consulted when developing this project   

❌ Upgrades to health facilities will make them more resilient


04 Climate-integrated project management

Projects should integrate climate change not only into their activities, but also into their approach. This may look like climate-responsive budgeting (e.g., accounting for the cost of potential climate-related extreme weather events), including climate in risk management plans and operations plans, hiring staff with climate expertise, and ensuring that climate is integrated into adaptive learning approaches.

⚠️ Warning Signs

  • Narrow budget: Budget does not account for extra costs of climate-related work, including expertise, partnerships, learning, and/or emergency response

  • No plan for climate risks: Does not consider how climate risk may impact project delivery or how to respond 

  • Limited learning: Does not have a plan for adaptation and learning in response to emergent climate-related challenges

❌ The two risks that this project faces are conflict and policy shifts.

❌ Our implementation team does not have any climate experts

❌ We will have one learning session with stakeholders at the end of the project

For information about climate mitigation within climate-SRHR programs, including a discussion of whether these organizations should take steps to reduce their own emissions, see Should climate-responsive projects take steps to reduce their own emissions?

Evaluating Climate-SRHR Concepts and Proposals 

For funders, it is important to be able to assess proposed climate-SRHR projects to see if they are responsive to climate change and likely to yield meaningful results. 

We recommend evaluating these concepts across nine domains: 

  1. Climate Rationale

  2. SRHR Rationale

  3. Theory of Change

  4. Climate-Responsive Management

  5. Sustainability

  6. Gender Equity, Inclusivity, and Climate Justice

  7. Stakeholder Engagement

  8. MEL 

  9. Implementation Team 

These domains encompass both the elements of climate-responsive design as well as other necessary ingredients for success. For each category, we have provided a description of the characteristics you could expect in a strong, fair, and weak proposal.

Active climate-SRHR projects can also be evaluated using this rubric. Doing so can provide funders with important insights into potential vulnerabilities and factors that may contribute to a project’s success. In addition to considering the project’s original proposal, you may also wish to consider information provided in reports.

For examples of language that indicates a proposal is strong quality versus language that indicates it may be poor quality, visit What is climate-responsive project design? 

For information about climate mitigation within climate-SRHR programs, including a discussion of whether these organizations should take steps to reduce their own emissions, see Should climate-responsive projects take steps to reduce their own emissions?

Articulating a Climate-Responsive Project Design

In the design stage, you will need to articulate: 

  • The climate-SRHR challenge you are trying to solve

  • The change that you are trying to create for SRHR outcomes and climate resilience

  • How that change will happen 

Our Project Design Framework tool can be used to walk you through the process of ensuring you have effectively built climate change into your proposal design. 

SRHR-focused proposals in climate-affected regions may also benefit from using the proposal design framework as a way of ensuring their design is responsive to climate change. For more on climate-responsive MEL for SRHR-focused projects, visit Measuring Climate in SRHR-Focused Projects.

To learn more about materials needed to develop a strong MEL approach, visit Preparing for Developing and Implementing Climate-SRHR MEL.