Action phases of this website include ‘Checklists for Climate Action’.  Action pages list ‘things to look for’  in an existing NDC or national climate action plan.  In the Ambition phase, you’re invited to develop ideas for potential new actions and requirements.  Every country’s political and economic situation is different enough that general recommendations for engagement are less useful; but one common action all civil society and indigenous groups can take is to develop a monitoring and evaluation plan, based on your major priorities in the NDC.  Here are a few suggestions for participating in the development of, and improving, national monitoring and evaluation plan.

• Key Objectives: In some cases you and your team will want to focus on identifying and remedying problems in existing project- and program-implementation approaches – that is, focusing on improving implementation of agreed measures.  Another approach would be to monitor current outcomes in order to feed this information back into new and ambitious program approaches. 
• Baselines and data: Do you have good access to the information you need for monitoring and evaluation? What are you monitoring for – ecosystem integrity, community well-being, how climate finance is being spent?
• Stakeholder engagement: Who else should be involved in this effort? Will there be consultations at the regional or local level about monitoring priorities? What’s the role of universities and scientific bodies in this process? 
• Create an M&E framework: Once you’ve defined your objectives, gathered the necessary baseline data, and engaged key stakeholders, an M&E framework can be built.  That framework doesn’t have to be ‘static’; in fact, the best frameworks will allow for continued learning and improvement, based on observations in the field and how new data informs policy formation and implementation. 
• Integrate the framework into national development planning: most governments recognize that climate change is a central challenge of our time; but that doesn’t necessarily means that climate change mitigation and adaptation thinking has made its way into the mainstream of development planning. Civil society has a particularly important role to play here.

CLARA members are active in all regions of the world, and many are already involved in developing climate action plans and responses.  If you are interested in guidance or assistance, please contact us at peoplesndc@gmail.com.

IIED (the International Institute for Environment and Development) published an analysis of lessons learned from civil society advocacy on climate change, called Southern Voice on Climate Policy Choices.  It includes excellent country-level case studies.

The InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) published a review of government-CSO collaboration on climate in Latin America, Governments and Civil Society Advancing Climate Agendas, which compiles best practices for collaboration.

The involvement of local civil society is particularly important for adaptation.  ‘All adaptation is local’, and local groups, including CSOs, are closest to the problem.  They can best help to create adaptive capacities and responses within communities. World Resources Institute has a good discussion the necessity – and the challenges – of getting civil society more involved in Adaptation work here.  The global network on climate adaptation associated with the International Institute for Sustainable Development has also published useful country level case studies of adaptation responses, including monitoring and evaluation approaches, from Kenya and Colombia.