Leverage points to support Africa’s efforts to track climate adaptation

Abstract Tracking progress on the Global Goal on Adaptation depends on countries’ ability to plan for, track, and report on adaptation efforts. We analyze the readiness of 53 African countries to track adaptation, assessed by the comprehensiveness, coherence, and robustness of adaptation elements of their national policies. Fourteen countries (~26%) provide information on the entire set of elements that ensure comprehensiveness: climate hazards (100%, n=53), systems at risk (100%, n=53), goals (55%, n=29), objectives (77%, n=41), actions (94%, n=50), and indicators (34%, n=18). However, elements are typically misaligned, impeding coherence. Furthermore, only 21% of targets (n=559) and 2% of indicators (n=25) are robust enough to operationalize tracking. No country meets all three readiness criteria, yet some progress is evident. Substantial improvement is warranted in upcoming revisions of African NDCs and ongoing NAP processes if they are to inform future national adaptation tracking efforts and the Global Stocktake.