Independent Evaluation of the GCF’s ‘Health and Well-being, and Food and Water Security’ Result Area Final Report Summary

The evaluation of the GCF's 'Health and Well-being, and Food and Water Security' (HWFW) result area finds that while investments are highly relevant to country needs—particularly in food and water security—the RA approach itself has been inconsequential to achieving results. The report highlights significant gaps in health-related programming and tracking, as well as systemic challenges in results reporting and data quality. It recommends a comprehensive rearticulation of the purpose and formulation of all GCF result areas to better align with project origination and strategic impact.

• Investments tagged under the HWFW RA are highly valued by stakeholders and align with the GCF's mandate and country priorities, particularly regarding food and water security. However, health-focused projects are significantly underrepresented, with only 17 projects showing a specific focus on health as of B.40.
• The RA approach has been largely inconsequential to the achievement of project results, serving primarily as a corporate reporting tool rather than a guide for project origination or implementation. There is a lack of systematic guidance for Accredited Entities (AEs) on RA selection, leading to inconsistent tagging.
• The HWFW RA is formulated as a multi-sectoral 'nexus', but in practice, projects operate as disconnected sector-specific interventions, mostly focused on either food or water security.
• There is a critical gap in tracking health-related impacts; the Integrated Results Management Framework (IRMF) lacks a health-related indicator, which is inconsistent with the growing global recognition of the health-climate change nexus.
• Results reporting is severely limited by poor data quality, inconsistent AE reporting, and the difficulty of isolating results for a specific RA when projects are tagged across multiple areas. The GCF reporting system captures only a narrow range of impacts.
• HWFW RA-tagged projects have successfully supported climate-smart agriculture in LDCs and African States, and improved water security through hard infrastructure in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
• Health and wellbeing benefits typically occur as indirect co-benefits of food or water security improvements rather than as primary project goals.
• Gender and social equity considerations are well-integrated at the project design stage, but monitoring and reporting of these co-benefits remain weak and are rarely reported by AEs.
• The GCF's risk tolerance for innovation is perceived as low, often requiring evidence of effectiveness for novel approaches, which contradicts the requirement for projects to demonstrate innovation.
• The GCF acts more as a scaler of existing, proven innovations rather than an incubator of new, untested solutions.
• The purpose and role of RAs are insufficiently understood across the GCF ecosystem, leading the evaluation to recommend a full rearticulation and reformulation of the RA set.

APA

Green Climate Fund (2025). Independent Evaluation of the GCF’s ‘Health and Well-being, and Food and Water Security’ Result Area Final Report Summary. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/16b-independent-evaluation-gcfs-health-and-well-being-and-food-and-water-security-result-area-gcf.pdf

Chicago

Green Climate Fund. Independent Evaluation of the GCF’s ‘Health and Well-being, and Food and Water Security’ Result Area Final Report Summary. 2025. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/16b-independent-evaluation-gcfs-health-and-well-being-and-food-and-water-security-result-area-gcf.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Climate Fund |title=Independent Evaluation of the GCF’s ‘Health and Well-being, and Food and Water Security’ Result Area Final Report Summary |date=27 January 2025 |url=https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/16b-independent-evaluation-gcfs-health-and-well-being-and-food-and-water-security-result-area-gcf.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greenclimatefund2025independent, author = {{Green Climate Fund}}, title = {{Independent Evaluation of the GCF’s ‘Health and Well-being, and Food and Water Security’ Result Area Final Report Summary}}, institution = {Green Climate Fund}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/16b-independent-evaluation-gcfs-health-and-well-being-and-food-and-water-security-result-area-gcf.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }