Urban Planning and Governance

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Liberia's National Adaptation Plan (2020–2030) in Strengthening Climate Resilience in West Point
Arthur R.M. Becker

International Development Programme, Graduate School, African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU), Monrovia, Liberia; Department of Multilateral Environmental Agreements, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia

This study evaluates the effectiveness of Liberia's National Adaptation Plan (NAP) 2020–2030 in strengthening local climate resilience, using West Point Township, a highly climate-vulnerable informal coastal settlement in Monrovia, as a case study. The research examined the extent to which national adaptation strategies translated into measurable resilience outcomes between 2020 and 2025. Quantitative data were collected from 267 randomly selected households, while qualitative data were obtained from 26 purposively selected stakeholders representing government institutions, academia, development partners, and civil society. Findings reveal a substantial gap between adaptation action and adaptation effectiveness. Although awareness of the NAP was relatively high (63.7%), only 34.5% of respondents believed it addressed their climate challenges, and just 15.7% rated local adaptation initiatives as effective. All assessed resilience dimensions, including flood preparedness, livelihood resilience, infrastructure protection, and community awareness, remained below the desired threshold, with infrastructure protection performing worst.

The study concludes that while Liberia's NAP has stimulated adaptation actions, its effectiveness remains constrained by implementation challenges rather than policy design. It recommends strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems, decentralizing sustainable climate finance, enhancing institutional coordination and local government capacity, institutionalizing community participation, prioritizing coastal protection interventions, and addressing underlying socio-economic vulnerabilities to improve resilience in climate-vulnerable communities.

TRANSITION MANAGEMENT FOSTERING SUSTAINABLE PATHWAYS FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES TOWARD A LIVEABLE FUTURE: A CASE STUDY OF RAVENNA, ITALY
Breaking with established practices requires methodologies capable of overcoming inertia in societal systems. Transition management responds to this challenge by promoting transformative change through shared narratives, critical mass and legitimising analysis, rather than merely pursuing incremental improvements. It anticipates, accelerates and guides emerging changes across four interconnected dimensions: strategic/orienting, tactical/agenda-setting, operational/activating and reflexive/reflecting. These dimensions support problem structuring, coalition-building, stakeholder mobilisation and continuous learning.

The transition arena acts as a space for coordinating these activities and encouraging radical changes in both thinking and action. It provides direction, stimulates local initiatives, empowers communities and strengthens participants’ capacity for collective learning and self-organisation.

Drawing on the transition arena approach developed by DRIFT and tested within DARE, an Urban Innovative Actions project implemented in Ravenna, this paper examines how transition management was adapted to a specific local context. It focuses particularly on participatory visioning and experimentation as drivers of urban sustainability transitions. DARE explores how digital transformation can contribute to improving quality of life and supporting the regeneration of Ravenna’s Darsena district. Through dialogue, digital tools and citizen engagement, the project encourages the development of ideas, strengthens coherence between project activities and political priorities, builds shared stakeholder narratives and supports the local economy. Its combination of enabling activities and pilot actions provides insights into how transition management can facilitate place-based urban regeneration.

Mind the gap: evaluating implementation of urban climate plans in three Indian cities
In line with global trends, there has been a significant increase in urban climate action plans in India. There is growing literature on the implementation gap of global and national-level climate action; however, much less on the implemen¬tation of city-level plans. We review the implementation of climate action plans through detailed case studies of three large Indian cities—Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Mumbai, using a combination of content analysis of the plans, review of annual municipal climate budgets and in-depth interviews with 12 key practitioners in these cities. As frontrunners of urban climate planning and implementation, these three Indian megacities have made progress on implementation. This is evidenced in terms of institutional setup as well as identification and implementation of sectoral projects aligned with their immediate priorities. All three cities have dedicated at least a third of their annual municipal budget towards climate actions. However, there is limited evidence of whether intended objectives such as emissions reductions, adaptation ben¬efits or other co-benefits were achieved. Implementation challenges include inadequate data availability and governance and low technical capacity within the city governments resulting in heavy reliance on external consultants. The study dem¬onstrates an urgent need to align climate plans with local land-use plans, build in monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, improve accountability and build technical capacity of local government officials at all levels. Without these, it would be difficult to gauge if these plans are on track to meet their stated objectives.

Minal Pathak - The Climate Institute, Ahmedabad University, Navrangpura,
Ahmedabad 380009, India

Shaurya Patel - The Climate Institute, Ahmedabad University, Navrangpura,
Ahmedabad 380009, India

Nupur Joshi - Environmental Studies Department, Davidson College,
Davidson, USA 28035

From Evidence to Action: Lessons from an Urban Sustainability Program Evaluation
The GEF Sustainable Cities Program Evaluation: Lessons for Climate Action
Authors: Neeraj Kumar Negi, Mariana Calderon and Fatima Mumtaz
Affiliations: Neeraj Kumar Negi, Program Manager Corporate and Climate Evaluations, and Senior Evaluation Officer at the GEF Independent Evaluation Office, led the Evaluation of the GEF Sustainable Cities Program. Mariana Calderon, Analyst, and Fatima Mumtaz, Consultant, were members of the core team.

The Sustainable Cities Program (SCP) of the Global Environment Facility supports integrated urban sustainability across more than 90 cities in 33 countries, with US$480 million in GEF grants, cumulatively. Its two-tier architecture combines a Global Platform for knowledge exchange with national policy engagement and city-level investments in recipient countries. The evaluation finds that SCP has catalyzed policy change in several countries, mobilized substantial resources, and generated verified environmental gains through nature-based solutions, GHG emissions abatement, climate resilience, and biodiversity conservation. Its has also supported knowledge exchange and partner convening. The evaluation finds that two structural gaps constrain longer-term impact. First, integrated planning and pilot investments often proceed on parallel tracks: plans are not consistently linked to bankable investment pipelines, while successful pilots frequently reach project completion without adequate arrangements for replication and scale. Second, the Global Platform is insufficiently aligned with country project timelines and remains largely global in orientation, with limited localization. In response, the GEF management has committed to making investment readiness and pilot replication explicit expected outcomes in future programming and to better align Global Platform activities with country project timelines.