Resilience and adaptation MERCAL refer to Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Certification, Accountability, and Learning, targeting adaptation and resilience interventions.
RE-MERCAL is based on the PRI’s developed Planetary Resilience Governance (PRG) framework.
To operationalize RA-MERCAL, we developed a systemic risk assessment methodology tailored for resilience interventions as opposed to existing evaluations that often prioritize short-term, sector-bound outputs over long-term, system-wide resilience outcomes.
The MERCAL cascade impact system assessment methodology is an evaluation mechanism that captures the recursive relationships among impact elements, including transformational opportunity loss, human and social risk, anthropogenic throughput pressure, and ecosphere disruption, in addition to the positive feedback loops among them.
This framework allows for just and risk-informed development, adaptation, and preparedness, meaning every intervention (infrastructure built, adaptation projects, environmental programs, resilience investment) enhances long-term system-wide resilience for all, across generations, and does not exacerbate risk and inequality. Therefore, organizations can
- Negative Impacts of resilience projects that are hidden, postponed, spatially shifted, or transformed
- Identify projects and policies that are funded for the increase of resilience but negatively impact socioecological institutional and systemic capacities
- Identify the cross-sectoral cascade risk propagation probability of investments and determine the reinforcing feedback loops via non-linear interactions of risks
- Enhance accountability for interventions and inaction at all levels
- Facilitate the development of solutions and amend projects before funding
- Conduct forensic analysis of what has gone wrong in previous projects and document the lessons learned
RE-MERCAL is PRI’s service for intergovernmental organizations, government offices, and NGOs. It provides: Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Certification, Accountability, and Learning for resilience and adaptation projects and programs.
The objective of MERCAL evaluation is to ensure the highest Planetary Resilience Return on Investment (PROI) for any intervention, whether policy, strategy, or investment in projects and products. PROI refers to the holistic net benefit of interventions in terms of their capacity to enhance or restore Earth system resilience (ecological, climatic, and biophysical stability) and protect social system (institutional, economic, and human well-being outcomes) relative to the resources invested.
Building on this framework, PRI offers a range of services, including
- Evaluation of projects’ Systemic Resilience Return On Investment by assessing the project’s long-term dynamic, systemic, institutional, ecological, and social risks, recommending changes and solutions
- Planetary impact evaluation of the proposal and project at the pre-funding phase, and third-party investor-ready resilience and maladaptive-proof certification
- Evaluating projects, proposals, strategies and policies based on their negative and positive contributions to systemic risks
- Audit and monitoring of ongoing projects, measuring the systemic planetary impact of completed projects, as well as extracting and documenting lessons learned
- Review and evaluation of design, strategies, policies, and plans for inclusion of resilience into development projects
- Review and evaluation of design, strategies, and plans for the inclusion of the social and ecological footprint into infrastructure development projects
- Evaluation and monitoring of resilience interventions, including Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management projects and programs
- Quality control and audit of resilience interventions, including Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management project outputs
- Conduct training and capacity-building programs