The importance of monitoring, evaluation and learning in the Just Transition

With rising global temperatures and associated impacts on countries and communities, numerous countries around the world have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, South Africa included. This is being done to limit temperature increases and reach net zero emissions by mid-century. If a transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient, green economy is to be effective and importantly just, countries will need to employ effective systems to track progress and retrogressions.

In February this year, the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), World Resources Institute and the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency hosted a workshop on Tracking Just Transitions attended by monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) practitioners from around the world, particularly Africa, Central and South America and Asia.

It was clear from the workshop that many developing countries around the world are grappling with the very question above and are developing and tweaking MEL systems in an effort to track progress, identify gaps and measure the impact of their transitions. What was abundantly clear, was the importance of MEL systems and learning in a just transition to ensure that mistakes made in past development scenarios, were not repeated.

Justice Elements

The triple burden of poverty, inequality and unemployment has plagued South Africa for decades, with minimal improvements in development indicators. In 2022, the PCC published a Just Transition Framework (JTF), which was developed through broad engagement and consensus-building. The JTF can be used as a blueprint for various departments and organisations to guide and align just transition projects, while ensuring that development in South Africa is not impacted by a just transition, or that the impacts are minimised. A just transition that is not in tandem with socioeconomic development in the country is unsustainable and regressive.

The JTF shows strong commitment to the principles of procedural, restorative, and distributive justice. Procedural justice refers to due process in the application or implementation of a just transition, particularly related to meaningful engagement with vulnerable and impacted communities. Restorative justice speaks to rectifying or minimising negative impacts on communities. It aims to ensure that there is redress for past, current, and future injustices that emanate from a just transition, noting South Africa’s history and current developmental challenges. Distributive justice aims to ensure that all risks and opportunities resulting from a just transition will be fairly distributed, with cognisance of gender, race, and class. It is essential that affected communities and workers do not carry the full burden of a transition.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The just transition is an opportunity to reimagine our economy and society and to address South Africa’s socioeconomic and governance challenges. For this to be successful, the M&E of the just transition is essential for course correction and replication, especially at a project level. A strong M&E system provides for engagement, transparency, and accountability which enhances its effectiveness. A basic MEL system will assist with the identification of progress and gaps and importantly anticipate potential problems timeously. 

An effective MEL system can track inclusion, equity, due process, and the impact of interventions on vulnerable groups, such as workers, women, and poor communities. This can assist to build trust within affected communities.

The tracking workshop hosted by the PCC clearly illustrated that there is a need for collaboration and sharing on how the less technical aspects of the just transition are measured – particularly the justice elements. Lessons on how to effectively, timeously, and frequently engage communities and workers, without making the process onerous were shared. We also found that in wanting to measure and report on all aspects of a just transition – countries and professionals often stymied all reporting progress. It may therefore be important to temporarily prioritise the measurement of some outcomes over others, to gently nudge the process on.

Learning

Often omitted from a monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) system is the L. Learning is essential for course correction and replication of just transition frameworks and projects. While the M&E is needed for due process, transparency, accountability and justice, the learning is important for measuring impact and tweaking the MEL system to work better.

Eskom’s Komati Power Station, in Mpumalanga, reached the end of its economic life and it was decommissioned between 2018 and 2022. In 2023, the PCC, on advice from the President, conducted an evaluation of the decommissioning process, to evaluate the extent to which the process and early outcomes at Komati met the principles of procedural, distributive, and restorative justice.

Following this, the PCC published its findings detailing findings and recommendations for the future of Komati and importantly, for future decommissioning projects. Following the adoption of the report, the PCC initiated a work programme to accelerate progress at Komati. Without these findings, this decommissioning process would have been a lost opportunity for future decommissioning projects that are scheduled for the next few years. This means that South Africa would have learnt nothing on how to effectively engage affected communities, or how to minimise impacts of the decommissioning on workers, the coal value chain, and communities.

Yuri Ramkissoon, Senior Manager, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Presidential Climate Commission.

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