11.2 Introduction

We all work within specific contexts, each with their own sociological characteristics, ecological boundaries, challenges, and opportunities. In addition, collectively we need to make choices to sustain social programs in a resource-constrained environment. How do we prioritize the right interventions for the right people, according to the place and time? How do we determine if an intervention meets the needs of individuals and the community’s commitments? How do we make sure we fund and implement interventions that will have beneficial outcomes for society (Robinson, 2018)? All these questions speak to the intervention’s relevancy and the need to examine the alignment between the socio-environmental context and the intervention.

The question of relevance is part of many different evaluation exercises. It is related to needs assessment and it is often a criterion in spending reviews (Robinson, 2018; Rossi et al., 2019).

In a context where life is threatened, the environmental conditions and their relationships with interventions should be integrated into needs assessment exercises. Further, recognizing that disruptive climate change events will happen more frequently and affect the risks communities will face, a prospective view needs to be implemented when assessing an intervention’s relevance.