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The global evidence-base on the effectiveness of climate change adaptation interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been rapidly growing in recent years, particularly in the agricultural and coastal sectors. This paper addresses the question of whether results are consistent across pre-defined types of interventions, and risk reduction vs. development-related outcomes using a systematic review of 363 empirical observations published in the scientific literature. At large, the quantitative data shows that adaptation interventions can be effective with regard to both risk reduction and development. That said, we found more evidence of risk reduction outcomes in the coastal sector and of development outcomes in the agricultural sector. Also, results show that nature-based solutions (NbS) have the strongest positive effects for both the coastal and agricultural sectors and across outcomes. Informational interventions also exhibit positive effects across outcomes in the agricultural sector. Social/behavioural interventions in the coastal sector show particularly negative effects on development-related outcomes that will need to be further tested. Taken together, our results highlight the opportunity for development and climate adaptation practitioners to promote co-benefits beyond risk reduction, particularly in the case of NbS. Further research shall combine quantitative analyses like this one with more qualitative syntheses.