It is widely acknowledged that a transformational change is required to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius and to address the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities. Climate finance, and the action that it supports, must be designed to achieve fundamental systemic change in many sectors and every region of the world. How do we develop and implement programs at the speed and scale required by the climate crisis? What resources are available or required to achieve this level of change?
These are just some of the questions and themes explored during a three-day meeting of the Transformational Change Learning Partnership (TCLP). The meeting in Washington D.C. from October 4 to 6, 2022, was hosted by the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and brought together a diverse group of over 60 individuals from country governments, multilateral development banks, civil society, and climate funds to build a strategic plan to support transformational change through climate finance and associated action.
The TCLP facilitates collaborative sharing and learning amongst a community of practice committed to developing the concepts, methods, and metrics required to design, implement, monitor, evaluate, and refine climate action.
The diversity of participants, in terms of expertise, geography, and contexts, gives the TCLP its solid foundation, says Michael Ward, who leads CIF’s work on transformational change. Not only is the TCLP committed to a more inclusive, equitable, resilient, and sustainable world but, says Ward, partners are grappling with the implementation of transformational practices and then sharing the successes and failures as a basis for learning and change. He notes:
“By developing a working definition of transformational change and identifying key dimensions that must be present to achieve it, we have been able to craft a series of questions that guide the design, implementation, and review of contextually relevant transformational programs and projects.”
Learning from, and sharing with, partners
The TCLP meeting provided the opportunity to connect with and learn from others. Nathalie Mutalikanwa, a climate finance professional from Rwanda, says the meeting is a reminder of why applied learning is critical to building the TCLP: “We have had the opportunity to discuss at length and depth and breadth transformational climate finance. It has allowed us to share best practice, but also worse practice and it has been useful to exchange with different geographies that we often have no access to.”
Ibrahim Saylan from Türkiye sees the partnership’s diverse make-up as a strength and says working through the conceptual framework and the complexity of the topic is critical to building consensus on the definitions, methods, and other aspects of transformational change.
As Ibrahim notes: “It is important to listen to interest groups and different countries’ views, […] what they expect from transformational change, and what we can do to realize it. It’s a difficult issue with many aspects and dimensions but we need to reach a common understanding on it.”
Yaharia Vega works with indigenous communities in the Caribbean country of Belize. She found that the level of discussions and expertise available within the TCLP will help her take forward transformational change discussions in her country.
Yaharia says: “For me, this meeting is very important because it allowed me to identify various experts at a global level that will be able to interact with our national and local government organizations and CSOs [civil society organizations] to better implement and review the existing frameworks that are in place.”
The next phase of the partnership’s work is to support the operationalization of the conceptual framework of transformational change in climate finance and expand its focus beyond emerging practices, to implementation at scale. This work will focus on transforming evaluation approaches and addressing the barriers to transformational climate finance. The TCLP will also continue building its diverse partnership and extends an invitation to those with similar goals to join the initiative. For more information or to join the TCLP, please email CIFTCLP@worldbank.org or subscribe to the TCLP mailing list for the latest news on the TCLP’s work.