IEFG BIG Series: Stand by for Action - How your funding can make a difference

How can education philanthropy make a real difference?  Throughout this series, we have examined strategic approaches and critical entry points for education philanthropy to effectively engage in climate education. From identifying leverage points and supporting teachers on the front lines, to fostering cross-portfolio integration and building partnerships with climate-focused funders, the path forward is becoming clearer.

In this final episode, we present concrete examples - individual, collaborative, and innovative - of education funders who are already demonstrating meaningful impact in advancing climate education. These cases illustrate the potential of strategic philanthropy to drive systemic change at the intersection of education and climate.

Hosted by Sally Vivyan from Gower Street, you will hear from: 

• Veronika Blach - TUI Care Foundation: Veronika is Head of Environmental Programmes at the TUI Care Foundation, where she is part of the programmes team that looks for and co-creates projects with global partners. In this role, Veronika developed over 60 projects in over 25 countries, including several environmental education projects that follow the TUI Junior Academy Programme model.
• Sophie Marple - Gower Street: Sophie is the co-founder of Gower Street, which supports education and climate work in the UK and Ghana. In 2020, she also helped set up Impatience Earth, a philanthropy consultancy offering pro-bono advice to people looking to give in the climate sector and the grassroots organisation Mothers CAN (Climate Action Network). In 2022, Sophie became the Chair of The Climate Coalition.
• Jorge Manhique - Disability Rights Fund: Jorge Manhique is a disability inclusive development practitioner, a disability rights advocate and PhD candidate at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Lisbon.
• Emma Gremley - International Rescue Committee: Emma is an international education and development expert with over 20 years of experience leading policy, programming, research, and implementation. Based in Nairobi, she currently serves as Senior Director for Education, Economic Recovery and Development at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she leads two of the organisation’s five global focus areas across more than 30 countries. 

Resources

• Investing in Disability-Inclusive Climate Justice: A Guide for Funders
• Risk Financing in Education scoping paper

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Transcript

Yasmein: Welcome back to the Brains in Gear podcast series by the International Education Funders Group (IEFG), where we explore the intersection of education philanthropy and the climate crisis.

In this episode, we ask an important question: How can education philanthropy make a difference? We explore how education philanthropy efforts can  actively contribute to shaping a more sustainable and equitable future. This conversation offers practical guidance on the actions funders can take, both individually and in collaboration with others, to drive meaningful climate impact through education.

Today’s episode is hosted by Sally Vivyan from Gower Street.

Sally: Welcome back to the big series on education philanthropy, and the climate crisis. I'm Sally, your host, and in this episode we're exploring what are the tangible, individual and collective actions education philanthropy can take to make a difference. In our previous episodes, we explored a rich landscape of opportunities for education philanthropy to engage with climate action. We highlighted a range of strategic entry points. From aligning operations, grant making and investment practices with climate goals to empowering teachers and fostering cross portfolio collaboration and partnerships across the philanthropic sector, these conversations build a strong foundation offering both inspiration and direction. In this episode, we're building on that momentum. We know that translating big ideas into tangible action can be a challenge, especially when the options are so varied. That's why today we'll spotlight concrete actionable steps that peers in the field have taken to begin or deepen their climate engagement actions that have already led to meaningful impact. Our goal is to provide a clear and motivating starting point for those ready to move from intention to implementation. Today we are joined by Veronika Blach from the TUI Care Foundation. 

Veronika: Thank you, Sally 

Sally: Jorge Manhique from the Disability Rights Fund. 

Jorge: Thank you so much. 

Sally: Sophie Marple, founder of Gower Street.

Sophie: Thanks. 

Sally: And Emma Gremley from the International Rescue Committee. 

Emma: Thanks. Thanks for inviting me to be part of this really interesting discussion. Happy to be here. 

Sally: Welcome to the podcast. It's great to have you all in today's episode. So today we're joined by education philanthropy leaders who, like many in the field, once felt overwhelmed about how to begin engaging with climate action. Yet each of them has since taken meaningful, tangible steps and their journeys offer valuable and insights. Could you share some of the ideas or initiatives that have proven effective within your foundation, and what are the important intersectional dimensions that should inform climate and education efforts? Veronika, I'm gonna come to you first. 

Veronika: Thank you, Sally. Hello everyone. So at the TUI Care Foundation, we have a program called the TUI Junior Academy, and the objective of that is to empower children to become eco champions through environmental education within their school and their communities. To also enable learning opportunities for young people from disadvantaged communities in tourism destination specifically. We've run 15 programs to date and we'll continue to support more in the future. Just to tell you a little bit about our journey with environmental education. So it started out as a simple way of connecting young people and tours and destinations. To experience the natural beauty in their country and to become inspired to be the protectors of nature. We had a really nice program, for example, in South Africa where students throughout the year learned about nature and wildlife and then as the extracurricular course, and then they were invited. To participate in a three day camp at the Kruger National Park. So they could actually apply and see all the wildlife that they learned about and go on some bush walks. But we wanted to do more. The experiences are amazing, but we wanted to figure out how to scale this concept and how to engage more stakeholders in supporting nature-based education. So essentially what we've managed to do over the years. Is three parts. One is turning these schools and education into hubs for the community. Also, creating an integral curriculum that not only is focused on delivering environmental education, but really becomes part of the ETHOS schools. And finally, it's also a way we've created to engage different ministries to collaborate. So just to give you some examples on the first one, we have this project in South Africa that is based in the township of Berra. The students there were learning about waste management in their classrooms, and then they managed to implement a working waste management system in their school, in their school grounds. But what they saw is that they kept seeing waste on the streets and alongside their school. So a group of eco champions, as we call them, had the really great idea to bring the community together and paint that mural that's on the roadside, and they painted all their football idols and that. Mural became kind of a beacon for the community to come together and really protect that area. So even passers by, they're the ones picking up litter if they see it there. So that just shows how, you know, a school can engage a community and can get everybody involved, you know, in something like Waste Management.

Jorge: Thank you so much, Veronica, for those insights. I really like the investments. TUI Foundation does in terms of developing resources, which I think in many places it's a piece that's missing resources, that shows how certain things can be done differently, but also in terms of how can they. Resources that exist within the community to, uh, on the, with low climate impact and so on and so forth. I would say, I mean, one thing we also are very keen within Disability Rights Fund is developing those resources, but also to ensure that peer intermediaries of funders also do develop those resources that accessible, and this is very important. Access everyone, including personal disabilities communicated in easy to understand ways and different formats. So that's very important and thanks for sharing that. I have two examples that I would like to share. The work that we do, disability Rights Fund was actually established in 2008 and. Established in response to fill a gap and specifically gap in terms of funding. It's a bit sad to say that since 2008 and to date that picture haven't changed in terms of funding, less than 3% or a bit more goes to disability. So funding for disability rights or for human rights, generally worldwide, less than 3% goes to disability. Right. The problem though is that. Resource that goes to other issues, which are equally important. You know, women's rights, indigenous rights, and so on and so forth. They tend to focus on these issues as a silo, right? And fail to understand that, you know, persons who belongs to indigenous community may be also a person's disabilities, or the same thing is true. So we may have personal disabilities that also belong to indigenous communities, to that belong to sexual minorities, and so on and so forth. And this is what, among other things, one of the things we try to spotlight on, right? And to invest on with resources that we manage to mobilize from funders, but also in terms of advocating for other funders and other intermediaries to also pay attention. To intersection inter of disability and identities. And one of the intersections is disability and climate change, which as I said, is very important to us in terms of education.

We do spend a lot of time and resources educating fellow funders and intermediaries, and I'm pleased to say that recently we actually concluded a guide that we call Disability Inclusive Climate Justice, A Guide for Funders. That we specifically develop to support funders, intermediaries, to understand, first, to understand how this intersection plays out, but also to support them in this transition to fund disability. So the intersection of disability and climate justice. And we understand that this, from the conversations that we have from with other donors. We understand that in many instances there's reluctant to engage in this kind of work simply because the natural fear of, uh, they're known, right? But also, you know, the fear of, um, being criticized for doing things not in the right way. So and so forth, and we think that this kind of resources and a space where they can go often for advice and so on, it's really important to support this transition and that's why we decided to engage and invest in collaboration with other entities. To develop this guide, guide. We do think that this is something that will benefit not only the community of persons with disabilities. Of course, we want to make sure that they actually on the forefront, they're actually the ones that are championing in the first place these issues. But we don't want personal disabilities to be alone in this fight. We at the same, the same time that we want funders to pay attention. To these issues. We also want personal disabilities and organizations of personal disabilities to also pay attention to this intersection. Although they are affected, and as I said, they are one of the groups that are most affected by effects of climate change in many places. They wouldn't engage intentionally in these issues because they don't understand very well on how to put, let's say, a proposal that, you know, addressed this intersection. So our perculation with this guide was also to, in a way, to pass that message that it's possible and there are funders and intermed out there that may be interested to support you develop those applications. And also they may have funding available to support this kind of initiatives. And I'm really excited and look forward to see how will this guide contribute in the real world to change this scenario.

Veronika: I second what Jorge was saying. You know, turning to a project that we have in Jamaica that's a really nice one where we are working actually with an inclusive school, the first inclusive school in Jamaica, where students with disabilities but also without disabilities come together. And there we worked with them iInitially their main focus was on inclusivity, but when we started working with them, we saw that actually we need to talk about climate, we need to talk about sustainability. 'cause these are all topics that are affecting the community and the parents of those students. An important step there first step was to bring teachers and principals together and give them some training and some environmental education actually developing a curriculum and they develop the curriculum together, which we think is a really important step because that way you make the content relevant and you get all the actors involved from the beginning. What we managed to achieve there beyond greening the curriculum, is also greening the school grounds. So that meant introducing solar energy, water harvesting, waste separation, and also a vegetable and herb garden where they applied permaculture. So it's not just about having that infrastructure, it's also about the students engaging with it. Every school grade has a end of year science project, so that was quite amazing to see that they've taken even one step beyond an extracurricular activity. And what's important to note there is that it's not just about environment. They're learning about physics. We have this solar panel system where you can actually see the wires and you can count how much energy it's generating. So that's really an important tool and it shows that environments also has physics involved in it. You know, there is really content in there, but it's tangible and you can see it happen in real time. And finally, the example I wanted to bring is from our project in Dominican Republic. So there are partners who are working with not only schools. To develop an environmental curriculum, but they also involved key members of Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Education, so hand in hand, they developed this curriculum and that was incredibly valuable when it came around to a crisis like COVID. During COVID times when schools were completely shut, the ministries of Education asked our partner to actually deliver. The environmental content that they had developed, they provided this essentially service nationwide, so all students across Dominican Republic could connect digitally to this content. So I thought that was quite an amazing example and shows the collaboration that is needed and is possible. I think the guidance that I would give is to really look at education more creatively, to engage different stakeholders, but also examine how education can improve the resilience of the wider community. You have community members engaging with the schools. We also have examples where we have these groups of eco champions that they're trying to create actions cleanups within the communities. They're also engaging the parents of the students to come and learn about permaculture at their gardens, at their school. So that just shows you a way that we can look at education more broadly and not just focusing within the school. 

JorgeL Thank you so much, Veronika, for those insights. The other  example I wanted to share, it's a grant which we group that we wanna support, which support youth. In general to engage in climate. Change negotiation. This is from the understanding that, um, in the climate change negotiations, you know, that happens at cop and you know, at the country level, youth are underrepresented. So negotiators are mainly, you know, all the adult and all the male individuals that they engage in this negotiations. So this group support youth with disabilities to be more active in climate change negotiation. And our support is to make sure that this group. Also pay attention to youth with disabilities in this group. But really in terms of focus internally on their own structure. So to look on their own protocols, on their own procedures, in their own curriculum. So one of the activities is really to develop is swap their curriculum to make sure that also reflects a disability aspect, but also to ensure that the way the curriculum is delivered is inclusive of personal disabilities. And this is huge for us because we want to make sure that the program itself is inherently inclusive with or without their support. They will still be able to engage youth with disabilities. They'll still be able to ensure that youth disabilities are represented within the group of youth that they do support. To be climate change negotiators, ultimately is to make sure that the deliberations at the country level, at the regional level, at international level, they also do take into consideration the needs and rights of personal disabilities, and that's what we want to see. 

Sophie: Thanks, Jorge. It's amazing to hear the intersectional work. We kind of come at the education climate discussion kind of from the other side. We're set up as an education trust, but then in 2018 we pivoted almost all the funding into climate, which was an incredibly overwhelming experience. So my first bit of advice I'll give to any funder who currently funds an education is thinking about the intersection with climate is it is overwhelming. It is overwhelming, but the thing is, it is happening and it's an existential crisis. It is not an issue. Climate is not an issue. It is an existential crisis that is gonna affect absolutely everything, all the philanthropic causes that we have been backing, and most foundations often back them in a siloed thinking way, as in I'm an education funder. Climate sits at the Nexus, it's just gonna make everything worse. So it's kind of like the red thread that goes through all these different philanthropic causes. So I think from us coming in it, from a kind of climate perspective, we did have kind of the education knowledge because we had partners who we could call on to help bring those two things together. But I have to say it's definitely been a journey and it's something that for every funder, you've just gotta. Go for it. And you've gotta, you've gotta start funding somewhere. Start thinking about where your partner's lying and how you can bring 'em together. So that's really, at Gower  Street, what we've done is we fund, and we do quite a bit of funding in Ghana, and we brought together our climate partners and our education partners. We started really with the climate partners and said, actually, in education, what would you. Do. Where have you got contacts? And then we brought in our education contacts and we sort of brought them together. We've convened them and spent time thinking about the best way of working together. And it's not been that easy, to be honest. It's not been very straightforward. It's a really complicated subject. And also it's not like there are some examples of like, if you just do this here, you can do the same. Over here. We've found each community is different. Each community is experiencing climate impacts differently. And so what you're teaching in the schools and how the schools engage is different in different places. And also how you engage a community is different in different places. But I think if you start first with partners and where they're at, and then work with them to see how they can bring it into schools effectively. 'cause they're the people with the resources, they're the people with the contacts. Then as much, what we've done is by convening our partners, we have shared as much learning as possible. What we haven't done is said, you will have to do it like this. But what we have done is saying, well, actually, if you'll learn from each other, we can start progressing this agenda more effectively.

Emma:  Thank you, Sophie. Absolutely. So philanthropic investment will be vital for the continued progress towards resilient education systems. IRC is a humanitarian organization, recognizes that climate change represents an urgent. Humanitarian crisis, and often those most affected are already impacted by crisis and displacement. But it's worth noticing these extreme weather events are increasingly affecting all children regardless of where they live.

And this growing emergency really was the driver behind the development of IRCs Climate Resilient Education System trial, or Crest, as we call it, which is supported and funded by the FCDO. So the trial was designed to ensure children are safe and well and learning during periods of school disruption caused by climate events.

And at the core of Crest is pre-agreed, financed and pre-agreed responses. So making sure that the funds and the activities are in place in advance of a crisis, so they're available immediately when needed. With FCDO funding from funding IRC is working with Africa Risk capacity limited to arrange parametric insurance. So this means that when a predefined climate trigger is met, it will release a payout, which IRC uses to deliver a number of responses. Firstly, we deliver unconditional cash transfers to affected families. And these cash transfers are really a lifeline. They allow families to reduce reliance on harmful coping strategies, but they also ensure that we know where families are and we can re-enroll children in school once the crisis is passed. And this is really important because we discovered after COVID that many children and families couldn't be traced and therefore never returned to school. But the payout also covers the cost of. Crest's education platform. So one of the biggest challenges in delivering education after a crisis is the lack of appropriate materials that are in the right language and at the right level, which means education often supplies materials of varying quality that are sent in, and everyone hopes for the best, which is not ideal if we want to guarantee learning. Because Crest is pre-planned, so the design and the preparation phase were funded by FCDO, and we worked with the government in Kenya to design these materials. It meant that they were already in the right language at the right level, and they can be delivered remotely via WhatsApp or SMS to support foundational literacy numeracy. Social emotional learning and child protection, which means less is left to luck, and it's more about design and and about the effective delivery of education. Philanthropic investment through pre-agreed finance will be vital for the continued progress towards resilient education systems. In this context, IRC has endorsed FC D's proposal to scale up pre-agreed finance, aiming to raise it from 2% to 20% by 2035. And this initiative is set to launch at the Seville Conference on financing for sustainable development, and marks a real shift from crisis reaction to readiness and presents a key and opportunity for philanthropic alignment around this initiative as well. 

Sally: Thank you everybody. We've had some really fascinating examples of how individual foundations address this intersection from programs to resources for the sector to whole organizational approach, but creating opportunities for education philanthropies to come together. Whether it's through regular meetings, workshops, or other learning spaces is also essential for making meaningful progress on climate action. These spaces and gatherings offer a chance to share experiences, discuss challenges, and learn from one another's successes and setbacks. They also help funders reflect on their own approaches, build partnerships, and find practical ways to integrate climate into their existing work. So for the next question, with that in mind, what collective actions would you suggest education, philanthropy take as they start or grow their climate efforts? And Jorge, I'm gonna come to you first for this one. 

Jorge: Thank you, Sally. One thing we actually, we launched recently as part of our new Strategic Planet Disability Rates fund is specific pillar of work that we call learning. And with that. What we kind of have in mind is treatings. One is to encourage grantees to learn from each other in spaces and countries where we work. We do facilitate that through annual convenings that we do put together, and we do fund where we bring in organizations of personal disabilities that all different T issues, including climate. This is really a space where they can learn strategies, they can learn from lessons that didn't work and things that. Work from some and that perhaps the others can try. And the fact that we work, I mean, across the global, so that gives a perspective from African organizations across disabilities to learn from organizations that are working and based in Pacific Islands or in Asia. So on and so forth. So that's something that we do value and the groups that we work with also value, and I'm saying that because we tend to see some of these strategies that they learn from each other on day when they apply for funding, you know, when they draft new proposals and so on and so forth. So that gives creativity and so on and so forth. The second thing is our own learning. I think being we have. Constant learning on the intersection, of course, but also on how best to serve the community that we wanna support. From our side, we are very cognizant to the fact that traditional funding has been, you know, very near colonial and we are very conscious and not perpetuate some of those practices. And one way of doing it is to learn from the community that. We on. How do they think is the best way to serve and to facilitate, to support them and to conduct the work that needs to be done. The third thing is to, again, educate funders, more peer advocacy, and in that conversation we also bring in personal disabilities. So one of the things that we do learn, we did learn. From our own work rights fund defines itself as a participatory, is really to. Listen, person with disabilities, so it's not disability rights fund that educate other fund, but we do connect other founders with personal disabilities and encourage them to engage with personal disabilities before they implement any program they want to do, either in their inter successional disability in climate, but in any other field and intersection. And this is something that. We also, from those intermediaries and funders that have tried this, we have kind of received feedback and they seem to appreciate that something which is really important is to also understand that, I mean, we talk about disabilities, but disabilities very, it's not a normal, genius kind of  group. So we have different groups that have different needs. So it's really important to make sure that whatever the group, the constituency that we engage with is diverse. And it's not only, you know, person with physical disabilities that we are talking with, but we also take into consideration that the fact that they're person with other types of disabilities and person with psychosocial disabilities and so on and so forth. The last thing I wanted to share here is that in this collaboration with organizations, personal disability is really important to value the time that person with disabilities invest. Provide and share this knowledge. And this is very important because often these groups, so the organizations personal disabilities, the underresourced groups that people that are working in there, they're mostly voluntary, uh, working on, on a voluntary basis. They're not staff. They don't have any salary. We really have to make sure that whatever we invite them to. Support or to share insights. We really value the time and knowledge by putting in place some retribution, some kind of retribution and so on and so forth. This is really important to, again, as part of also to this effort to avoid extractivism and so on and so forth. Of course, whatever we give them would not equally to the knowledge that they will share with us. But in terms of recognition, the intention should be there and we really need to value, therefore that they put in sharing this. Thank you. 

Sophie: Thanks, Jorge. Like you, Gower Street works very much from the grassroots. We are all about what is happening in the communities. Rather than being a top-down approach about what we want to achieve as an organization, we're very much looking to the communities to see what they can bring in, what, what we can learn from them, and then ensure we have that peer to peer learning. So that we're learning, they're learning, and we're all doing this together in terms of bringing funders and educating funders and finding that the kind of collaborative organizations, to be honest with you, when we began to move into climate with education, we didn't find really very many resources. We didn't find very many organizations that were doing this. We. I thought it was actually not a very well served community, really. And so we are really, really pleased to be part of our IEFG and be part of the climate corner and having these podcasts so that we can learn from others and so that we can share learnings. It's so important. As I said before, I think the siloed thinking has meant that climate and education has not come together that often. And I think this is a real start. This is a real opportunity and it's a real opportunity to learn from each other. 

Veronika: Thanks for that, both of you. I think that this word community keeps coming up in our conversation, and I think that really is where we need to start thinking about our experience. We've worked on the community level, we've worked on the regional level, and we've worked on the national level through our projects and through our partners. But what we also saw is that maybe we also need to think collectively on an international level, thinking about, you know. Pivoting. You know, there's so many challenges in pivoting to this climate education space, and there's a lack of funding and there's a lack of time. I think that's also another thing we need to realize. So we recently got together with the Southport Global and IUCN and the Canadian Wildlife Federation to launch. A new space, and this is a space where the goal is to bring together a group of people from many different disciplines, from many different backgrounds across the globe to come together and discuss nature-based education and how do we create a roadmap for governments and for all the different stakeholders, also educators. To start talking about environmental education, start implementing some of those actions. You know, we're talking about it, but how do we actually make it worth our wild? How do we decide where to invest our time and where do we decide to invest our funding? I think those are the very big questions we're asking ourselves, but together with this initiative, I think it's really great for two reasons. One is that the group is very international, interdisciplinary and intergenerational. We're gonna have 40 people coming together, policy makers, academics, civil society organization, funders and educators all coming together and discussing this topic of. Nature based and climate education, the potential there is really to cross pollinate, to think of what can we actually do together and how do we make sure that all the voices you know, that we've been talking about as well today are heard and are involved in making those decisions. So like I mentioned before, time and resources are the valuable resources and we each really identify priorities. So I think it's really important to develop approaches that are. Quick, you know, you have that in entrepreneurship. Try quickly, fail fast to learn quickly. So I think that's really important to try to do that. And we're gonna do that with this initiative in just four months. We're going to learn and deepen our understanding about how nature-based education can play a role within the global biodiversity framework targets. So there we're looking at this really international framework and trying to see how can we Come up with approaches. How could we come up with actions at all levels below that, you know, at the national, regional, and community level, and make sure that it's actually an approach from the bottom up, but also top down. So they come together and we try to bridge that gap. So the first step is definitely understanding and deepening our understanding of how nature-based education can play a role. The second one is to focus on key questions. So we need to ask ourselves, what do we need to ask ourselves? And we can only then think about solutions when we understand that. And then we can only develop measures once we understand what the real question is. And then finally, the goal is to design a roadmap and to support systems with regards to embedding nature-based education at the national and international level. And then what we're going to do as a final step is to validate this roadmap. So with high level policy makers, we're going to meet at a side event at the UN General Assembly, and we're going to develop a call to action that's going to be shared at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in October. So it's quite a tight schedule. We need to do this very quickly. It might not be perfect, but it'll be something, and it'll be a call to action that everybody can engage with. The final step, and really the most important step to make this relevant is to disseminate these findings. To try and implement those actions that are identified. Try to implement the roadmap at those different levels, not just national and regional levels, but also at the school level, at the community level, and see if it's relevant and if it's not, identify why not? And then keep building on that roadmap and keep creating more content and more findings to learn so that everybody around the world can learn about that. I just wanted to highlight that program that we're running. 'cause I think that that really realizes, and I think it's gonna be quite a, quite a revolutionary approach, really multi-stakeholder, really diverse, and hopefully really impactful. 

Emma: Thanks Veronica. Yeah, so we see Crest not just as a crisis response tool, but as a proof of concept that shows how the education sector can become more risk informed, more forward-looking and better prepared. We also recognize a challenge. Philanthropic actors are still underrepresented in this space, but that gap is also our opportunity. I think it's important to mention that we don't support through Crest, and this was a very clear choice, the rehabilitation of schools themselves, because that is the remit of government and it's a core part of the social contract. If education systems are to become truly resilient, it's going to require. Government and the international community to work together. And I think this is a crucial point, and this is where we see three potential entry points for education philanthropy. The first is through supporting national systems to plan and mobilize finance, so philanthropy can play a catalytic role in supporting government. Mobilizing domestic finance to include education in their wider resilience and pre-agreed finance plans. That's either through technical assistance or investment in data systems. There's a couple of examples. The second area is in investing in evidence and scaling. So private foundations and philanthropy can fund the data, the research and the advocacy needed to link new financing mechanisms to broader education systems reform, ensuring pilots like Crest can scale through government and multilateral platforms. The third, and this is the, the crucial area I really want to talk about is through joining a, a growing group of innovators in the education space to realize an education resilience finance pact. Now, IRC has been working with the World Bank over the past eight months or so to scope what taking an education sector lens to pre-agreed finance can look like. So that means rather than creating entirely new pre-agreed finance instruments, rather it's about integrating. Pre-agreed finance into existing education sector funding at the sovereign level, while promoting greater coordination, coherence, and cost efficiency within the wider humanitarian space. As a practical example, what that means is including pre-agreed finance. Through mechanisms such as contingency funds or lines of credit debt pauses, or insurance into new sovereign level funding from GPE or the World Bank ida, or risk layering education cannot waits first response funds, for example. None of this requires new money. Rather, it's about. Introducing proper risk planning and resilience, pre-agreed finance into existing funds and country allocations from these multilaterals, so the education systems are better prepared for shocks. At the same time, the international community, local actors, low cost private schools, can work together to form an education resilience network. Which can pre-plan local responses to ensure education, continuity, and children's wellbeing are looked after during periods of school disruption. This could take a similar approach to Chris to cover cash for families and pre-positioned quality education responses by working together across a range of actors. Geographies, and that means we can scale much more quickly and efficiently than any single organization could ever do. So philanthropy could support these models by funding pre-agreed finance, either in tandem with the multilaterals at the sovereign level, or at the international community level. Through the Education Resilience Network and through commitment to the education Resilience finance Pact. I honestly believe that philanthropy's greatest value doesn't lie in filling gaps, but in creating spaces for breakthrough. And as the climate crisis intensifies, education really needs bold ideas and bold partners more than ever. And if philanthropy uses their funding and their influence to trial, proactive investment in education, system resilience rather than re, it could really signal a shift in creating a much more resilient education sector.

Sally: Great. Thanks everybody. So in that last segment, we've heard about a lot of new initiatives in this space, which is really exciting and a real kind of ethos of learning whilst doing. But you've all been involved in this intersection for a while, and throughout your journey in climate education, you've probably encountered a range of experiences. Some approaches that proved effective, others that may have evolved over time. So for this last short reflection segment, we're gonna ask whether it's resources you follow, programs you've engaged with, or organizations that have influenced your thinking. What has consistently worked well for you? What would you recommend to other education, philanthropy leaders as valuable practices? Sources of insight in this space, and I'm gonna come to you first again. 

Jorge: Thank you. So now go back to one of the things I mentioned and other colleagues also mentioned, which has to do with participation. Again, that's how we define ourself as, um, participatory mechanism, participatory grantmaker. And really the advice is for other founders and intermediary is to one day. Are making certain decisions, specifically decisions that will impact the community that they serve. You really have to think. I mean, who is not on the table, right? I think that question is, is really important. To pause every time, you know, and in each place where decisions are made. So who is not on the table. It's really important. And then take actions to ensure that those that are not on the table, they're actually, um, able to be and participate in the table. And when we talk about. Personal disabilities. Simply inviting someone, let's say someone with visual impairment to participate, let's say in this podcast, without taking into account the accommodation needs that the person needs to effectively participate. That's the same thing equals exclusion. It's not participation, right? So this is the second thing I think we need to be mindful is make sure that the decision making forums, they're accessible to everyone, including personal disabilities. That includes make sure that information, it's accessible. I mean, for you to be able to.

Decision, uncertain thing. You need to have information. So we have to make sure that the, the information that's circulated, it's accessible. Different audiences. So this is, this is, again, very important. And again, I'm talking about participation and. Participatory grant making, but that's not, there's one way, one way to do it. And perhaps there's no perfect way to do it. And again, the recommendation that'll I'll leave is to constantly improve your practices. So your participatory practices, right? Again, by learning from the community, but most importantly is to start doing it. And I'm saying this because there are many intermediaries, there are many funders that are free Start because it, I mean, they don't feel comfortable. But I would say the most effective way to learn is to learn by doing. Right. And I would encourage everyone to start to give that first step and then be open to learn as you progress. 

Veronika: Thank you for that. Yeah. I think from our side, maybe the biggest learning is view education like an ecosystem. So an education system doesn't live in a vacuum, lives in the community. When you start thinking about it that way, you can ask interesting questions. What knowledge is missing potentially? Can schools be a tool in addressing these challenges? Students are the future. Their parents are connected to those students, so we've seen that time and time again in our programs where. The parents are actually going to the teachers and saying, I got scolded from my 3-year-old telling me I need to separate my waist and I can't just throw that along the road. So, you know, there's so many anecdotes like that that really show that school can have a lot more impact. That education is a lot more than. Just the classroom. You need to look outside of the classroom. And then I second what George was saying, you know, be action focused. It does help to think about what the best approach is, but it's also important to do that quickly. And it's important to pilot certain ideas to accelerate that impact. You can always pivot. You can always, you know, make adjust. But I think it's really important to take action as quickly as possible. And then the other learning is that it really needs to be localized and that, you know, if you want to involve a school, they need to have a say. You know, it doesn't help to have the best designed curriculum and just hand it to a principal for them to integrate in their school. That doesn't work. There has to be a collaborative approach. They have to add their own flavor for it to be relevant to them and their community.

Sophie:  Thanks. I totally agree. I mean, I think we're probably all very much aligned here that, um, my biggest advice would be is, you know what I've said, longly is start with your existing partners. I think asking questions. I mean, particularly for us, we, we don't live in Ghana. We know a lot about Ghana. We're not resident there, so we really do rely on our partners. To help us understand the context. And so we're all about asking lots of questions. And also just also not assuming that when our partners don't necessarily like work in education, that they won't know about education. Many of them, well obviously, all of them through education, and many of them are parents, so they have some connection. They've got that knowledge. So really bringing that out and I think. Sharing the knowledge. And what we have definitely found is like putting partners from the climate, from education together. It's amazing what comes out. And I think for us it's just not having to fix an agenda. Don't go in with the answer. Go in with the questions, be curious. Find the texture that's gonna really. Bring out the best in any type of interventions. And I think that is how you can move fast because these are the people embedded in the communities. They're the people who really do know how to navigate the systems effectively. And I think, yeah, it could be very easy to think we know the answer is a funded, really think I very, very rarely know the answer, but what I can do is I can provide funding so that someone else can help find that answer. I can bring the convening, I can bring the people together. I can make that happen, but I'm not the one with the answer. That's for sure. And I think for us forums like this, like the IEFG, just bringing funds together and again, being curious and seeing what other people have done and what they're doing and, and have the conversations and don't kind of keep it to yourself and don't think, well, this is my strategy I'm doing that they're not quite on strategy. How have they succeeded? What have they done and what do they want to do? Bring them on the journey with you. It's going back to what we've all said. It's not about siloed thinking. It's about really like collaborative thinking and it's about that bringing everyone together and yeah, I'd say with not with too fixed and agenda, just see what comes out.

Emma: Thank you, Sophie. So one of the most consistently valuable approaches. In the work we've been engaged on with education and climate and finance has been bringing together learning solutions and colleagues from this in different spaces. So connecting those dots across all those different sectors and even sectors beyond education. So we've worked really closely with. Colleagues from different parts of the IRC, but also with colleagues from the FCDO, the World Bank, the Center for Disaster Protection, G-P-E-E-C-W, arc Limited, and colleagues in the livestock sector, and also the agriculture sector who have been much more engaged in some of these innovative types of pre-agreed finance, such as parametric insurance. And all of this engagement has been invaluable for insight and collaboration. Building on that collaboration, what I'd recommend to education philanthropy leaders. Is to think about how you can support localization and community ownership. I didn't have time to go into it earlier, but a lot about Crest has been done with and through the local community, so we've seen the most success where climate education is really localized and rooted in specific risks and realities that communities face, and we've learned the most lessons there. I would also say prioritizing a multi hazar. Risk reduction strategy that connects this sort anticipatory action. Early approaches with long-term resilience, building and climate adaptation alongside social protection efforts and ensuring these efforts extend to education systems, schools, teachers, and children is really important. Joining, again. Joining. Joining all those dots between the whole continuum of resilience from anticipation right through to response is really crucial for philanthropic funders as well. Funding flexible crisis response, delivery methods and models is really, really important. So in fragile setting. Climate shocks often disrupt education altogether, but also can mean families are on the move. Families are forced to change locations, and there's a tendency to resort to negative coping mechanisms. So taking a really holistic approach and being flexible in what. Fund is really critical to making a meaningful response. And lastly, philanthropies unique value could lie in its risk tolerance. So more than bilateral funders, philanthropies have the opportunity to catalyze scalable system level innovation and take more risks in trialing new ideas than the bilateral donors often can. And so putting that to good use could be really crucial in the climate space when we're learning so much so quickly. We know at the moment the traditional donor landscape is shifting and education has always been and continues to be chronically underfunded. And this is where philanthropic organizations and private sector partners can make a real difference. So investments in innovative, cost-effective and scalable programs, which address climate and education don't just support learning. They drive stability, wellbeing, and really create hope for the future. 

Yasmein: We hope you found this episode insightful. Today’s discussion highlighted a range of promising strategies and initiatives within the education philanthropy sector. From the TUI Junior Academy, which equips children to become eco-champions through environmental education, to grantmaking efforts that directly support youth-led climate action, our speakers showcased how philanthropy can contribute meaningfully to a more sustainable future. A key theme throughout the discussion was the importance of inclusive action. Our speakers emphasized the value of participatory grantmaking and the need to ask, at every decision-making point: Who isn’t at the table? Ensuring that marginalized voices are represented, heard, and meaningfully included is essential,  particularly for communities disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.

We also learned about innovative financing initiatives aimed at strengthening resilience in the education sector, such as the Climate-Resilient Education Systems initiative. These efforts are still emerging within the education philanthropy space and, while they present challenges for direct philanthropic engagement, our speakers identified three clear entry points for funders: First, by supporting national policy processes that plan and mobilize climate finance for education.  Second, by funding the data, research, and advocacy required to link innovative finance mechanisms with broader education system reforms.  And third, by joining a growing coalition of leaders and organizations working toward an Education Financing Pact,  a collective commitment to more resilient, climate-responsive education systems.

These insights reinforce the need for philanthropy to evolve, to operate more collaboratively, more inclusively, and with a clear commitment to long-term systems change at the intersection of education and climate.

This podcast is produced by the International Education Funders Group (IEFG). It was curated and edited by Yasmein Abdelghany, with post-production by Sara Miles. To learn more about IEFG, please visit www.iefg.org, and subscribe to the podcast for further conversations on education philanthropy and the climate crisis,