Advancing Evaluation and Learning on Transformational Change: Lessons From the Climate Investment Funds’ Transformational Change Learning Partnership

Abstract

Inspiring the transformational changes required to address the climate crisis, as well as other global challenges, requires acting boldly and taking risks. New approaches that integrate transformational change thinking and concepts into evaluations, and that further deepen the nexus of evaluation and learning, are urgently needed. In 2017, Climate Investment Funds established the Transformational Change Learning Partnership (TCLP) within its Evaluation and Learning Initiative to facilitate an evidence-based learning collaboration on transformational change in climate action. The TCLP developed and implemented a set of frameworks for evaluating transformational change, including dimensions, stages, and signals of transformational change in climate action. Building on this work, we have arrived at several reflections related to making evaluation a more potent tool in understanding transformation. Let us embrace this challenge and leverage the potential of evaluation to contribute to a safer, more sustainable, and more prosperous world for all.