ENGAGEMENT PERIOD
2022
Room to Read
CLIENT
Mapping gender equality and climate justice programming in LMICs
Research & Policy Advocacy
Field-defining research and policy advocacy—generating evidence to shape policy and practice across interconnected systems, from education to the green and blue economy.
Explore →Data & Evaluation
Measurement, evaluation, and data systems that track climate impact and keep today's decisions accountable to future generations.
Explore →Instructional Design
Curriculum development and climate-integrated learning experiences across formal and non-formal systems—from early childhood to workforce development.
Explore →Workshop Design & Delivery
Capacity building and technical assistance—interactive experiences that shift mindsets and translate knowledge into practice.
Explore →Strategic Advisory
Strategy and advisory services that help organizations and leaders navigate complexity and drive systems change.
Explore →region
Global
Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Thematic area
Research & Policy Advocacy
PRIMARY SERVICE
— WHAT WE DID
- Scanned 88 actors across the four domains, narrowing to 19 for in-depth analysis
- Developed an original taxonomy of 11 programming areas to classify actors and guide future monitoring
- Conducted 13 informational interviews to validate findings
- Analyzed 80 publicly available curricular materials for topical focus and pedagogical approach
- Identified four critical gaps: near-absence of intersectional programming; overemphasis on technical green skills; insufficient focus on adolescent girls; and a predominant focus on individual over systems change
— THE IMPACT
The paper establishes the first systematic baseline of gender equality and climate justice programming for girls in LMICs. Its taxonomy of 11 programming areas gives practitioners, funders, and advocates a shared framework for designing more intersectional work—and a tool to track the field's ambition over time.
Solution
Seeding Climate Action through Girls' Education
— the CHALLENGE
Climate change is compounding gender inequality for adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries—disrupting their schooling, heightening risks of early marriage and displacement, and deepening existing vulnerabilities. Despite growing global advocacy for gender-transformative climate justice education, programming has not kept pace, leaving a critical gap between ambition and action for girls at the frontlines of the crisis.
— the CHALLENGE
Despite education's clear contributions to climate mitigation and adaptation, its potential to attract co-investment from climate finance remains significantly underutilised. The core problem is a gap in evidence and methodologies linking educational interventions to measurable climate outcomes—making it difficult for education projects to meet the eligibility criteria of many climate funders. Some climate benefits of education, particularly those dependent on behavioural change, manifest through complex, indirect causal chains over long timeframes, compounding the challenge.
Thematic area
PRIMARY SERVICE
— WHAT WE DID
Unbounded Alliance led the research, writing, and synthesis of this paper, commissioned through the CLEAN Help Desk (funded by FCDO).
• Developed a conceptual framework mapping five education pathways to climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience outcomes
• Conducted a rapid desk review of academic and grey literature on education's contributions to climate action
• Conducted expert interviews to fill gaps in the literature, including on methodologies for carbon markets and climate finance
• Assessed the strength of the evidence base for each pathway and identified data and methodology gaps
• Produced recommendations for how the education sector can strengthen its case for climate co-financing
• Integrated a GEDSI-sensitive lens throughout, examining equity and inclusion dimensions of climate finance for education
— THE IMPACT
The paper provides education and climate stakeholders with a comprehensive, actionable map of five pathways through which education investments can drive climate outcomes—from climate-smart school infrastructure to foundational learning—identifying where evidence is strong, where gaps remain, and how to unlock new climate finance opportunities. It positions education as a critical, investable climate strategy at a moment when both climate urgency and education funding pressures are acute.
Mapping gender equality and climate justice programming in LMICs
region
Global
Low- and Middle-Income Countries
— the CHALLENGE
Climate change is compounding gender inequality for adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries—disrupting their schooling, heightening risks of early marriage and displacement, and deepening existing vulnerabilities. Despite growing global advocacy for gender-transformative climate justice education, programming has not kept pace, leaving a critical gap between ambition and action for girls at the frontlines of the crisis.
— WHAT WE DID
- Scanned 88 actors across the four domains, narrowing to 19 for in-depth analysis
- Developed an original taxonomy of 11 programming areas to classify actors and guide future monitoring
- Conducted 13 informational interviews to validate findings
- Analyzed 80 publicly available curricular materials for topical focus and pedagogical approach
- Identified four critical gaps: near-absence of intersectional programming; overemphasis on technical green skills; insufficient focus on adolescent girls; and a predominant focus on individual over systems change
CLIENT
Room to Read
ENGAGEMENT PERIOD
2022
PRIMARY SERVICE
Thematic area
Learn more about
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— GET IN TOUCH
Research & Policy Advocacy
— THE IMPACT
The paper establishes the first systematic baseline of gender equality and climate justice programming for girls in LMICs. Its taxonomy of 11 programming areas gives practitioners, funders, and advocates a shared framework for designing more intersectional work—and a tool to track the field's ambition over time.
Solution
Seeding Climate Action through Girls' Education