Climate smart infrastructure and school resilience – 7th CoP Gathering

Community of Practice for  climate-resilient and climate-conscious education

We are hosting our seventh gathering of the Community of Practice (CoP) for Climate-Resilient and Climate-Conscious Education.

Theme: climate-smart infrastructure and school resilience

A UNICEF and Dalberg report published this April lays out what many of us already sense but rarely see quantified: between 2005 and 2024, climate disasters caused an estimated US$1.3 billion in direct damage to school infrastructure across Eastern and Southern Africa alone, disrupting learning for 130 million children and resulting in up to US$140 billion in lost future earnings, a figure projected to reach US$380 billion by 2050. Yet for every US$1 invested in climate-resilient school infrastructure, the returns reach up to US$13 in reduced damage, protected learning, and preserved futures.

This session asks: what does genuinely climate-smart infrastructure look like in practice and how do we build the financing case to make it happen at scale?

We are running 90 minutes across three segments:

• Dalberg will open with the research, the financial scale of infrastructure damage, learning loss projections, and why the current financing moment matters.
• We will then move into a practical exchange: what does good actually look like? United World Schools will bring the practitioner perspective. UWS will share how they have spent the past decade building climate-resilient schools across Nepal, Cambodia, and Myanmar, from how they choose where to build, to what climate-smart construction looks like in practice, to how communities take ownership of what is built so it lasts.
• The final segment belongs to the room. What does this mean for your organisation? Where is your entry point? What would you ask of a funder or government if you had the floor?

Who is this session for:

This session is open to practitioners, researchers, and education leaders working on climate resilience across low- and middle-income country contexts, whether or not you have joined us before. If your work touches on school infrastructure, climate adaptation, or education financing, this conversation is for you.

You can access the full report here: Protecting Children’s Learning Futures: Quantifying Climate-Related Loss and Damage in Eastern and Southern Africa

More about Community of Practice (CoP) for Climate-Resilient and Climate-Conscious Education:

The Global Schools Forum early this year, launched a Community of Practice for Climate-Resilient and Climate-Conscious Education. Guided by the “Surviving (Receiver) & Thriving (Responder)” framework, this CoP focuses on practical, low-cost solutions from practitioners on the front lines. Structured in action-oriented sprints, we will build a repository of actionable resources, amplify a unified advocacy voice for future COPs, and serve as a strategic bridge to funders and policymakers.

This community thrives on the active participation of its members. Whether you come to listen, to share, or to lead, your voice matters.