Effective stakeholder engagement is essential for delivering ambitious climate action, but there is no single approach that works in every context.
Learning from implementation and using evidence to continuously improve project design and delivery is an important part of the Mitigation Action Facility’s approach. The latest Learning Study brings together findings from Evaluation and Learning Exercises across 19 implementation projects, alongside insights from four projects in the Detailed Preparation Phase (DPP), to identify lessons that can strengthen stakeholder engagement across the portfolio.
The study finds that projects use a wide range of approaches to engage the actors needed for implementation, scaling and sustainability — from coordination across institutions and capacity development to technical assistance, financial incentives, pilots and targeted outreach.
So, what are we learning?
There is no single recipe for successful stakeholder engagement. Almost every implementation project studied encountered stakeholder-related challenges, including coordination difficulties, capacity gaps and misaligned target-user interests. At the same time, stakeholder relationships were also among the most important factors enabling progress.
For private sector engagement in particular, one important lesson is that demand and buy-in should not be treated as fixed. Where uptake is critical, projects may need to actively shape incentives and perceptions through sustained engagement. Projects can also play an important role as neutral brokers, bringing actors together and helping bridge different interests.
The broader lesson is to treat stakeholder engagement as a continuous and adaptive management function, rather than a one-off activity during project design. This means identifying stakeholder interests and risks early, monitoring how they evolve, and adapting engagement strategies throughout implementation.
By turning experience across the portfolio into practical lessons, the Learning Study helps projects strengthen stakeholder engagement, manage risks more adaptively and support long-term impact and transformational change.
Successful climate action is not only about finding the right technical solution. It is also about engaging – and continuing to engage – the actors who can finance, implement, regulate and ultimately adopt it.