The Challenge

Ecuador’s Autonomous Decentralized Governments (GADs) are on the frontlines of climate change — managing water systems, urban resilience, and territorial adaptation across vastly different landscapes. But for most, the technical world of climate investment remained distant, and the integration of gender perspectives into that work more distant still.

The Development Bank of Ecuador (BDE) and the GFA/GIZ-supported Sustainable Intermediate Cities II programme recognised a critical gap: local governments needed not just access to climate finance, but the institutional capacity to ensure that finance would be gender-responsive — designed with and for the communities most affected by climate impacts, particularly women.

With over 30 GADs and public enterprises working at very different levels of institutional readiness, the challenge wasn’t to deliver a standard training. It was to build a learning experience that could meet teams where they were, and move them toward genuine, lasting change in how they plan, design, and evaluate climate investment projects.

Services: Training
Sectors: Gender, Climate Change
2025

Our Approach

This course was developed in collaboration with Bios Sustainable Solutions, a sustainability consultancy based in Latin America.

Echo Collins-Egan and Claudia Gimeno designed and developed the complete framework and core content for a 40-hour virtual course — “Gender Mainstreaming in Climate Investment Projects for GADs and Public Enterprises” — as part of Ecuador’s CIS II programme. 

The course was grounded in David Kolb’s experiential learning model — not a passive transfer of information, but a structured journey designed to be lived, applied, and owned. Five interconnected learning units wove theoretical foundations with practical application, moving participants from understanding what gender mainstreaming means to knowing exactly how to do it within their own institutional contexts.

At the heart of the course were gap analysis methodologies that enabled each GAD to honestly assess their organisational readiness for gender-responsive climate finance, and develop concrete, actionable mainstreaming plans specific to their territory and capacity.

Content development took place in close co-creation with GFA/GIZ gender and safeguards specialists and BDE technical teams — ensuring every tool and framework reflected Ecuador’s legal context, BDE operational requirements, and the real heterogeneity of local government capacity across the country. A blended methodology combined asynchronous learning activities with filmed masterclasses and practical tools.

The Impact

• 40h – Virtual course designed from the ground up on gender-responsive climate finance
• 30+ – GADs and public enterprises supported across Ecuador’s diverse territories
• 5 – Interconnected learning units combining theory, practice, and gap analysis tools

A pilot evaluation with validators from the BDE returned consistently strong results across all dimensions of course quality, scored on a scale of 1 to 5. Content relevance to participants’ real knowledge needs scored 4.6/5. Practical usefulness scored 4.5/5. Alignment between activities and learning outcomes scored 4.6/5. Materials clarity and format scored 4.6/5, with multimedia and accessibility at 4.5/5.

Pilot feedback directly shaped the final course. Validators’ suggestions on platform navigation, assessment instructions, content sequencing, and practical case studies grounded in Ecuador’s context were incorporated before wider rollout