Mind the Gap: Progress and Opportunity for Growth in International Governance on Climate Change

The World Bank Group has historically demonstrated its strategic advantage in managing large development projects. The climate change crisis requires significant international coordination and funding for countries' efforts in the areas of adaptation, mitigation, finance, and technology. Dependent on the outcomes of this year's COP15 Conference, the UN System may be mandated to manage part of the funds and implement projects. In order to ensure greatest efficiency and positive impact, it is necessary to better understand the strengths, challenges, and gaps in how current projects are implemented. The Capstone team first developed an understanding of these organizations' internally generated fiscal, operational, and implementations standards for projects. The team then conducted field research on World Bank and UN-affiliated projects to collectively grasp the on the ground reality of climate change project implementation, studying the complementary programs as well as tensions revealed in terms of underlying gaps in some of the organizations' distributive and managerial capacities. From the findings, the team developed specific recommendations for the client and partner organizations.