When learning questions are met with more questions 

At the end of 2023, the Innovation team at UNDP Europe and Central Asia initiated a more structured exploration of how to strengthen the team’s learning muscle. Six months into the process of gathering individual reflections from UNDP colleagues working across five countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) – part of the Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG), a joint EU and UNDP initiative supporting mayors in the Eastern Partnership region – we synthesized our learnings and tried to make sense of the collective learning in these diverse contexts. Interestingly, we noticed that some of our learning questions were met with more questions.  

As municipalities participating in the M4EG Portfolio Journey initiative explore financing strategies for their mission-oriented portfolios and new growth trajectories, our learning-capture tool has revealed the need for a shared understanding to effectively navigate this space. As a result, we initiated an informal and optional learning program as an experiment within our team, extending it to others working in this domain, to make space for knowledge sharing and peer-learning. We called these sessions Finance Fridays, scheduling a 30-minute session every two weeks, spanning three months. This blog explores the different topics we navigated through this three-month learning experiment over seven sessions and our key learnings. 

Session 1 took colleagues through an overview of the financing challenges faced by municipalities in the Eastern Partnership region and an introduction to innovative financing, alternative finance and the concept of bankability. The introductory topic was unpacked using a 10-minute video that was put together using AI tools and an exercise to map innovative and alternative finance instruments that colleagues were familiar with in their own country context. This session set the stage for the peer-learning sessions in the second half of the series. 

Session 2 focused on bankability and how to use a business model canvas to assess it. The session was facilitated by Alexander Weise, SDG finance consultant in the UNDP Innovation team. This session helped participants better understand the different aspects of a project’s business model to consider when assessing bankability, with an added focus on evaluating social and environmental effects. The session also unpacked some specific topics such as creditworthiness and measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) through lively participant engagement. 

Session 3 took a deep-dive into Municipal-owned enterprises (MoEs) – a modality that local governments across the globe are increasingly relying on to provide public services. While some countries in the region have been using this modality for many years, it is still new in other countries and the session allowed colleagues to discuss the topic from both sides of this spectrum. This session was also facilitated through a 10-minute video on the topic and was followed by a workshop and discussion where colleagues assessed MoEs for their country context using SWOT analysis. 

Session 4 focussed on the investment curve and assessing various sources of funding – a session facilitated by Alexander Weise. This collaborative session included a short explainer on the investment curve and a workshop on identifying investors for different stages of a project. This session helped colleagues identify and assess the different actors in the funding ecosystem and understand at which stage of maturity, the project might be of interest to them. 

Session 5 kicked off with a peer-learning exercise with our colleague Mustafa Sait-Ametov, Regional Development Programme Manager in UNDP Ukraine. He shared his experience with supporting local Revolving Funds established by municipalities in Ukraine. Through case studies from the local authority of Pittsburgh, U.S.A and the city of Voznesenk, Ukraine, we unpacked the types of revolving funds and their administrative needs and benefits. 

Session 6 included an introduction by Louise Skarvall, Accelerator Lead for UNDP’s BOOST, a regional impact acceleration programme, on the launching of a new challenge for innovative finance solutions in the Western Balkans. The concept, which was created and developed using stakeholder consultations, was also introduced to colleagues in country offices beyond the region for feedback and  garnered further interest. 

Session 7 was the last session before the summer on the topic of tokenization, led by Ievgen Kylymnyk, Project Manager of the Slovak Transformation Fund. The session introduced colleagues to ‘green tokens’ which have been implemented in a few cities across the globe and has been used as a tool to finance critical environmental initiatives. This session provided an opportunity for colleagues to learn about the insights from the event on Green Tokenization in Podgorica, Montenegro and also helped answer some critical questions about implementation challenges.  

Since launching Finance Fridays as an experimental initiative, we have been eager to evaluate its impact on participants. We gathered feedback from colleagues who attended the sessions. The evaluation focused on uncovering insights in four key areas: learning something new, expanding networks, creating a safe space for sharing, and curating relevant content. Here’s what we discovered based on these criteria: 

The results showed that 13 of the 20 colleagues attended three or more sessions, with an average of nine participants in each session. Some colleagues shared the invitation beyond their own team and invited other colleagues they work with in other capacities, to attend the sessions. Many colleagues felt that the sessions need to be longer than 30 minutes as we were forced to cut short lively discussions in the interest of time.   

As the summer ends, we plan to redesign this experiment by changing the criteria of assessment and implementing the feedback we received to continue working towards creating a learning culture that fuels our curiosity and sense of community.