Connecting projects, strengthening partnerships and expanding impacts: the role of the IKI Brazil Interface

In a context where the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss increasingly require integrated responses, connecting people, institutions and initiatives has become just as important as funding good projects. It is precisely in this context that the Interfaces of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) play a strategic role: acting as bridges within territories, bringing projects, governments, institutions and other stakeholders closer together in order to transform knowledge and experiences into coordinated actions with greater impact.

As an international financing instrument of the German government, the International Climate Initiative (IKI), funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN), supports projects that promote climate action, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in countries around the world.

Over the years, the initiative has built a broad portfolio of projects working on different issues and across diverse territories. To maximize the results of this investment, IKI Interfaces were established as structures responsible for connecting these projects with the realities, priorities and stakeholders of each territory, promoting integration among governments, implementing institutions, partner organizations and other actors involved in the climate and environmental agenda.

Bridges between projects and territories

More than simply coordinating initiatives, the Interfaces act as points of connection within their respective territories. In practice, this means identifying opportunities for collaboration between projects, bringing together institutions working on similar challenges, and creating conditions for knowledge and experiences to circulate among different stakeholders.

Their role is particularly relevant because each IKI-supported project has its own objectives, partners and strategies. At the same time, many projects face similar challenges or generate lessons that could benefit other initiatives. The Interfaces help make these connections happen by promoting the exchange of experiences, the dissemination of good practices and the development of joint solutions.

This approach allows results that might otherwise remain limited to a single project to be shared and taken up by other stakeholders. By fostering knowledge management and collective learning, the Interfaces help transform individual results into capacities and solutions that can be applied in different territorial contexts.

The IKI Brazil Interface: knowledge management aligned with biodiversity

In a country of continental dimensions, characterized by a diversity of biomes, territories and institutional contexts, coordinating a broad portfolio of climate and biodiversity projects is a challenge in itself. It is in this context that the IKI Brazil Interface operates. Established in 2017 and implemented by GIZ in partnership with the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN), the Interface aims to strengthen coordination between International Climate Initiative (IKI) projects and governments, civil society organizations, research institutions and international partners.

Over nearly a decade, the Interface has established itself as a platform for connection, learning and knowledge management, bringing together more than 40 IKI projects in Brazil and creating conditions for experiences, knowledge and solutions to circulate among different initiatives. In 2024, this work entered a new phase with the launch of the Climate Policy Programme II (PoMuC II), which continues and expands the work of the Interface.

In this sense, the Interface acts as a facilitator of cooperation. Its activities include organizing the IKI Brazil Annual Meetings, learning journeys and exchange spaces; identifying opportunities for collaboration; systematizing and disseminating knowledge; supporting institutional communication across the portfolio; and fostering connections between projects, governments and strategic partners.

Learn more about the role of the IKI Interfaces and the IKI Brazil Interface here.