Alumni Seminar: Climate Adaptation & Resilience – Building Capacity for Climate-Smart Futures (AS2026)

A two-week online alumni seminar for CIPSEM alumni across cohorts to analyze their own climate adaptation challenges using a proven dialogue model and develop practical Post-Training Action Plans.

This seminar took place in June 2026. You can find a report on the results here.

Seminar period	08 June – 21 June 2026 (2 weeks), plus preparatory phase
Duration	2 weeks, part-time with synchronous and asynchronous elements
Time commitment	About 2 hours/day during seminar period; synchronous video usually starting around 13:00 CEST to accommodate all time zones
Format	Online
Participants	21 UNEP/UNESCO/BMUKN course alumni
Language	English
Application Period	by 17 April 2026

A two-week online alumni seminar for UNEP/UNESCO/BMUKN alumni across cohorts to work on real climate adaptation challenges from their professional contexts, using peer exchange, structured dialogue, and practical action planning.

Motivation

In a rapidly changing climate, adaptation and resilience have become essential to safeguarding vulnerable communities and ecosystems. This reality demands a workforce of environmental professionals who are not only equipped with technical knowledge but also with adaptive, integrative thinking—professionals who can facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration, foster community-driven approaches, and navigate complex socio-ecological systems.

CIPSEM alumni are strategically positioned within ministries, local governments, NGOs, research institutions, and international organizations to drive such transformative actions. However, the rapidly evolving adaptation landscape requires continuous capacity enhancement, peer exchange, and co-creation of innovative approaches. The Alumni Seminar on Climate Adaptation & Resilience (AS2026) is conceived as a response to this need.

How the seminar works

AS2026 combines a preparatory phase with a part-time online seminar built around participants’ own professional climate adaptation challenges. Throughout the process, participants engage in peer exchange, moderated reflection, international input, and the guided development of practical Post-Training Action Plans.

During the preparatory phase, selected participants introduce a challenge from their professional work in a short video. Participants then review these videos and vote on the cases to be explored during the seminar, ensuring that the process is rooted in issues the group considers most relevant.

The detailed rhythm of preparation, live sessions, case work, and optional Transfer-to-Action follow-up is shown in the timeline below.

The method behind the seminar

A core element of the seminar is the “Navigating Uncertainty” dialogue model, co-developed by CIPSEM, the German Environment Agency (UBA), the Global Diplomacy Lab (GDL), and an initial group of CIPSEM alumni. The model has already been applied and refined in online and on-site alumni activities and has proven useful for analyzing complex sustainability challenges, structuring peer consultations, and developing context-sensitive solutions.

The dialogue model combines systemic thinking with practical collaboration. It helps participants move from understanding a challenge and its wider stakeholder context to identifying leverage points, building new alliances, and defining realistic first steps for action.

Its guiding mindset is collaborative, inclusive, agile, diverse, holistic, and action-oriented. In practice, participants work with tools such as the Double Diamond framework, Case Clinic, the Iceberg Model, the influence-interest perspective, and post-consultation action planning to move from reflection to implementation.

What participants gain

The seminar offers a holistic learning experience that strengthens both individual practice and alumni exchange. Participants deepen their adaptive thinking, learn structured approaches for collaborative problem-solving, and strengthen their ability to act as change agents in their institutions and networks.

Participants also gain practical experience with co-creation, facilitation, and structured peer consultation through the “Navigating Uncertainty” model. The process is designed to open up new perspectives on participants’ own climate challenges while strengthening South–South–North knowledge exchange and sustained networking across CIPSEM cohorts.

 Seminar completers are also eligible to apply for Transfer-to-Action Fellowships of €2,000 each to support implementation back home.

Previous experience

The dialogue model behind AS2026 did not emerge as a purely theoretical concept. It grew out of a collaborative international process on sustainability challenges that brought together 20 experts from 16 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and it has since been refined through further alumni activities.

This experience showed the value of working with real cases proposed by participants themselves. Alumni found that the process helps unlock collective intelligence, reveal new actors and opportunities for collaboration, strengthen networks, and build participants’ capacity to navigate uncertainty in their own contexts.

The cases already explored through this approach span a wide range of themes and regions, including community water projects, climate finance, forest and landscape restoration, agroforestry, biodiversity corridors, food security, and local sustainability governance.

A participant from the initial process described trust-building and cooperation as central motivations for engagement, noting that many alliance-building initiatives focus primarily on technical outcomes. That emphasis on trust, diversity, and joint learning remains at the core of the seminar design.

Target groups

This seminar is open to alumni of the UNEP/UNESCO/BMUKN course program run by CIPSEM who are actively working on climate adaptation, sustainability, and resilience. Applicants must reside and work in a DAC-listed country and be 55 years or younger at the time of application.

The seminar is intended for professionals who want to exchange knowledge across disciplines, reflect on real-world professional challenges, and translate collective insights into practical next steps.

How to apply?

Qualified alumni are welcome to apply for this training. If you have not yet applied through CIPSEMs application portal (now closed), please send an email to with the subject "application for AS2026" by 17 April 2026. In your email, include

• First name, surname
• Your country of residence
• Your current professional role and employer
• The UNEP/UNESCO/BMUKN course in which you have participated
• A climate adaptation challenge you are facing in your professional work. 

  This should be a real-world issue linked to climate change adaptation, sustainability, or sustainable development that would benefit from structured peer consultation during the seminar.

  The application should clearly explain the challenge, why it matters, and how engagement with fellow alumni could help identify possible pathways forward.

 Successful participants will receive a digital Certificate of Participation.                          

► For any questions regarding this seminar, please contact us at .

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