Exploring failure and culture in climate resilience projects

The report argues that climate resilience requires innovation in complex systems, which inherently involves failure. However, a prevailing culture of failure-aversion—driven by rigid funding structures, short-term metrics, and power imbalances—stifles this innovation. The authors propose a multi-dimensional model to shift responses to failure from limiting to constructive across individual, operational, and organisational levels.

• Innovation and failure are symbiotic; however, negative responses to failure in the climate resilience sector limit the creativity and leverage needed to tackle climate change.
• There is a systemic conflict between the recognized need to embrace failure for positive impact and the actual structures governing funding and implementation, with a noted intolerance for failure among donors.
• Power dynamics dictate who is permitted to fail; those reliant on short-term funding and accountable to others have less agency to define success or create failure-positive processes.
• Adaptation projects suffer from a positive reporting bias because organisations view failure as a risk to securing future funding.
• The report identifies three archetypal response models to failure: 'Goal Seeking Proactive' (where the goal is fixed but the path is adapted), 'Goal and Path Restrictive' (where any deviation is failure), and 'Continuously Constructive' (where failure is inbuilt and goals may pivot based on learning).
• Responses to failure are driven by four interlocking mechanisms—mental models, structures, behaviour, and culture—which manifest at individual, operational, and organisational levels.
• A survey of 93 respondents indicates that those in the NGO and International Development sectors are approximately 25% more concerned about the career implications of failure than those in innovative sectors.
• To foster innovation, the report recommends a paradigm shift in programme management from 'Go fast, work hard' to 'Go slow, work smart,' emphasizing the identification of unintended consequences and the use of learning-oriented MEL systems.

APA

Vora, S., Hegarty, A., Hörnberg, J., & Robens, S. (2024). Exploring failure and culture in climate resilience projects. Global Resilience Partnership. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/exploring_failure_report.pdf

Chicago

Vora, Shuchi, Aoife Hegarty, Jesper Hörnberg, and Sarah Robens. Exploring failure and culture in climate resilience projects. Global Resilience Partnership, 2024. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/exploring_failure_report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Vora |first1=Shuchi |last2=Hegarty |first2=Aoife |last3=Hörnberg |first3=Jesper |last4=Robens |first4=Sarah |title=Exploring failure and culture in climate resilience projects |publisher=Global Resilience Partnership |date=2024 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/exploring_failure_report.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vora2024exploring, author = {Vora, Shuchi and Hegarty, Aoife and Hörnberg, Jesper and Robens, Sarah}, title = {{Exploring failure and culture in climate resilience projects}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2024}, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/exploring_failure_report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }