This article was adapted from Stephanie Speck’s remarks at the 2025 Berlin Climate Security Conference.

When I arrived in Mogadishu in 2013 to set up and lead the Office of the President’s communication and media department, I had the privilege of being invited to breakfast with the President. As I made my way through the layers of security leading to the presidential residence, I noticed an older woman walking behind me—cradling a chicken under each arm. She followed closely, undeterred by the checkpoints that stopped others.

At the final gate, I motioned for her to walk ahead, assuming she must be a family member of the President. Instead, she was waved through first while I was asked to wait. Ten minutes later, she emerged with the chickens and went on her way.

When I asked a colleague at the residence who she was, I learned she was a villager who had come to ask the President for help recovering three chickens stolen by her neighbor. “And he will help her,” I was told matter-of-factly.

That moment has stayed with me. I had arrived thinking of democracy as something to be built, as an external framework to be applied. But here was democracy in practice: direct access to leadership, confidence in being heard, and an expectation of accountability. It was participatory governance, embodied in one woman and two chickens.

From “how much” to “what can we build?”

That story often comes back to me when I think about climate finance, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings. The questions we usually ask are how much and when. The answers, inevitably, are a lot and yesterday.

But those are the wrong questions. The better question is: What can we build, and what already exists to build upon?

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has committed $2.7 billion of its $18 billion portfolio to fragile and conflict-affected settings. Beyond project investments, we also make $500 million available every four years through our Readiness Programme, which provides each eligible country with up to $7 million in grant funding.

Readiness is meant to strengthen institutional capacity and help countries design, implement, and sustain climate projects. But its real value lies in how it can build on existing systems—not replace them.

Building on foundations that are working

In many fragile contexts, ministries of environment or climate change may have limited resources, yet they are often deeply embedded in national coordination efforts. They serve as natural conveners, bringing together other ministries around cross-cutting issues like disaster preparedness, agriculture, and energy.

These ministries also maintain vital connections to communities. Through their roles in disaster risk reduction and adaptation, they understand local priorities and can translate them into investment pipelines that reflect real needs on the ground.

And they are not isolated actors. They already engage with international frameworks through conventions like the UNFCCC and related multilateral processes. That connection between local priorities and global systems is precisely where readiness support can make the biggest difference.

Turning readiness into resilience

The goal, then, is not to impose new systems, but to strengthen the existing ones; to link domestic institutions more effectively with international climate finance structures. In places where state capacity has been weakened or where international actors have built parallel systems, readiness can help bridge the divide.

It can help ministries “play the game for their own success”—building the governance, knowledge, and coordination mechanisms that enable them to shape national agendas and attract sustained investment. The results are not project-specific; they are systemic, delivering profound, deliberate change.

Ultimately, climate finance should not only deliver projects; it should empower institutions to lead. And that begins with recognizing that even in fragile settings, the foundations for transformative resilience already exist, sometimes in the most unexpected places.

Just like that woman in Mogadishu, walking through the gates with her chickens and full confidence that her voice mattered.