In just over a month from now, hundreds of people will be rallying behind the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) to participate in the fifth CIF Partnership Forum: a showcase of emerging CIF knowledge and learning on low carbon, climate resilient development and a key meeting place for climate change champions from around the world.

Over 500 climate-savvy innovators, policy makers, entrepreneurs, financiers, social advocates, and researchers – including many from the CIF’s 48 pilot countries and 14 contributing countries – will gather in Montego Bay, Jamaica, from 23 to 24 June 2014.

CIF are an $8 billion pilot that has brought together these donor and recipient countries, five Multilateral Development Banks, and countless stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, and others in a concerted effort to trigger climate smart investments at scale. With a focus on clean energy, energy efficiency, sustainable forestry, and adaptation investments, our $8 billion investments are expected to leverage another $55 billion from other sources – and it’s already happening! The CIF is a great example of what a cooperative, multilateral effort can achieve in terms of significantly increasing resources for climate finance.

The Forum represents an opportunity to learn, with more than 40 development experts, business leaders, and prominent climate change thinkers presenting lessons on managing climate change programs, unlocking finance, and building partnerships for low carbon, climate resilient development. The Forum will feature special private sector sessions, as well as interactive discussions on technical and scientific approaches to climate change.

‘Learning by doing’ is one of our founding principles and the CIF take pride in being a ‘living laboratory’ for climate finance. We’re experimenting, innovating, adapting and sharing everything we’re learning.

And a wealth of CIF knowledge will be gathered in one space! Stakeholders from the CIF’s 48 pilot countries will share their experiences on what it takes to achieve climate-smart development results. The Forum’s Knowledge Bazaar will provide the optimum setting to exchange ideas, participate in interactive learning activities, and deepen lesson-sharing.

There will be plenty of time to meet, mingle, make new contacts, develop new relationships, and unlock new opportunities. As Samuel Tumiwa from the Asian Development Bank puts it: “The Partnership Forum allows for people to come together, to talk, to get to know what we’re doing, but most importantly, it’s a starting point for a conversation. I hope that the new participants come out of the Forum and continue the relationship with those [partners] they’ve made.”

Since the CIF was founded in 2008, the Partnership Forum has been its flagship learning event. You can read more about past Partnership Forums and the evolution of the CIF and the climate change agenda. Or better still register to attend this year’s.