The widespread underfunding of early project development activities results in a growing difficulty to fill the pipeline of infrastructure project investments by national and international financiers. While (climate) financing availability for project implementation is on the rise, the investments in the process for project conceptualisation, identification and development based on a sound strategy for long term urban climate adaptation are still widely lacking. Water as Leverage (WaL) is a methodology developed by the Government of the Netherlands, together with international partners. The methodology of the programme is built on the recognition that a result-driven, holistic and inclusive project preparation approach is the best way to kick-start and create scalable sustainable solutions for urban climate adaptation challenges. This methodology is based on a transformative strategy which looks at the complete urban fabric from a physical, social, economic and cultural point of view.