Advancing a just urban transition approach to informal settlement upgrading means pursuing key development outcomes, such as resilience, sustainable livelihoods, dignity, social inclusion and urban integration. Critically, this requires a systems approach, rather than a project orientation, towards informal settlement upgrading and climate resilience. Yet, funding instruments are fragmented, not utilised effectively, and, frankly, insufficient. Climate finance and new economic value chains present new opportunities for investment in informal settlements, but to harness these possibilities and advance inclusive, outcome-oriented informal settlement upgrading as scale requires new capabilities, systems and governance arrangements based on co-governance and accountability.