Impact
Since its launch in 2016, CJRF has pooled US$25 million in service to more than 40 major grant partnerships around the world. CJRF also has hosted several initiatives to promote funder learning and collaboration on climate justice, and launched a unique re-granting partnership with the Scottish Government on climate-induced loss and damage in 2021.
Stories of Impact
Our grantmaking supports initiatives that deliver tangible, on-the-ground results, but always on a path to broader, deeper systems transformation. Our partners link tangible local projects with advocacy, movement-building or leadership development, in order to build voice and power at national and global levels. We aim for catalytic outcomes, and always center women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples. The stories below highlight examples of our impact.
Photo credit: Huairou Commission
The Huairou Commission is a women-led social movement of grassroots women’s groups, working in over 45 countries. Huairou has partnered with CJRF to support its members in learning from one another about emergency response and climate change adaptation measures. We also have supported the growth and evolution of Huairou’s Community Resilience Funds, through which women’s groups make small grants and loans to support resilience initiatives in their communities. Huairou members have used their experience to advocate for successful changes in local and national policies and are now co-creating a $68M locally led funding mechanism with the Asian Development Bank.
Photo credit: Se Mo/Flickr
Over 180,000 Inuit live across Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia. Their traditional livelihoods and cultures rely on hunting, fishing, and traveling in Arctic waters, and on sea ice that is shrinking rapidly with climate change. As the Arctic warms, Inuit Circumpolar Council is ensuring that Inuit voices shape the global rules governing the growth of Arctic navigation and shipping. With CJRF support, ICC won consultative status at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2021. Inuit peoples now have a direct way to promote policies that prevent pollution and disruption in their communities.
Photo credit: GC4R
In water-stressed Shyamnagar (coastal Bangladesh), a unique coalition of CJRF partner organizations supported a community to band together to restore access to fresh water. The Center for Natural Resource Studies, a long-time partner of Shyamnagar community groups, supported them to rehabilitate a canal that had been silted over. This brought back flows of fresh water that now provide fish habitat, irrigation, and flood protection. They also facilitated access to new climate-resilient rice varieties and integrated farming techniques that maximize the agricultural value of the canal water. This made possible year-round, multi-crop productivity, which is improving incomes and food security, and reducing the need for seasonal labor migration by farmers. Key to the success was the work of the Center for Climate Justice – Bangladesh, a public interest law group that built public awareness in Shyamnagar that canals were public property and should never have been claimed by private leaseholders. The success has inspired neighboring communities to advocate for their governments to return additional canals to the public domain, and the approach is spreading quickly.