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Photo credit: IIED
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Dear Colleagues:
In January, we convened our grant partners, funders, advisors, and other friends to reflect together on our grant-making strategy and progress. The review of the CJRF portfolio that we commissioned last year provided the seed of a dynamic and multi-layered conversation.
One of the themes that strongly emerged from the discussion was how our partners are using local change to transform unjust national and global systems. Clearly, there is no one-size-fits-all roadmap for this process! But our partners are demonstrating that community-led efforts can be at the heart of large-scale change – and they work better, cost less, and respect human rights to a much greater extent than top-down, technical approaches. Here is some of what we’re learning as we support these local-to-global change processes:
- Advocacy helps local initiatives grow and replicate. Grassroots leaders are making the case to their governments and funders for the solutions that they know work for their communities. One of our opportunities as CJRF is to connect these changemakers to platforms where their voices are heard by those in power.
- Movements build power organically. Over time, movements connect and learn from each other, increasing their collective power and voice. These processes are emergent and alchemical, rarely a product of design. Our job is to listen to our partners and learn what types of resources are most beneficial, and when in their growth process our support can have the most impact.
In this newsletter, we feature new grant partnerships with two organizations working to lift up local voices through global networks: Namati and ActionAid. We also highlight how our partner Huairou Commission is empowering women to drive change at higher and higher levels.
Finally, we are again sponsoring the Community-Based Adaptation Conference (CBA15) which will take place in June. We encourage you to attend to learn more about what organizations are doing to build resilience around the world.
We hope you take the time to read this newsletter to learn how our partners are driving local to global change.
Best regards,
Heather and Hilary
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Huairou Commission and the Frontline Funds Accelerator
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Our grantee partner, the Huairou Commission, is a key partner in a new coalition that is putting the funding and decision-making power for climate resilience and adaptation in the hands of communities hit first by climate change.
The Frontline Funds Accelerator (FFA) will provide funding that helps grassroots groups build a substantive stream of support to scale locally-led resilience and adaptation initiatives. In addition to the Huairou Commission, the Frontline Funds Accelerator (FFA) partners are CJRF, Slum Dwellers International, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and Global Resilience Partnerships.
According to Huairou Commission Advisor Suranjana Gupta, if it works, the FFA will be transformative. “The Frontline Funds Accelerator represents a small step toward a very big change. Social movements are responding to tremendous demands to be innovative and meet community needs—and we’re creating truly remarkable and resourceful solutions. Now, we need funding mechanisms as innovative as the solutions that come from social movements; climate finance institutions need to think outside the box.” Read more on Huairou Commission’s role in the FFA on our blog.
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Accelerating Environmental Justice
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We have awarded Namati $300,000 to support the launch of the Global Land and Environmental Justice Accelerator and the next phase of the Community Land Protection program in Kenya.
The Global Land and Environmental Justice Accelerator trains community paralegals—analogous to community health workers—to demystify law and help ordinary people secure concrete remedies to environmental harm.
Namati’s Community Land Protection program focuses on helping indigenous communities register their traditional lands under the community land act. The next phase of this work focuses on mainstreaming climate change resiliency into their core approach. You can read more about their work here.
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Bringing Lessons from Frontline Communities in South Asia to US Policy
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With our grant of $200,000, ActionAid USA is bridging the gap between the climate and immigration advocacy movements. ActionAid USA will create and take action on a cutting-edge progressive policy agenda for climate-induced cross-border migration, targeting much-needed advocacy at U.S. policymakers.
To create this agenda, ActionAid USA will leverage ActionAid International’s extensive learning and experience from their climate-induced migration work in South Asia, where over 9.5 million were displaced in 2019 due to disasters. Learn more about ActionAid’s climate displacement work here.
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CJRF Sponsors the 15th Annual Community-Based Adaptation Conference
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Many CJRF partners will be sharing what they have learned about local solutions that inspire global action at this year's Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA15). This virtual conference will bring together practitioners, representatives from grassroot organizations, local and national government planners, policymakers, and donors working at all levels to discuss how we can drive ambition for a climate-resilient future.
This is the only global adaptation conference that puts the lived experiences and knowledge of local people at the center – creating a space that enables voices from the front lines of the climate crisis to shape decisions about the future of adaptation. Register today.
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In the News
How Inuit avoid falling through thinning Arctic ice—National Geographic: SmartICE’s sled-based ice-measuring system helps make travel in a warming climate safer.
Climate Home News seeks pitches for climate justice reporting programme: Climate Home News is seeking stories on how communities on the front lines of climate change are tackling the worsening threats to their lives and livelihoods.
Mother parliaments advocate for climate resilient WASH facilities wins the People’s Choice in the Water ChangeMakers Awards—Global Water Partnership: This program run by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation in Bangladesh received nearly sixteen thousand votes!
How do we tackle the injustices of climate change?—The Daily Star: Dr. Saleemul Hug highlights the importance of climate justice in this opinion piece for a top English langauge newspaper in Bangladesh.
The Pamoja Voices Toolkit—IIED: CJRF supported the development of toolkit that supports advocacy directed at including women and young people in decision-making about climate change responses.
Establishing Southern-based collaborations to enhance locally-led adaptation and resilience—Dhaka Tribune: Years of work on climate change adaptation and resilience has generated a vibrant community of academics and non-academics in the global South.
SmartICE: A sea-ice monitoring service for the North was a dream worth pursuing—The Philanthropist: This is the first in a series of profiles about past winners of the Arctic Inspiration Prize that celebrates and provides seed funding to groups working to develop new and creative projects that solve challenges in the North.
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