Hello,
2023 has been transitional year for the Climate Justice Resilience Fund. In a lot of ways, we feel like a caterpillar wrapped in a chrysalis. The progress we’ve made has been largely internal—we’ve successfully transitioned our governance to a practitioner-led board, took critical steps in developing our new grantmaking strategy, and evaluated our grantmaking to surface insights that can inform our path forward.
While in a chrysalis, a caterpillar must completely dissolve its existing form to break out as something new. Our team has been feeling this transformative process—and we are excited to emerge. In 2024, we expect to take flight as a reimagined fund, rolling out new participatory grantmaking processes, leading grant funding for loss and damage through our partnership with the Scottish Government, and setting our course for the years to come.
Thank you for being with us at this critical time, and we look forward to what we can accomplish together in 2024 and beyond.
Best regards,
The CJRF Team
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Coming Up: CJRF in Dubai for COP28
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Members of CJRF's board and team along with a few friends at last year's UNFCCC Climate Conference in Egypt. Photo credit: CJRF
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CJRF teammates and many of our grantee partners will be in Dubai for the annual UNFCCC Climate Conference. For those of you attending, we welcome you to join us and our other organizing partners at Development & Climate Days on December 7th. In addition to informal discussion about issues like decolonizing climate finance and equitable partnerships, CJRF will be co-hosting a session with IISD and ICCCAD that asks the question, "How can we collaboratively shape a new narrative that bridges adaptation and loss and damage?"
Our staff and partners also will take part in many conversations, exhibits, workshops, demonstrations, and advocacy activities. If you will be in Dubai and would like to connect, please send us an email.
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Announcing Our Newest Governing Board Member
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We are thrilled to have the experience of climate justice activist Pato Kelesitse, who recently joined the CJRF Governing Board! Pato joins our eight-person Governing Board of climate-justice practitioners shaping the strategic direction of the Fund. As a climate action and sustainability lead at South Africa Climate Action Network, Pato brings a wealth of experience in advocacy, community engagement and organizing, project coordination, and movement building and storytelling.
Pato's new role comes after former board member Alicia Wallace transitioned to a staff role at CJRF. Alicia is now the Fund’s Board Transition Manager, a role that aligns well with her professional facilitation and development skillsets. We are thrilled to have both experienced activists serving in new roles at CJRF! Read more about Alicia and Pato’s new roles at CJRF.
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A Continued Partnership with the Scottish Government
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We are grateful that the Scottish Government recognizes the need for continued investment in Loss and Damage. During New York Climate Week, the Scottish government announced that CJRF will receive an additional £5 million to make grants to organizations supporting communities to address non-economic loss and damage.
CJRF Director Heather McGray has been advocating for increased funding flows to rectify the unjust financial burden for those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Recently, she penned an opinion piece for IISD and another for Euronews noting that the global climate community must do our best to support the uneven consequences and experiences of climate change.
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Honoring Saleemul Huq’s Legacy
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Saleemul Huq at a conference on community-based adaptation in Nepal (Photo credit: Stephanie Andrei)
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CJRF joins the international climate community in mourning Dr. Saleemul Huq. Saleem was a pivotal figure in the fight for action on climate justice, and an expert on the links between climate change and sustainable development. Saleem created both the Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) conference series and the Development & Climate Days workshop (above), which have become powerful, dynamic, and long-standing global spaces for learning and exchange on important topics that had previously been neglected.
As a professor at the Independent University of Bangladesh and founder of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Saleem was a generous mentor, an adept communicator, and a creative partner in many collaborative initiatives. He and ICCCAD had a hand in several CJRF-supported activities, including the Governance for Climate Resilience project, the Panii Jibon program, the ICCCAD/GRP catalytic grants program, and the CBA conferences. Currently, CBA organizers are planning ways to honor Saleem’s legacy and invite you to share stories of your time with Saleem. We encourage you to share your reflections using their online form.
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Just Published: CJRF’s 6-Year Evaluation
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ISET International recently completed an independent review of CJRF’s 2016-22 grant portfolio. This evaluation has spurred rich conversations among our board, grant partners, and our broader climate justice community. On our blog, CJRF Director Heather McGray shares how CJRF is using the review and will address its recommendations.
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In the News
The fifth meeting for the Transitional Committee on Loss and Damage just wrapped up earlier this month in Dubai, read our brief for this committee on funding loss and damage.
CJRF Director Heather McGray wrote "Addressing the Myriad Impacts of Climate-induced Loss and Damage” for the SDG Knowledge Hub at IISD and “This is a rallying call: It is time to help the Global South deal with loss and damage" for Euronews.
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