Photo by Los Muertos Crew.
By Sofia Arroyo Martín del Campo, HRFN – Human Rights Funders Network, Prospera – International Network of Women’s Funds, GAGGA – Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action, and Global Greengrants Fund
According to a report published by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, the devastating impacts of the climate crisis we are living through reached new heights in 2024. With unprecedented heatwaves, hurricanes, typhoons, floods and storms across the globe, thousands of people have been displaced, losing their homes, their crops and their loved ones.
While world leaders in the Global North continue to discuss carbon emission targets and negotiate the insufficient climate finance, local communities and grassroots organisations in the Global South, usually led by women and gender diverse people, are tirelessly caring for their communities, territories and biodiversity. These groups are adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change by developing and implementing century-old, locally-led climate solutions rooted in traditional knowledge and a deep respect for life, while also advancing gender justice.
In September 2024, Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), Global Greengrants Fund (GGF), Human Rights Funders Network (HRFN) and Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds (Prospera), long-time collaborators in uplifting the gender-climate intersection, published Seeds for Harvest: Funding gender, climate, and environmental justice, a report that shows this life-sustaining work is critically underfunded.
In 2019, only 1.2% ($50.2 million) of the $4.1 billion in human rights grant funding from foundations, and just 5% (1,339) of nearly 27,000 grants, addressed both gender and climate.
Although 61% of this funding came from private foundations, public foundations awarded the most grants (91%). Among these, Global Greengrants Fund contributed 45%, women’s and feminist funds 33%, and other public foundations 13%.
Data from GAGGA, GGF, and Prospera shows that their combined annual grantmaking at this intersection exceeded $15 million annually from 2019 to 2021, supporting over 4,000 activists, groups, and organisations fighting for gender and climate justice. However, the report findings show that despite the leadership and great efforts of these organisations, funding is still very limited. There is an urgent need to galvanise the political will of both bilateral donors and philanthropy to increase funding towards feminist movements leading climate solutions in the Global South.
Why feminist climate action is so critical
From local communities in the Philippines and India, to Fiji and Brazil – to name a few – communities have recovered from the effects of extreme weather thanks to the leadership and wisdom of women-led grassroots organisations. In Kenya, environmental defenders are mobilising across the country in defence of water and land governance, as well as against extractive industries. In Paraguay, Guaraní women are leading efforts to recover and protect water sources in their communities, revitalising both the land and their cultural traditions. In Fiji, Indigenous women have been at the forefront of developing disaster recovery plans that centre the needs and voices of rural communities, creating opportunities for women to take on decision-making roles and strengthening community resilience. These movements have helped communities care for one another, restore livelihoods, and heal their lands. They are developing and implementing strategies that care for both people and the planet – protecting lands, oceans, biodiversity, and natural resources.
Yet, the women and gender-diverse leaders behind this transformative work are often persecuted and criminalised for defending their territories and environment. Despite these risks, their approach, rooted in feminist, collective, and decolonial perspectives, offers deeply sustainable and resilient climate solutions.
The Seeds for Harvest Report underscores this reality with robust evidence and activist testimonies. It affirms that without the active participation of grassroots feminist leadership, grounded in their communities and connected to feminist environmental and climate movements in their countries and regions, solutions to the climate crises will fall short.
Feminist funds are ready to scale this work
The Seeds for Harvest report analyses the funding trends across some environmental and human rights-focused private and public funders, highlighting GAGGA’s, GGF’s, HRFN’s, and Prospera’s funding data. Beyond data, the publication amplifies powerful stories of transformation from the activists at the forefront of this work, aiming to inspire the philanthropic sector to mobilise more resources to this vital intersection.
One of the report’s key takeaways is that a robust and collaborative funding ecosystem already exists to support this work. Women’s and feminist funds are already channelling thousands of grants each year to the activists and organisations working at the gender-climate intersection.These funds are deeply embedded in feminist and environmental justice movements and maintain relationships of trust with grassroots organisations.
They are well-positioned to absorb and deploy significantly greater resources. Together, feminist, women’s rights, and environmental justice funds have the capacity to mobilise at least $100 million annually to this cause. The data shows not just need, but readiness: infrastructure, strategy, and networks are already in place to scale this work effectively. This makes feminist funds a powerful and immediate pathway for expanding equitable and transformative climate funding.
Call to action: Recommendations for funders
Despite some progress from funders in this landscape, there is clear evidence that foundations continue to allocate a meagre share of funding towards the gender and climate nexus. Funding for gender and climate initiatives remained low across all regions in 2019, ranging from just 1% of human rights grant dollars for Eastern Europe and Central Asia to 6% for Latin America and the Caribbean.
There is an urgent need for increased connection and cross-pollination between feminist practices and environmental approaches among gender, climate, and environment organisations and funders. A successful example of a partnership demonstrating the power of collaborative feminist climate funding is Roots Rising, a campaign developed as a direct response to the lack of funding for feminist climate solutions and the need to transform numerous bilateral pledges and commitments into significant climate action, through feminist climate justice practitioners.
Given that the climate emergencies are most deeply experienced in the Global South and the East, it is critical to channel funding directly to local organisations in regions directly impacted by climate change; something women’s and feminist funds are uniquely equipped to do. As the spotlight pieces in the report reveal, this is the most effective, sustainable and impactful way to respond to climate collapse: by building systems of resilience, accountability, and longevity from the ground up.
Funders must act now to support those already creating solutions and address the growing climate crisis. Seeds for Harvest offers clear recommendations for the funding community:
- Mobilise multi-year, flexible resources to support those working at the intersections of gender, environmental, and climate justice.
- Eradicate funding silos between climate and gender justice, fostering long-term collaboration for the future of our shared planet.
- Invest in the infrastructure of feminist climate movements and support the creation of spaces for organisations and activists to gather, think, research, and develop collective agendas.
- Convene cross-sector dialogues to develop common strategies that build on collective power for change.
- Recognise, support, and learn from/with Indigenous Peoples and their traditional knowledge in defending territories and biodiversity for the wellbeing of all.
By backing the leadership and wisdom of women, gender-diverse people, and Indigenous Peoples, whose approaches to protecting nature and building community are sustaining life around the globe, we will be able to turn the tide and be better equipped to withstand the impacts of this climate emergency.
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