GAGGA at Climate Week NYC and WINGSForum 2026: Shifting Resources and Power to the Frontlines
Climate action cannot succeed without making sure it is first gender-just. Globally, women-led and community-rooted organisations are already responding to the impacts of climate change, from protecting and restoring ecosystems to strengthening livelihoods, and building more resilient communities. They are also at the forefront of responding to emerging climate impacts such as extreme heat, which is not only a climate crisis but a health, gender and justice crisis. Women and marginalized communities often experience the impacts of heat most acutely, while having the fewest resources and least decision-making power to respond. Yet the knowledge and solutions emerging from these communities too often remain overlooked.
This fall, as GAGGA celebrates 10 years of impact in catalyzing women-led, community-rooted climate action, we are focused on bringing these conversations to the forefront of Climate Week NYC and WINGSForum 2026 in Montreal in September and the Global Heat Forum in Bangkok in October.
We will explore two fundamental questions: what can we learn from women and community-led movements when it comes to addressing the climate crisis and how can we ensure that those on the frontlines of these solutions have the resources and power they need to thrive?
We believe that thoughtful conversations can be a catalyst for gender-just climate action and that’s why we are thrilled to be hosting two events during Climate Week NYC and WINGSForum 2026. During these sessions, we will share new research on extreme heat, amplify the leadership of community-rooted movements, and challenge global funders and decision-makers to rethink how climate finance is designed and delivered.
Extreme Heat: Women-Led Solutions for Resilient Communities
The event will be taking place on Wednesday, September 23 from 8:30 am to 10:30 am ET. Register for FREE here.
During Climate Week NYC, on September 23, from 8:30 am to 10:30 am ET, GAGGA will co-host a free event – Extreme Heat: Women-Led Solutions for Resilient Communities, bringing new evidence from one of the first cross-regional Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) initiatives on extreme heat, led by GAGGA with support from ClimateWorks Foundation. We’re pleased to welcome Charlotte Watts, Executive Director of Solutions Wellcome Trust, Kathy Baugmann McLeod, Executive Director at HERA, and Coco Jervis, Director of Programmes at Mama Cash, as featured speakers, with the full lineup to be announced soon.
Extreme heat is one of the deadliest consequences of climate change, but its impacts go far beyond rising temperatures. It is not only a climate crisis but a threat to public health, livelihoods, biodiversity, and gender equality. We cannot tackle extreme heat without doing so through a gender-just lens.
This research, led by women-led, community-rooted organisations across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, offers powerful insights into how communities are experiencing and responding to rising temperatures. Drawing on local and Indigenous knowledge, collective action, agroecological practices, and community care, these organisations are protecting public health, safeguarding food and water security, and building genuine climate resilience from the ground up.
This event will explore what these experiences can teach the global climate community about building adaptation strategies that are not only effective, but gender-just. Most importantly, it will ask what it will take to ensure that the women-led organisations already developing these solutions receive the recognition, resources, and support they deserve.
Global Heat Forum 2026
GAGGA will also be attending the Global Heat Forum in Bangkok from October 6-9, bringing the perspectives and leadership of women-led and community-rooted organisations to critical conversations on extreme heat and climate resilience. This global gathering will provide another important opportunity to connect community-led solutions with global climate action and challenge funders and decision-makers to ensure frontline movements have the resources and power they need to lead.
Bridges, Not Barriers: Transforming How We Fund Frontline Movements
At WINGSForum 2026, on September 29th from 12pm to 1:15 pm ET, GAGGA will join partners including The Global South House, Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur, Comuá Network, Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds, ELAS+, and others for Bridges, Not Barriers: Transforming How We Fund Frontline Movements.
What would happen if funders put greater trust in the organisations closest to the issues? If climate finance was flexible and responsive? If movements had a direct say in how resources are allocated?
This interactive session will explore these questions through a “Reverse Role” board game and collective discussion, inviting participants to reimagine traditional funder-grantee dynamics. Together, we will outline what flexible, trust-based, and movement-accountable funding looks like in practice and explore how philanthropy can break down systemic barriers, facilitate collaboration, and build stronger partnerships with the frontline drivers of change. To learn more about this event and how you can attend, visit wingsforum.org/
Climate Week NYC, WINGS Forum 2026, and the Global Heat Forum offer an urgent opportunity to connect these vital conversations and build momentum for deep systemic change. As we look toward GAGGA’s next decade, we invite partners, funders, movement leaders, and allies to join us this September to explore what becomes possible when climate finance and philanthropy are designed to support, rather than constrain, community-rooted solutions. We would also like to invite our community to help us Fund Forward. Rather than viewing it as a single transaction, we view funding as a powerful catalyst to scale collective, gender-just climate action.
Interested in connecting with GAGGA around these events? Contact Noemi Grütter at [email protected].