October 2021 Newsletter: Now is the time for urgent climate action

With extreme weather events impacting every region of the world in recent months and stark warnings from the latest IPCC report, one thing is more clear than ever: now is the time for governments, investors, and donors to take urgent climate action. Ahead of the UN climate negotiations in just a few days, we call on these actors to divest from fossil fuels, defend critical ecosystems and support inclusive and sustainable climate solutions that work for everyone – especially women and their communities.

This critical call to action guides the new five-year program “Women leading climate action.” This program follows five years of building a diverse network of 20+ women’s and environmental justice funds and 40+ NGOs. Through this network, we have supported and accompanied more than 400 women-led community-based organizations across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

During the first phase of the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA) from 2016-2020, we provided direct grants and non-financial support such as capacity strengthening; facilitated exchanges between peer organizations; and coordinated joint lobby and advocacy campaigns. From these activities, we are seeing positive results: women are taking up more leadership positions within their communities, building solidarity across movements, and influencing environmental, climate and other relevant policies.

“Women leading climate action” builds on this momentum and the solid network we have built, with a clear aim to address the urgent climate crisis that we are in. From our work together with many of our partners, we heard how climate change impacts were exacerbating many of the issues women-led groups and movements were addressing through their work. We see the importance to continue providing the resources and accompaniment needed by locally rooted women-led movements to further advance their climate mitigation and adaptation actions, and push for the transformational systems change urgently needed.

As a strategic partner under the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Power of Voices Partnership, GAGGA will work towards the vision of environmentally sustainable and gender-just societies in which people thrive. Collectively, we will approach this work from 2021-2025 through three interconnected strategies of strengthening, linking and influencing (see below diagram) which prioritize swift and urgent action to address the climate crisis.

Also new to the GAGGA network are 350.org and Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), who join Prospera — International Network of Women’s Funds and Global Greengrants Fund as our new Strategic Allies. With longstanding experience of working on women’s rights, climate, and environmental justice, GAGGA’s Strategic Allies support our network to jointly engage donors and link to global climate movements and international policy forums.

In this newsletter, we introduce our new Strategic Allies and feature the work of community-based organizations in the GAGGA network who are experiencing weather extremes once considered rare or unprecedented. They are taking action in opposition to fossil fuels, linking women’s rights with climate justice, and collaborating from a local to global level on climate solutions that work for all women. We hope these stories show that when we work together, we can push for the transformational change needed to get to a future that is more inclusive, sustainable and gender-just.

To learn more about this new program, check out our factsheet here.

You can read our October 2021 newsletter here.

Above image was designed by Naandeyeah.