The Future Is Feminist, Locally Led, and Ready Now.
Dear all,
May has been a full month for GAGGA. And we’re not slowing down. From the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, to the Philea Forum gathering private foundations and intermediaries to talk on People and Planet, and looking ahead to London Climate Action Week end of June, the message we are carrying echoes through every room: the solutions exist, the leaders exist, and what the world needs now is the resources and the political will to back women-led community based organisations doing the most effective climate adaptation and mitigation work.
This urgency is becoming harder to ignore globally. Following the International Court of Justice historic ruling on climate responsibility, 141 nations have now accepted their responsibility and accountability in addressing climate change. The conversation is shifting from whether action is needed to how accountability, climate finance, and political power can reach the communities already carrying the heaviest burden of the crisis. For GAGGA, that means continuing to push for funding that reaches women-led, locally-rooted organisations at the frontlines of climate justice
New Policy Brief: From Fossil Fuels to Gender-Just Futures
Ahead of the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (Santa Marta, Colombia, 28 April – 2 May 2026), GAGGA and GAGGA’s partner WoMin published a joint policy brief: From Fossil Fuels to Gender-Just Futures: Land, Care and Livelihoods as Foundations of a Just Transition.
The brief draws on a decade of frontline climate work with 2,590+ women-led organisations across 60+ countries. Its core argument: a just transition must be feminist, locally-led, and grounded in the commons or it risks reproducing the very extractive logic that caused the climate crisis in the first place.
From green hydrogen megaprojects on Indigenous communal lands in South Africa’s Namaqualand, to rare earths mining in Uganda’s Busoga subregion, the brief names “green extractivism” for what it is: extraction with a different label. It puts forward case studies from GAGGA partners and five concrete demands of policy-makers, decision-makers and funding partners, from transforming climate finance as reparation, to mandating Free, Prior and Informed Consent for all transition
related projects. The conference has now closed. The work is only beginning. We have written a reflection on what Santa Marta means and what GAGGA is holding decision-makers to next that you can read here.
GAGGA at the Philea Forum 2026 | Copenhagen, 18–21 May 2026
This week, from May 18-21, GAGGA joined 700+ foundation leaders in Copenhagen for Philea Forum 2026 with the theme, Philanthropy for People and Planet, at a pivotal moment for climate finance. The conference ended with a message to future generations grounded in courage, responsibility, and collective action: “We hope you don’t have to rely on hope, but that it’s there when you need it.”
The new International Philanthropy Commitment on Climate Change Progress Report 2 by Philea and WINGS brought welcome news: 61% of foundation signatories have increased their climate spending. This is real progress, and we are glad to be part of a philanthropic community moving in the right direction. With Fund Forward, we are making sure that progress at institutional levels also becomes resources at the frontlines and go into the hands of women-led community based organisations.
GAGGA is at Philea to name that gap in between climate funding and reaching local women-led community based organisations, and to make the case for closing it. As of now, only around 0.1% of all global philanthropic funding is dedicated specifically to gender and the environment.
Across these days in Copenhagen, participants explored what it means to work for people and planet. As the Forum closes, the task is clear: to carry that work forward.
Our Fund Forward campaign is our open invitation to funders everywhere: move resources to the women already leading the climate solutions, because when women lead, communities thrive, and the future changes for all of us.
London Climate Action Week (LCAW) is an important next moment to push the conversation on climate finance beyond commitments and toward accountability. As one of the world’s largest independent climate gatherings, bringing together civil society, philanthists, governments, investors and frontline movements, LCAW offers a critical space to challenge what kind of solutions are being funded – and whose are still being left behind.
As part of LCAW, GAGGA will co-host Funding Climate Action at Scale: Lessons from Effective Global Philanthropy on 22 June at the Aga Khan Centre in London, together with the Alliance Magazine. The event will explore why some of the most effective climate solutions remain underfunded, despite growing evidence that gender-just, locally-led approaches create long-term resilience and sustainability. Through a morning panel discussion and interactive afternoon workshops, participants will engage with critical questions around risk, scale, expertise, and the role of effective intermediaries in climate philanthropy. Speakers include Sonia Medina (CIFF), Juliana Tinoco (Alianza Fondos del Sur/The Global South House), the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense, moderated by Elika Roohi of Alliance Magazine. The afternoon workshop sessions will create space for participants to move beyond high-level discussions and engage directly with some of the structural tensions shaping climate philanthropy today. Each breakout table will focus on a critical question facing funders, intermediaries and movements working toward gender-just climate action. Together, the conversation will focus on how philanthropy can move resources more effectively, equitably, and accountably to the women-led community based organisations already leading climate solutions. Please register here if you want to attend in person or follow the event virtually.
Fund Forward: Scaling Collective Action, Multiplying Impact
In case you missed our campaign launch earlier this year: Fund Forward is GAGGA’s invitation to funders, philanthropists, and institutions to see funding not as a one-to-one transaction, but as a multiplier.
Since 2016, GAGGA has supported 2,590+ partners across 60 countries through funding, advocacy, and cross-movement building in between the feminist and the climate and environmental movements. Fund Forward is our call to keep building that momentum, and to move more resources toward the communities already doing the work.
There are many ways to get involved:
Share our Fund Forward page with funders and allies in your network
Make a recommendation or introduction. We welcome connections to those who should be funding forward with us!
Explore partnership by reaching out to Noemi Grütter at [email protected]
From Santa Marta to London, the same truth keeps showing up in every room: the solutions exist, the will is growing, and the
gap is closeable. We’ll keep showing up to close it, and we’re grateful you’re with us.
Thank you for standing with us, for supporting this work, and for helping carry these conversations forward.
Noemi Gütter, Head of Advocacy & Partnerships, on behalf of the GAGGA team
👉 Learn more at gaggaalliance.org
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