Annual Report 2014

Over the past few months, I made two trips that capture both the work we do at Both ENDS and what is at stake in today’s debate on climate finance. While large international funds are struggling to deliver on locally led climate action, initiatives Both ENDS is part of, such as the PaPes programme in Senegal and the GAGGA alliance, are showing how it can be done. With the evidence of the funding mechanisms that work, we advocate at international spaces for change.

The Dutch development bank FMO is considering a loan to help Eni natural Energies Congo¹ to grow its biofuel business in Africa. Together with our partners, we have asked FMO not to go ahead, for three reasons: Eni is a highly profitable oil and gas company that does not need public development, its biofuel projects in Africa have harmed farmers and put pressure on food supplies, and it uses lawsuits to intimidate its critics.

At COP31, Both ENDS advocates for climate finance that reaches women-led and community-based organisations at the forefront of climate action, while challenging the economic rules that obstruct the transition away from fossil fuels. Together with partners in the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA) and the PAPeS programme, we push for locally led adaptation, gender-just climate action and greater accountability for governments and companies.

We asked our colleagues Daan Robben and Fernando Hernandez why they are going to COP31, what messages they want to bring to negotiators, and what a positive outcome would look like.

By Sarah Adongo, Lawyer, Witness Radio, Uganda

Sarah Adongo is one of the three winners of the 2026 Irene Dankelman Young Ecofeminist Award, presented on 21 October at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia. A lawyer working with Witness Radio Uganda, Sarah works with women affected by gender-based violence and communities affected by land dispossession and large-scale investments. In this piece, she shares what the award means to her and why gender and environmental justice must go hand in hand.

By Yemi Knight (they/them), Founder and Executive Director, AnchorBridge Environmental Inc., Barbados

Yemi Knight is one of the three winners of the 2026 Irene Dankelman Young Ecofeminist Award, presented on 21 October at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia. Yemi founded AnchorBridge Environmental, a youth-led organisation that combines policy advocacy with climate education across the Caribbean. We asked them what the award means to them, what they are working on, and what they would tell other young ecofeminist leaders.

Yemi is also part of the network of the Joke Waller-Hunter Initiative, powered by Both ENDS. With a JWH grant, Yemi followed courses in Social, Environmental and Economic Impact Assessment and in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campusc, as well as a Level 1A Spanish course at the Centre for Language Learning at the university’s St. Augustine Campus.

The Netherlands and Portugal join four other EU countries facing such a complaint.

The Netherlands and Portugal join four other EU countries facing such a complaint, as the Global Days of Action against Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) begin.

We are thrilled to share that our partner the Rural Women's Assembly (RWA) is one of this year's Right Livelihood Laureates! The award, often called the "Alternative Nobel Prize", honours RWA for bringing together more than 178,000 women farmers in eleven Southern African countries. Together, these women stand up for their land, their seeds and their right to make decisions about their own lives and bodies.