Adaptation Futures - Session on Small grants, big impacts
The Green Climate Fund aims to support transformational pathways to climate-resilient development, intends to reach those most vulnerable, and commits to a gender-sensitive approach. This session presents an important way of putting these commitments into practice: by engaging small grants funds. These funds can provide the much needed channel between large international institutions and local communities adapting to climate change, and assure financing reaches women and men to contribute to transformative climate action. But how to make this shift in how financing is delivered? The audience will be actively engaged in the discussion to come to concrete suggestions to strengthen local access and gender responsiveness of climate finance.
Panellists:
- Ms. Theo Sowa, African Women's Development Fund
- Ms. Joëlla van Rijn, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Mr. Daan Robben, Both ENDS
- Mr. Fumihiko Tominaga, Green Climate Fund, South Korea
- Mr. Zaheer Fakir, Green Climate Fund Board Member (tbc)
Chair:
Annelieke Douma
About the panellists
Theo Sowa is an independent advisor and consultant, specialising in international social development. She is currently the CEO of the African Women's Development Fund, mobilising financial, human and material resources to support African women and the work of the African women's movement to advance women's rights and gender equality in Africa.
Joëlla van Rijn is a climate change expert and diplomat at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In her actual assignment she focuses on international finance for climate in developing countries. She is involved in the setup of the new Dutch Climate Fund and other financial instruments to mobilize private investment in light of the Paris Agreement.
Daan Robben is a climate finance policy advisor at Both ENDS, with a specific focus on Green Climate Fund. Both ENDS promotes local access, gender equality and the inclusion of southern CSOs in GCF decision-making processes. He follows GCF processes closely and as of this year joined the civil society active observer team.
Fumihiko Tominaga is Adaptation Planning Associate at the Green Climate Fund, responsible for managing the portfolio of the GCF adaptation planning proposals and for processing, reviewing, and providing feedback and guidance for each proposal.
Zaheer Fakir is Chief Policy Adviser International Relations and Governance at the Department of Environmental Affairs in South-Africa, and Member of the Board of Directors at the Green Climate Fund. He served as a negotiator on climate finance and is active in the Boards of the Adaptation Fund, Global Environment Facility and Climate Investment Funds.
Annelieke Douma is senior programme officer and coordinator of the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action within Dutch non-governmental organization Both ENDS, focusing on water management, gender equality, and climate adaptation and finance. She monitors the Green Climate Fund and supports Southern CSOs to engage in climate finance decision-making processes.
For more information
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Dossier /Small Grants Big Impacts
Small grants funds offer an effective, alternative way to channel big money from large donors and funds to local groups and organisations that are striving for a sustainable and just society everywhere around the world.
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Dossier /Green Climate Fund: calling for local access to climate finance
Local organisations and groups must be given access to climate finance from the Green Climate Fund. They know exactly what is happening in their local context and what is required for climate adaptation.
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Dossier /Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA)
GAGGA rallies the collective power of the women's rights and environmental justice movements to realize a world where women can and do access their rights to water, food security, and a clean, healthy and safe environment.
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Environmentally Just Practice /Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs)
About one in every six people, particularly women, directly rely on forests for their lives and livelihoods, especially for food. This shows how important non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and forests are to ensure community resilience. Not only as a source of food, water and income, but also because of their cultural and spiritual meaning.
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Dossier /Communities Regreen the Sahel
In various countries in the Sahel, vast tracts of land have been restored by the local population by nurturing what spontaneously springs from the soil and protecting the sprouts from cattle and hazards.
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News / 5 November 2025Interview: Both ENDS at COP30 for Climate Justice and Systemic Change
Both ENDS is present at COP30 to advocate for genuine access to climate finance for locally led, gender-just climate solutions and the mechanisms that facilitate this, including those for farmer-led restoration. Furthermore, the organisation participates to ensure the crucial connection between the climate negotiations and the trade and investment frameworks that shape them.
Learn more about the Both ENDS team at COP30 below, and find all the activities and side-events in which Both ENDS will participate.
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News / 5 November 2025Overview of Both ENDS events at COP30 in Belem, Brazil
Both ENDS is present at COP30 to advocate for genuine access to climate finance for locally led, gender-just climate solutions, and for the mechanisms that make these possible, including those supporting farmer-led restoration. The organisation also engages to highlight the crucial connection between climate negotiations and the trade and investment frameworks that shape them.
Below is an overview of the Both ENDS team at COP30 and a detailed look at the activities and side-events in which Both ENDS will participate.
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News / 16 July 2025Case Study: Women Advocating for Gender and Climate Justice in Burkina Faso
The Women Environmental Programme Burkina Faso (WEP BF or WEP) is leading the way in gender-just climate solutions, putting the power of advocacy directly into the hands of women farmers. “In Burkina Faso, women play a crucial role in food production and natural resource management, yet they continue to face systemic barriers to land ownership,” explains a WEP team member. “Despite legal provisions, deeply ingrained customary norms remain dominant, restricting women’s access to land as user rights only, which need to be mediated through male family members.” Without secure access to land, they face significant obstacles in sustaining their agricultural activities, improving local food security, and fully participating in their communities.
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News / 16 July 2025Case Study: Fighting Environmental Transphobia and Social Fragmentation in Brazil
In the face of environmental transphobia, a form of discrimination where trans and gender-diverse communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation,excluded from climate policies, and often met with stigma and exclusion by environmental justice movements, Grupo Orgulho, Liberdade e Dignidade (GOLD) has emerged as a bold and visionary force for change in Brazil. At the heart of this movement is Débora Sabará ,GOLD’s leader, a travesti activist who has fought tirelessly to place the perspectives andneeds of LGBTIQAPN+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, Asexual, Pansexual, Nonbinary and other identities), Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian communities at the center of environmental justice conversations.
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News / 16 July 2025Case Study: Community Paralegals Defending Land Rights from Extractive Industries and Land Grabs in Mozambique
Across Mozambique, land represents more than just territory. It is the cornerstone of livelihoods, culture, and autonomy for many communities. When companies arrive, claiming large portions for mining, oil exploration or agribusiness, residents face significant challenges in asserting their rights. Mozambique’s Land Law (1997) grants communities user rights, ensuring they can occupy and use land for subsistence and cultural purposes.
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News / 16 July 2025The challenges of climate change, gender inequality, and conflict
This FCDO-supported project, part of the GAGGA programme, brought together 6 women-led community-based organisations from around the world to explore how they navigate the combined challenges of climate change, gender inequality, and conflict. Through a Feminist Participatory Action Research approach, the organisations documented strategies ranging from land rights advocacy to climate-resilient agriculture, highlighting how extractive industries, militarisation, and patriarchal systems drive exclusion and insecurity. Their findings are now informing donors and policymakers on the need to support grassroots women’s leadership. In the following interview, the project lead shares more about the research, key insights, and its broader impact.
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Dossier /Fair Green and Global Alliance (FGG)
Together with civil society organisations from all over the world, the Fair Green and Global (FGG) Alliance aims for socially just, inclusive and environmentally sustainable societies in the Netherlands and the Global South.
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Blog / 2 July 2025Women at the frontlines of climate action: local power for global change
By Tamara MohrLast week, GAGGA, the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action, with Both ENDS as one of the Alliance members, together with FCAM and Mama Cash, organised its Global Meeting in Indonesia. The goal of this meeting was to recognise, celebrate and look ahead at cross-movement and cross-regional connections, to strengthen the collective power of gender, climate and environmental justice movements.
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Event / 12 March 2025, 09:30 - 11:15The Conflict, Gender, Climate Nexus: Localized understanding and policy recommendations
Across the world, women lead efforts to advance peace, gender and environmental justice. From the Philippines to Mozambique, Burkina Faso to Brazil, they face a deadly convergence of violence, environmental destruction, and extractivist land grabs. As corporate interests, state forces or other armed actors expand into their territories, entire communities are displaced, criminalized, or subjected to violent repression. At the same time, worsening climate disasters further erode their means of survival, exacerbating food insecurity, water shortages, forced migration and gendered inequalities.
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Event / 12 December 2024, 13:00 - 14:30Exploring new avenues of CSO participation in UNCCD processes
Enhancing inclusivity within UNCCD processes and its implementation by strengthening the involvement of civil society organizations (CSOs) and Indigenous Peoples.
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Event / 11 December 2024, 13:00 - 14:30Making strategic impact: Shifting resources and power to women-led initiatives for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN)
How donors, foundations and other funders can better support women-led initiatives in achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), focusing on challenges, collaboration, and opportunities for improved matchmaking.
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Letter / 9 December 2024
People and the Planet Entebbe Declaration: Reclaiming investment frameworks for people and the planet
The time for change is now. Civil society demands international investment
frameworks that are aligned with economic justice, social and environmental
sustainability, and the needs of communities worldwide. -
Event / 4 December 2024, 18:00 - 19:30Enhancing the role of civil society in the UNCCD to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN)
Effective local action by land-using communities is at the heart of achieving LDN globally. However, their contributions are often not well recognized or adequately supported by governments and other agencies. Within the UNCCD framework, civil society organisations play a key role in engaging with policymakers in the context of recognizing and supporting these contributions by local communities. The side event will engage participants in a GEF-supported joint Drynet/ IUCN initiative to enhance the capacities of civil society to engage effectively in the achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) within the UNCCD framework.
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Blog / 2 December 2024COP29: devastating outcomes, but our partners are a beacon of hope
By Daan Robben and Marius TroostWhat to think of the outcomes of this year’s Conference of the Parties (COP29) of the UNFCCC? As it has been so many times, we look back with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the negotiations had very devastating outcomes. On the other hand, working so close together with our many partners and feeling their commitment and energy, also gives a spark of hope.
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News / 2 December 2024Ten recommendations for the UNCCD COP16 to strengthen its efforts in combating desertification, land degradation, and drought
For decades, our local partner organisations have been developing and promoting effective ways to combat land degradation, desertification, and drought. This includes regions like the drylands, as well as forests, and wetlands. Supporting these locally-led actions is essential to reversing negative trends. For COP16, Drynet has developed 10 recommendations to strengthen the implementation of the UNCCD. Success at COP16 would mean turning these recommendations into action, fostering inclusive land governance and sustainable land management practices globally. By enabling locally-led actions—particularly those led by women, youth, pastoralists, and Indigenous Peoples—we can build a more resilient future.