20 organizations pioneering locally-led climate resilience announced as finalists for the Local Adaptation Champions Awards at COP27
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otterdam, the Netherlands, 6th September 2022 – With less than two months to go until COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, a group of experts have selected 20 finalists from around the world for the Local Adaptation Champions Awards in recognition of their pioneering locally-led efforts to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change.
Launched by the Global Center on Adaptation in 2022, the Local Adaptation Champions Awards spotlight and reward inspiring, innovative and scalable, locally led efforts to address climate change impacts and build effective resilience. The 20 finalists will now be assessed in four categories: Inclusive leadership, Financial governance, Capacity and knowledge, and Local innovation by a jury of global leaders, with one winner selected in each.
Professor Patrick Verkooijen, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Center on Adaptation, said: “These Awards recognize those working to support the most vulnerable communities, sections of society, and individuals on the frontlines of the greatest existential threat faced by humankind. We are excited to announce our support for these organizations and their pioneering efforts and look forward to seeing more of their innovative solutions.”
The prestigious jury is made up of Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Professor Patrick Verkooijen, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Center on Adaptation; Saima Wazed Putul, Thematic Ambassador for Vulnerability of The Climate Vulnerable Forum; Sheela Patel, Director of the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres; and Ban Ki-moon, Chair of the Global Center on Adaptation and 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations. The four winners will be announced at COP27 at the first-ever Local Adaptation Champions Awards ceremony.
Notes to Editors
The 20 finalists pioneering climate adaptation and resilience:
Capacity and knowledge category:
In the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region, India, Global Himalayan Expedition merges sustainability, clean cooking, digital education, homestay tourism and solar-based electrification. Working with remote indigenous and tribal communities to reduce deforestation and carbon footprints, Global Himalayan Expedition brings solar electrification to remote off-grid Himalayan villages through solar grids. Implemented in schools and health centers, all electronics are assembled locally by trained youth. Founder Paras Loomba says: “Global Himalayan Expedition has collaborated with over 500 communities across various regions of the Himalayas that have faced the consequences of climate change to co-create technological solutions to bolster livelihood generation and positive community engagement. The model holds the potential to be replicable and scalable by bringing together the development and tourism sectors, to transform communities to be more resilient and self-sustaining during the climate crisis.”
Gram Vikas, in India, aims to address the impacts of climate change and water scarcity in forest watersheds and areas where water has historically been abundant. Liby Johnson, Executive Director, says: “Communities on the ground should possess the capabilities and opportunities to know and act to improve their lives. Only a large number of small actions and victories will enable adaptation to climate changes, a meaningful reality. The Spring Stewardship Fellows in the villages of Odisha lead from the frontlines, modeling transformative efforts in climate action and resilience.” The intervention develops knowledge and builds the capacities of 769 forest-dependent communities to deal with the impact of climate change through improved forestry, agriculture, and land occupancy and use, harnessing the indigenous knowledge of communities. Communities learn to monitor springs, develop degraded land, undertake social and agroforestry plantations, conserve soil and moisture, and intercrop to rejuvenate land and water sources.
In Burkina Faso, the Organisation Yinéyinédian pour la Nature et le Développement Durable (Yinéyinédian Organization for Nature and Sustainable Development) works with communities to preserve natural forests, ensuring sustainable management of natural resources, while boosting agricultural production through agro-ecological practices. Through interventions like haylofts, production of seedlings in nurseries and planting fruit, medicinal and forest trees, communities strengthen their adaptive capacities and skills. François Benao, General Coordinator, explains that degradation of natural resources including agricultural land, wildlife, forests, biodiversity, and climatic extremes like droughts, floods, heat as well as lack of water are key issues the community is addressing. “It is important for us personally and as an organization to tackle these problems raised, because they have a strong and negative impact on the main levers of economic growth, food, nutritional and social security, social cohesion, stability, public safety and health,” he says.
The Ewuaso Kendong pastoralist women of Kenya in Kajiado county rely on cow dung, milk and bead ornaments for income. With more intense droughts, men move livestock frequently to other regions for pasture, leaving women behind with school-going children so that children do not miss school. This leaves women with no source of income which contributes to poverty, early marriages and malnutrition. The Rural Women Network organizes learning groups, with 104 community-based facilitators training women at one-stop-farms where they can learn how to increase productivity, enhance livelihoods, and promote climate-smart and conservation agriculture. Pauline Kariuki, Executive Director, says: “Change is local. Grassroots women are experts; let us support them in unleashing their potential. Our goal is to give a platform which will amplify and give visibility to rural grassroots women who include smallholder agriculture producers and indigenous women.”
In Maharashtra, India, water-intensive cash crops like soybean and sugarcane deplete water sources and create a dependence on expensive chemical fertilizers, pesticides and market-bought hybrid seeds, with a high risk of failure during a bad monsoon. Swayam Shikshan Prayog’s women-led Climate Resilient Farming model is designed to achieve four key shifts in farm practices – the transition from cash crops to food crops, the transition from chemical to bio inputs, conservation of soil and water, and diversified livelihoods through farm-allied businesses. “During the droughts in 2015, the women told us that they had no food to eat, and that’s when our agriculture work with them truly began. We were trying to ensure food security for the families first. But instead of focusing on just kitchen and home gardens, the women grow food on the farm, eat from there, and do it in organic, water-efficient, and low-cost ways,” says Upmanyu Patil, Director of Programs.
Financial governance category:
As part of a community-driven, bottom-up planning approach, the Adaptation Consortium – ADA in Kenya supports communities to create, access and use climate finance from different sources to reduce vulnerability to climate change, while strengthening public participation in the management and use of funds. National Coordinator Victor Orindi, explains: “We sought to address the issue of inadequate and unpredictable funding that was hindering the implementation of priority adaptation and resilience building interventions at the local level. We designed a mechanism – the County Climate Change Fund – to attract finance from a variety of sources including public and private; from local to International. This has improved the envelope but more importantly the predictability, allowing subnational governments and communities to sustain adaptation and resilience building efforts.”
Also in Kenya, providing insurance cover to approximately 1.4 million small-scale farmers and pastoralists on a cumulative basis – of which 45% are women – APA Insurance designs insurance for smallholder farmers and pastoralists. From NASA satellite imagery to Index Based Livestock Insurance, products aim to strengthen resilience of farmers whose crops are at risk to drought, flood, frost, windstorm, uncontrollable pest and diseases. Ashok Shah, Group Chief Executive Officer of Apollo investments, says: “We particularly want to increase gender equity and meet the needs of both men and women farmers. We’re confident that with expanded access to the right kinds of assistance and innovations, and responsive and transformative agriculture insurance, they can adapt to climate conditions, so that they can earn more, eat better and educate their children.”
In Nigeria, eTrash2Cash identified an opportunity for 20,000 low-income people to earn an income from exchanging their trash for cash at local waste collection centers, or Trash Banks. Communities can earn cash incentives by depositing trash, which is then recycled into reusable raw materials. The income is used to support families to buy food or access healthcare through insurance plans. Sabo Aliyu, Senior Operations Manager and Education and Awareness lead, says: “Enormous uncollected waste across local communities in Africa is posing a great threat to environmental sustainability, caused by the lack of sustainable collection infrastructure and environmental education. With waste generated by the bulk of the population already struggling with extreme poverty, finding sustainable solutions to environmental and climate issues is a must to positively impact people and the planet.”
The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (or LoCAL) in Uganda, hosted by the United Nations Capital Development Fund, supports local communities to have a stake in adaptation actions, ensuring that financial interventions are efficient, effective and impactful. LoCAL reaches 12.5 million people, ensuring that local partners can develop and implement adaptation plans, budgets and capacity building. Sophie De Coninck, Global Climate Facility Manager, says: “The poorest regions of the world are on the climate frontline but have limited resources to effectively adapt. We believe that with increased access to funds, local governments can play a powerful and transformative role in accelerating and scaling up adaptation that meets local needs in a sustained manner. The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility is designed to address this challenge by channeling finance to communities for locally led adaptation, operating through local government authorities.”
In the Philippines, the Xavier Science Foundation’s tagline is: “Bridging Science and Communities.” The Foundation’s Payment for Ecosystem Services project was a response to Tropical Storm Sendong, Typhoon Washi, which hit cities in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in 2011 causing death, massive urban displacement and property damage. Today, the voluntary payment mechanism creates incentives among businesses, organizations and individuals to finance indigenous communities in upland areas rich in biodiversity, to plant endemic forest trees and coffee. Executive Director Roel Ravanera, says: “We are all interconnected. We need to work together, especially in these trying times to survive.” The initiative has reached 300 families and impacted thousands more, providing income to families from coffee, while ensuring that endemic trees grow, and reforesting and conserving areas of the Kalatungan landscape, especially critical watershed areas.
Inclusive leadership category:
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change. The Community Development Organization supports community-led action planning to better equip cities to cope with climate refugees, supporting low-income communities, especially women. Organization leader Sabrina Parvin says: “Women are the most vulnerable to climate change and ignored in decision-making. That is why we, the women of the Community Development Organization, work to unleash women’s leadership in planning across low-income communities. Because women are the caregivers for society, if we participate in the decision-making process, together we will be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change.”
The Local Environment Development and Agricultural Research Society supports communities living along the fragile coastline, vulnerable to saline intrusion and low agricultural productivity, to better manage water for agriculture and clean drinking water. Founder and Executive Director Mohon Kumar Mondal, explains: “Climate change has impacted agricultural production, supply of safe drinking water, and caused health complications of vulnerable people on the southwest coast of Bangladesh. The Local Environment Development and Agricultural Research Society – also known as LEDARS – facilitated community-led adaptation for sustainable production of crops and vegetables, supply of safe drinking water and good health practices.”
Also in Bangladesh, the Rangamati Hill District Council works with communities, especially women, who for 15 years have battled drought, landslides, and flash floods, resulting in food shortages every year. They design and implement solar power-based safe water supply facilities, making safe drinking water available for residents during times of drought. Public Relations Officer Arunendu Tripura, explains that a climate resilience committee and local communities conducted a climate vulnerability assessment and local resilience plan to implement their solution: “Since no single tube well could be built in the village, girls used to walk for half an hour up and downhill to collect drinking water. Today, water supports growing vegetables and raising domestic animals.”
From Benin, the Union Communale des Coopératives Villageoises des Maraîchers d’Adjohoun (Communal Union of Village Cooperatives of Vegetable Growers of Adjohoun)supports communities in the fertile but flood-prone lower Ouémé valley. By introducing “raised beds”, farmers boost incomes and productivity. President of the organization, Albert Noukpo, notes: “Since the implementation of this innovation, the crop production cycle has gone up to nine months despite the early rains, compared to six months in the past. Turnover has gone up to 9,000,000 CFA Francs (approximately $13,760) per hectare against less than 3,000,000 CFA Francs (approximately $4,590) per hectare in the past, maximizing the income for not only members of our union but also producers in the area.”
In Indonesia’s West Kalimantan, wild-harvested resources communities depend on for food security and livelihoods are in decline due to erratic climate and over-exploitation. Yayasan Planet Indonesia works with communities to restore and retain balance. Executive Director Adam Miller says: “Our community-led, holistic approach highlights the interconnectedness within socio-ecological systems and the need for integrated interventions based on local needs, values, and solutions. Our work with village partners reduces rural poverty and tackles one of the largest conservation conundrums: how to facilitate a shift in conservation from a symptomatic, reactive model toward an inclusive, proactive approach that positions communities behind the wheel in determining their social-ecological trajectory.”
Local innovation category:
In Tanzania, where mangroves are vital ecosystems providing habitat, breeding areas for fish and coastal protection – with five to ten times the ability to offset our carbon emissions – forests are being degraded by coastal communities. Recognizing the role that mangroves can play in mitigating climate change, Aqua-Farms Organization’s Community Mangrove Carbon Credit project has restored over 10,000 seedlings of mangroves in over four years with coastal women groups and provided beehives as an alternative use of mangroves. Co-Founder and Executive secretary, says: “Climate change is a big threat to the poor coastal communities, an adaptation program through the carbon credits improves the living standards of people and ensures the proper, well-functioning of nature.”
Meanwhile in Nepal, the practice of cultivating only one crop per year has now been shifted to three crop cycles a year due to the conservation and management of rainwater harvesting ponds and holding water in sufficient quantity to support groundwater recharge. This is the result of the Community Development & Advocacy Forum Nepal Natural Resource Management, River System Management, Chure (Siwalik hills) Conservation and Degraded land Rehabilitation and Reclamation systems. Nagdev Yadav, President, says: “We believe that the technologies and methods implemented for decades in partnership with the local government by mobilizing local communities in natural resource conservation, watershed conservation, river system management and degraded land rehabilitation sectors have been successful. Chure is considered a water reservoir and Terai is a grain reservoir and both of these are highly vulnerable. If we further expand our knowledge of river system management, we can reduce the degradation from Chure areas caused by floods and protect the productive land of Terai’s downstream areas from desertification.”
River erosion is a major issue in Bangladesh, where the organization FRIENDSHIP builds plinths, or flood shelters, in parts of the country where families have lost their own land. The plinth is an 8–12 feet elevated oval-shaped village consisting of 18–30 houses where families live permanently, providing them with a safe space during emergencies, shelter for livestock and access to facilities to prevent displacement. Runa Khan, Founder and Executive Director, said: ‘’After one disaster, a family might work for years to pay off debts, rebuild their homes, invest in livestock, and reach a position of stability. But disaster after disaster, including flash floods and continuous erosion, are impossible to cope with in one’s lifetime. FRIENDSHIP’s plinths are an example of the community coming together, contributing land as shelter to survive with their resources, even in the most vulnerable times. It helps to overcome crisis and is a platform from which to be able to rebuild their lives.’’
In Nepal, SmartPaani is tackling water management, in the form of water filtration through its SmartPaani Filter Plus. The sustainable water management company provides water filtration, rainwater harvesting and wastewater treatment services across Nepal, founded during the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake when clean water was scarce. The goal is to provide long-term clean water and hygiene education at schools through appropriate, locally maintained filters and infrastructure, hygiene programs and support from local-level entrepreneurs, primarily women. Chief Executive Officer Anisha Karn, explains: “In Nepal, safe water is not a privilege that everyone has access to. To change this, SmartPaani works in public schools to provide access to safe water, while ensuring kids value safe water, through behavior change interventions. We hope these kids will be agents of change in their respective communities and shape a better future.”
In India, malnourishment and post-harvest loss are major issues that S4S Technologies – Science for Society, set out to address. It aims to support farmers, already struggling economically, to improve the availability of food while reducing post-harvest loss. Lack of electricity or unreliable electrical supply makes post-harvesting difficult and unaffordable. The company’s Solar Conduction Dryer is an electricity-free solar-powered food dehydrator that reduces moisture content in agro-produce so that farmers and rural women can preserve their harvest for up to one year without using any chemicals. The dryer allows them to process and preserve fruits, vegetables, spices, sprouted nutritious legumes such as beans or millets, fish, and meat into dehydrated form, to adapt to uncertain market dynamics while reducing methane emissions from food waste. “S4S Technologies helps smallholder farmers sell more, thus preventing the lower-grade produce from getting wasted,” says Nidhi Pant, CoFounder of S4S Technologies. “The women farmers earn an assured additional income through the processing of produce and we prevent 300,000 tons of CO2 from entering the environment, thus creating a win-win proposition for all – the people as well as the planet.”
