The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 typhoons every year, as well as other natural disasters. The government of the Philippines has launched several efforts to increase the country’s resilience to these natural hazards, including the National Resilience Council (NRC) which is driven by the private sector to provide a platform for meaningful engagement and cooperation between local governments, the private sector, and climate-affected communities.

To counter India’s water crisis, nonprofits from across the country are helping farmers adopt innovative techniques to reduce water usage in agriculture. This photo essay documents the efforts of five nonprofits from across the country.

Persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected by climate change and the disasters resulting from it, yet they remain an afterthought in climate policies.

The seaweed industry in Zanzibar, Tanzania, provides social and economic opportunities to women farmers. Nonetheless, climate-induced impacts put the industry (and women farmers) at risk. Aqua-Farms Organization (AFO) aims combat this through its rent-to-own microcredit model that provides financing and technical support to women farmers.

In Pintadas, a municipality in Brazil, water security and social inequality have long been persistent. In recognition of these challenges, Rede Pintadas (Pintadas Network) works to empower women through social and economic activities, water efficiency projects, and engages in women's mobilization for political engagement, and advocates for legal and policy protection for cooperatives and women producers.

Augustine Babughirana founded Ugavoil in 2018 as a private agribusiness in Kasese district, Uganda, to “decouple economic activity from the consumption of finite resources”. Ugavoil is committed to using byproducts as a raw material for other processes and products, to promote sustainability of livelihoods and the environment. The company farms black soldier flies to recycle organic waste into fertilizer and livestock feed, to reduce landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

Northern Peru is a live repository of Afro-Peruvian cultural heritage, is prone to flooding, drought, and increased temperatures. The Zaña Afro-Peruvian Museum, a museum seeking to preserve Afro-descendants’ community heritage, has initiated diverse activities to improve local people’s understanding of climate change and tap into ancestral knowledge about farming traditions and the memories of older generations.

Vanuatu is highly vulnerable to climate change and disaster risks, such sea level rise, storm surges, landslides, flooding, and drought. The Santo Sunset Environment Network (SSEN) is an Indigenous-led network of community champions working for climate-resilient and socially just development on the island. SSEN has supports and empowers individuals, villages, and communities to implement sustainable development strategies in keeping with traditional livelihoods.

The effects of climate change have impacted agricultural production and maize yields in Meru County, Kenya. The Central Imenti Environment Rehabilitation Program (CIERP) has reoriented its work towards addressing this challenge, in addition to implementing tree planting and income diversification activities. Additionally, the CIERP has significantly extended the group’s activities in support of the psychological wellness of farmers who suffer losses due to the impacts of climate change in an effort to engage in a holistic methods for climate resilience.

Degradation of forests and the natural environment, combined with the impacts of climate change, have created “dire” consequences for local people in Busia County, Kenya. The Kenge Content Hive, a youth-led and community-based organization, aims to combat these challenges by capitalizing on Indigenous knowledge to engage in activities for ecological restoration, sustainable development and youth leadership.

Floods and river erosion are not alien to people in Bangladesh, although the increasing severity and frequency are attributed to climate change. Nonetheless, acknowledging the mental health impacts of constant loss and sustained stress is often a social taboo. Recognizing the severe impacts of mental health on physical health, GCA is working with BRAC, an international development organization based in Bangladesh, and Columbia University’s Billion Minds Institute project, to document the psychological impacts of climate change on poor and vulnerable communities in Bangladesh.

KivuGreen, a youth-led enterprise, is strengthening the climate resilience of small-scale farmers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through a mobile service that provides them with real-time forecasts and climate-smart agricultural advice. CEO Chris Ayale explains how KivuGreen contributes to climate adaptation and food security and describes how winning the 2021 YouthADAPT Challenge boosted KivuGreen’s impact.

Satou Secka, Awa Ndow and their female neighbours in the village of Kataba Omar, are taking the lead in a revolution. Amid the dusty dry lands of their water-starved rural community in The Gambia, the women have transformed the land with a solar irrigation project, producing high-value crops that are boosting nutrition levels for their families, generating a new income for the women and fuelling a new age of budding entrepreneurialism.

As we age, certain tasks get harder - like carrying heavy containers of water. But with age, they say, comes wisdom. In Shumar, a remote mountain community in south-eastern Bhutan, an isolated community of mostly older persons has used their years of experience in managing the impacts of climate change-related landslides to design a specially adapted water delivery system suspended from the branches of large trees.

In the Rubaga Division of Kampala, where 78% of residents live in slums, climate-related damages fall heavily on women and girls. Originally focused on healthcare support and economic empowerment initiatives, the Lungujja Community Health Caring Organization (LUCOHECO) recognized a need to expand their focus to address sustainable development issues. Today, LUCOHECO engages in livelihood support, care provision to vulnerable families, advocacy and outreach and training of women and Community Health Workers.

Biochar, a form of charcoal used to lock up carbon and fertilize soils, offers a promising solutions to air pollution and health issues caused by slash-and-burn agriculture. The Older People’s Clubs (OPCs) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, is producing biochar as a way of addressing these environmental and health-related issues. For OPCs, biochar is a way to manage green waste, transfer knowledge to younger farmers, and tackle air pollution in Chiang Mai, while creating opportunities for additional income.

Mikoko Pamoja, a community-based organization from Gazi Bay, Kenya, was founded in response to growing deforestation of essential mangrove forests by the timber industry. The community in Gazi Bay, Kenya, is leading the way in showing the world how to reap the immense benefits of mangroves without their destruction. In response to the deforestation of essential mangrove forests, the Mikoko Pamoja organization, has pioneered the world’s first conservation project to link mangrove forests to the global carbon market and won the 2017 Equator Prize for their efforts.

Due to recurring floods that have devastated fields and ruined crops, men in Osukuru, Uganda, often leave the community to seek jobs in the cities. Without secure opportunities for income, many women and girls are forced to turn to the sex trade and are subject to violence and illness. The Osukuru United Women's Network (OWN) was founded to empower women economically, socially, and psychologically, and to mitigate flood and drought risks. A force of more than 2,000 women helping each other, OWN has initiated savings and loan associations, and supported women to develop productive, climate-resilient kitchen gardens.

The fast-growing, drought-resistant moringa (Moringa oleifera) tree is prized for its nutritional value and its potential as a climate solution, as it can tolerate extreme heat and cold. Rajib Parvez Raju, a Bangladeshi entrepreneur who is working to create a social movement in moringa cultivation and marketing, has engaged 5,000 farmers in its cultivation in 20 districts of Bangladesh.

Experience in Guinea demonstrates the huge potential of using the graduation approach in a range of contexts where communities are forced to relocate, whether that’s due to infrastructure projects or the impacts of climate change.

Sylvia Kuria, an organic farmer from Kiambu County in Kenya, is catalyzing a local movement for farmers to embrace agroecological methods, with minimal chemicals and more efficient water management, to tackle erratic rainfall patterns and water scarcity in the region.

2023 Local Adaptation Champions Award Winner

In India, Aumsat Technologies LLP has innovatively harnessed satellite-based radar analytics to address the pressing issue of water scarcity exacerbated by climate change.

2023 Local Adaptation Champions Award Winner

In Oaxaca, Mexico, Espacio de Encuentro de las Culturas Originarias, A.C. focuses on adaptation to climate change at the local level in highly vulnerable communities. Communities are benefiting from affordable, relevant, and innovative ecotechnologies that make them better able to adapt to extreme weather events.

2023 Local Adaptation Champions Award Winner

In Bangladesh, the Local Government Initiative on Climate Change (LoGIC) is enhancing communities’ ability to plan and finance local adaptation actions that suit their needs and contexts. Through this project, Local Government Division, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-Operatives, Government of Bangladesh provides a mechanism for accessing and managing climate finance from various sources, a platform for sharing best practices and lessons learned, and a system for monitoring and evaluating effectiveness and impact.

2023 Local Adaptation Champions Award Winner

In northern Tanzania, the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) enhances indigenous pastoralist women’s leadership capabilities to build women’s capacity to achieve equality as decision-makers in pastoralist societies.