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.

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.

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.

Families in Char Juwar Satra of Ulipur, Kurigram are constructing climate resilient housing (a two storied tin-shed structure, locally known as "Khudibari") to prevent inundation during floods. A local NGO called 'Face Bangladesh Foundation' has trained the local people and provided financial resources to source local materials and construct "Khudibaris". During floods, the ground floor is used for keeping cattle while the family members take shelter on the first floor. So far 15 families in this Char have built "Khudibari" for themselves.

Nilganj union, situated in Kalapara upazila of Patuakhali, is frequently faced with cyclones and floods. The only cyclone shelter available in this union is on the other side of the Pakhimara River. Because of the absence of any proper bridge, people often struggled to reach the cyclone shelter on time. To solve this problem, community members, with support from the Upazila Parishad, have built a floating bridge across the river using plastic drums.

People living along the Teesta river basin are engaged a constant battle with the forces of nature. For up to 4 months each year, they have to endure relentless flash floods caused by excessive rainfall. Despite the difficulties, the inhabitants remain deeply rooted to their homes, refusing to migrate elsewhere. Instead, they have devised ingenious strategies to cope with the challenges posed by annual flooding. These include adopting alternative livelihoods, stockpiling grains, and availing financial services from local lenders.

Vulnerable coastal communities along the Scottish coast are mapping hazards and engaging the island community to develop adaptation plans under the Carbon Neutral Initiative. Lessons from their efforts echo those from the developing world, including the importance of locally-rooted action, coordination, interconnectedness, and adequate finance and capacity.

Margaret Arnold, World Bank’s former Global Lead on the Social Dimensions of Climate Change, describes Kenya’s Financing Locally Led Climate Action Program (FLLoCA), which is the first, national scale model of devolved climate finance.

Across 44 villages on the island of Java, women’s groups are working together to plan and executive a diverse range of initiatives to reduce the risk that climate change disasters present, adapt to changing weather patterns, and develop stronger, more resilient local communities. 

Women living in informal settlements are adapting their homes to dangerously high temperatures in Gujarat, India, to reduce the risk of physical and mental health problems for themselves and their families, and to help improve their sleep, productivity and quality of life.

Using flexible climate finance through a grant from the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, the community invested in a series of channeled irrigations systems linked to water storage tanks, to provide water to 270 households all year round.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE

In a protected mountainous region of Bukidnon in the Philippines, indigenous people are providing ecosystem services by planting endemic forest trees and coffee following the introduction of a voluntary payment mechanism that incentivizes businesses, organizations and individuals to provide financing.  

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE In the chars of Bangladesh, residents impacted by the changing climate have formed local disaster management committees to focus on capacity building, enhancing their earnings, and developing more sustainable sources of income.

Women-led, local savings groups from slums in Harare are leading the upgrading of their informal settlements, addressing local communities’ housing and basic service needs, and enhancing climate adaptation through the installation of solar energy systems and other infrastructure.

In the south of Mexico, small-scale farmers are responding to changing climate conditions by working together as cooperatives to implement new practices and support long-term climate resilience.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE

In the center of The Gambia, people affected by falling incomes as a result of climate change are benefiting from the LoCAL mechanism that channels climate finance to communities for locally led adaptation.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARD WINNER

Rangamati Hill District Council, Bangladesh, won the 2022 LAC Award in the Inclusive Leadership category, for supporting poor communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to battle relentless drought, landslides and floods with solar water pumps.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARD WINNER

Adaptation Consortium, Kenya, won in the Financial Governance category for the County Climate Change Fund model that supports communities to access and use climate finance, and provides subnational governments and communities with a predictable and sustained source of finance for adaptation and resilience building efforts.

In the slums of Khulna in Bangladesh, climate migrants and other residents of the city’s slums are building their resilience to extreme climate conditions through the Climate Bridge Fund, an international-backed initiative that draws on the knowledge and insights of local leaders.

2022 LOCAL ADAPTATION CHAMPIONS AWARDS NOMINEE With their livelihoods increasingly impacted by droughts, heatwaves, locust swarms and severe storms, smallholder farmers and pastoralists in Kenya are using new insurance products that utilize satellite technology to strengthen their resilience to climate-related problems.

Through mobilizing and organizing local communities, promoting peer learning, and identifying policy priorities and developing plans with the government, grassroot women’s groups in Kenya are enhancing community resilience to address climate change-related challenges such as extreme weather hazards that affect food and livelihoods of grassroots communities.