Lessons from the Climate Development Knowledge Network’s (CDKN) open call for locally-led adaptation initiatives in Africa

As part of its commitment to mobilising climate knowledge for climate-resilient action, SSN’s CDKN programme is providing Knowledge-to-Action (K2A) grants in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In Africa, an open call for locally-led adaptation (LLA) initiatives and a comprehensive selection process led to five K2A projects being chosen to receive US$150,000 each in Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique and South Sudan. Providing grants to support LLA is new terrain for the CDKN programme, and the programme intentionally adopted a learning approach.

The concept of locally-led adaptation (LLA) as a means to implement climate adaptation that responds to the lived realities and needs of local communities is growing in prominence across the world. At the forefront of thinking around LLA, the Global Commission on Adaptation developed eight guiding principles, which have been endorsed by over 120 different organisations, including local governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and global institutions. However, while these principles reflect a transformative approach by the development community towards supporting climate adaptation, many organisations are still figuring out how to effectively put them into practice.

This was raised at the 18th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA18) in May 2024, where there was a demand for evaluating different approaches to LLA and a request to reform funding mechanisms to make resources more accessible to local actors. During its third phase, CDKN has been supporting the flow of climate finance to the local level by designing a funding mechanism that focuses on supporting community-based organisations (CBOs).

In March 2023, CDKN launched a call for concepts that support LLA initiatives in Africa. Before launching this new phase of work, the programme held discussions with grant-makers who had already been disbursing funding at the local level, including the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), Slum Dwellers International (SDI) Kenya, and the Small-Grants Facility (SGF) to learn from their experiences.

A year and a half later, CDKN has partnered with five organisations leading local adaptation initiatives in five countries across Africa. Read about their insights from the selection process, here.