Lessons from the Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) Next Level Grants Facility
Fostering local ownership, responding to climate emergencies and co-creating local solutions through bridging climate finance at the local level
Since 2021, SSN’s Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) programme has been conceptualising and implementing the Next Level Grants Facility (NLGF), a €3.5 million small granting mechanism providing funds to the local level in seven countries, namely Bolivia, Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Paraguay, Tunisia and Zambia. This grant fosters a bottom-up approach to decision-making, where communities and local allies play a key role in identifying priorities and defining solutions to climate change. The VCA have already disbursed over €1 million to local groups and communities, and the key lessons learned during this process have been drawn from several cross-regional learning sessions that facilitated knowledge sharing and adaptative management between the NLGF’s Fund Managers.
The NLGF targets small informal organisations and movements that do not have the capacity to apply for and report on more formal grants but that represent local rights holders and work on local climate solutions. It also focuses on the hard-to-reach informal groups and individuals (including youth, women, rural, urban, Indigenous groups, and traditional communities) who, by their informal nature of operations, would not normally access the programme’s resources. The NLGF is managed at the local level. In each country, there is a local Fund Manager with a strong capacity to administer and monitor the grant but also be connected with community networks and spaces. Each country developed its own framework for the NLGF, which reflects the criteria, approach and governance structure for decision-making and management of the fund.
In all regions, the NLGF has two funding cycles: one for climate emergencies as a rapid response mechanism for disasters in the region and one for climate opportunities. The latter are slightly larger amounts that can be granted to local initiatives that increase resilience in a community or region. Types of emergencies include and are not limited to the protection of life and safety, access to decision-making spaces, evidence generation, campaigns and communication, capacity building, legal protection (i.e. environmental activists facing harassment) and response to natural disasters. Emerging opportunities include local solutions that are co-created, proposed, designed and led by local communities and that have been endorsed by the scientific/technical community and those using traditional knowledge for their potential impact on climate adaptation and/or mitigation.
Read about the key lessons learned thus far in implementing the NLGF, here.
