GCA Local Adaptation Champions Awards: Cash Prize for Local Solutions (€15,000 Cash Prize)

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The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is seeking nominations for the Local Adaptation Champions Awards. The GCA Local Adaptation Champions Awards spotlight and reward innovative, exemplary, inspiring, and scalable locally-led efforts that address the impacts of climate change and build effective climate resilience among the most vulnerable communities, sections of society, and individuals who are at the frontlines of the greatest existential threat faced by humankind.

Local Adaptation Champions Awards Categories

Water Security: This category recognizes local, community-based initiatives that address water-related challenges and enhance local adaptation capacity through efficient water drainage, channeling, use, or conservation. The solutions must be locally designed, accessible and tailored to the needs of the most vulnerable groups in the community, ensuring equitable management of water resources for all.
Food Security: This category recognizes local, community-led initiatives that support the design, mainstreaming, and adoption of climate-smart food production systems that are designed by and for smallholder producers and vulnerable communities along the supply chain. Initiatives in this category should demonstrate how they contribute to ensuring continuous, equitable and sustainable access to diverse, nutritious foods for poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.
Urban Adaptation Solutions: This category recognizes locally led initiatives for adaptation to climate change in urban areas. Successful initiatives engage and benefit vulnerable urban neighborhoods, community leaders and city governments through collaborative design, integration into city adaptation plans, and a long-term vision to continuously increase adaptive capacity over time.
Local Entrepreneurship: This category recognizes local, community-based businesses that: (1) have developed or adopted adaptation solutions or technologies that address local climate-related vulnerabilities and that are accessible locally to the people or groups most vulnerable to climate change; (2) have supported local communities and governments in adaptation efforts; or (3) helped address structural inequalities faced by women, youth, children, disabled, displaced, indigenous peoples and marginalized ethnic groups that make them more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Funding Information

20 nominees will benefit from publicity around their nomination for the Awards. Four winners will receive a cash prize of €15,000.
The winners will be invited to an Award Ceremony at COP29 in Baku, which will take place from 11 to 22 November 2024.

Local Adaptation Champions Awards Principles

The eight Principles of Locally Led Adaptation are as follows:

Devolving decision-making to the lowest appropriate level.
Addressing structural inequalities faced by women, youth, children, disabled and displaced people, indigenous peoples and marginalized ethnic groups.
Providing patient and predictable funding that can be accessed more easily.
Investing in local capabilities to leave an institutional legacy.
Building a robust understanding of climate risk and uncertainty.
Flexible programming and learning.
Ensuring transparency and accountability.
Collaborative action and investment.

Who can apply?

The Awards are open to any organization or group of partners worldwide, who are in the process of implementing climate change adaptation/resilience solutions that follow one of the eight Principles of Locally Led Adaptation.

Eligibility Criteria

The Awards are open to any organization, or partner network that has implemented or is in the process of implementing, climate change adaptation or resilience interventions that follow one of the eight Principles of Locally Led Adaptation.
They invite applications from:
- Women-led groups
- Non-governmental organizations (local, national, and international)
- Universities
- Research institutes
- Think tanks
- Governments
- Entrepreneurship support organizations
- Small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with core business models focused on local climate adaptation initiatives
- Women-led businesses
- Tech and non-tech enterprises
- Locally grown corporates or organizations promoting local climate adaptation along supply chains
If you represent an organization or a group of partners, make sure to request permission to submit an application on their behalf to be considered for these Awards.
Only applications that meet all of the following criteria will be considered for the 2024 competition:
- The intervention is being implemented and results are demonstrable.
- The intervention addresses adaptation to climate change impact or builds resilience against climate impacts.
- The intervention aims at the most vulnerable communities, sections of society, and individuals experiencing climate impacts.
- The intervention adheres to one or more Principles of Locally Led Adaptation.
- Your entry must also fit into one of the four Awards categories.