STRATEGY GUIDANCE
02 Identify and build cross-sectoral partnerships with climate funders and policy actors
This step should help you identify:
What climate-focused institutions, investors, and stakeholders are active in your focal region(s)
Potential opportunities to advance health, gender, and SRHR within the governmental climate adaptation agenda and budget
Ideas for how you might to de-silo your approach to funding, program planning, and partnership development
Map the landscape of climate and environment investors and actors in your focal region(s) and adjacent countries
Key Questions
If your institution already funds climate/environment work but in a separate portfolio, what are their priorities and who are their partners?
What local and national climate and environment organizations and funders are active in the country/region?
Based on your climate risk/opportunities assessment, in what regions/countries might you need to expand or initiate new relationships?
Considerations
As the climate crisis accelerates, there is a rapidly growing pool of funding going towards climate adaptation and resilience. In just the philanthropic section alone, climate change giving rose 25% between 2020 and 2021 — three times faster than overall philanthropic giving. Very few of these investments explicitly consider gender or SRHR. Rather than just trying to squeeze more results out of your existing funding pot, how might you partner and influence climate investments?
Starting points for mapping climate funds and major financing initiatives in your focal geographies include:
Beyond SRHR and health-focused organizations, groups to look for and connect with in your focal geography include:
Local environmental groups, such as nature conservation groups
Stakeholders who are doing climate projections such as the meteorological agency, Ministry of Water, or Ministry of Environment
Disaster management groups and groups that handle migration and relocation policies
Philanthropic and public funders focused on environmental management, climate resilience, and conservation.
If there are new predicted impacts that will affect SRHR (e.g., spread of Zika, dengue, malaria into new geographies), how might you begin to invest in the cross-sectoral relationships, infrastructure, and community health strategies that will be needed to manage that new SRHR threat?
Think outside your current geographical bounds. If there is a high risk of displacement and migration for people in your focal geography, how might you start investing in partnerships in the neighboring countries or regions which could be migration destinations for displaced people?
Understand the climate-health-gender policy context, and identify opportunities for influence in your focal region(s)
Key Questions
What climate adaptation plans or investments are in place at the country, regional, or city level?
Who are the government and private actors creating and carrying out these formal adaptation plans?
Has the focal country created a Health National Adaptation Plan? Is gender and/or SRHR included? If not, is health mentioned as part of the national climate adaptation plan or policies? Is gender and/or SRHR mentioned?
What legal and policy framework(s) does the country have on gender equality and health equity? Is climate change considered or mentioned currently?
What are the current mechanisms on gender equality in national and health sector processes, such as a unit on gender in the health ministry?
Considerations
Understanding governmental priorities regarding climate adaptation and what investments are active or committed will help you identify policy opportunities and potential co-funders who aren’t thinking about SRHR but are investing in sectors that affect SRHR such as agriculture and mobility.
As of September 2024, 58 countries have submitted National Adaptation Plans to the UNFCCC, and an estimated 170 countries include adaptation as part of their climate policies.
In most cases, health, gender, and the intersection of the two are not mentioned or considered in adaptation plans. If this is the case for your countr(ies) of focus, what opportunities exist for you as a funding partner to advocate for inserting specific consideration of SRHR, gender, and health into the adaptation approach?
Achieving explicit consideration of gender, health, and SRHR in national climate adaptation policies and plans is a key lever for funders to build priority alignment with climate-focused government partners.
Recommended Resources
The Gender Climate Tracker has country profiles and analyzes gender integration into climate policy, including an evaluation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Some countries have created Health National Adaptation Plans (HNAPs), based on WHO guidance. There is currently no centralized repository for HNAPs, so due diligence at the country ministry level is needed.
The NAP Global Network and UNFCCC have created a toolkit for a gender-responsive process to formulate and implement National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).
For more detailed guidance and checklists regarding climate-gender-health integration, see the WHO’s guidance on mainstreaming gender in health adaptation to climate change programs.
Plug into existing climate-health-gender communities of practice
Considerations
Learn from local climate stakeholders about the best ways to stay up-to-date on the rapidly changing landscape of climate adaptation funds and policy in your focal geographies. This is critical in order to identify and act on opportunities to embed gender, health, and SRHR into emerging climate adaptation investment locally.
Here a few recommended global communities of practice and coalitions:
