The Women & Gender Constituency welcomes you to the application form for the 2023 Gender Just Climate Solutions Awards!
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: SUNDAY, JULY 30TH, 2023 23:59 CEST
Please note that only projects that have been ongoing for at least one year are eligible.
Please have a look at our Frequently Asked Questions document before you start your application. To better understand how to apply, please read the instructions.
The Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) is one of the nine stakeholder groups of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Established in 2009, the WGC now consists of 33 women’s and environmental civil society organizations, that are working to ensure that women’s voices and their rights are embedded in all processes and results of the UNFCCC framework, for a sustainable and just future, so that gender equality and women’s human rights are central to the ongoing discussions.
In 2015, the WGC launched its first ‘Gender-Just Climate Solutions Awards. These awards aim to showcase real solutions for a more just, equal, and healthy planet. Previously recognized initiatives include women-owned and operated energy cooperatives, advocacy work on women's land tenure rights, ethnic women-led reforestation based on strenghtening the honey value-chain, or gender responsive water technologies.
Winning initiatives are showcased across three different project categories, please review our previous award winners for examples:
- Technical climate solutions with women or gender perspective (e.g. in the area of renewables, energy or adaptation technologies, etc.)
- Non-technical climate solutions with women or gender perspective (e.g. in areas of efficiency, consumption changes, resilience, and capacity building, etc.)
- Transformational climate initiatives with women or gender perspective (e.g. addressing governance, institutional/societal change, etc.)
Criteria
Initiatives will be weighed against the following criteria aimed to measure contributions to gender equality, resilience, and sustainability. Winning projects will ideally work across all key result areas, though the organizers note that not all projects will be in a position/stage to meet each and every criterion. Due to existing inequalities and a lack of available resources globally, priority will be given to women and gender-non-conforming-led initiatives, recognizing that programs do not necessarily need to be women-led to be gender-just.
Result Area 1: Women's rights and gender equality
- Provides equal access to benefits for women, men, gender non-conforming, and youth
- Aims to alleviate and/or does not add additional burden to women's workload (such as via additional natural resource management or care responsibilities without compensation
- Empowers women through better mobility/accessibility, enhanced livelihood security, enhanced food security, improved health, access to safe water, etc. (as many benefits as possible)
- Promotes women’s democratic rights and participation by ensuring decision-making by local women, men, women’s groups, cooperatives, and communities.
Result Area 2: Climate Resilience
- Locally led and/or locally driven (decentralized and appropriate)
- Ensures self-sufficiency & a low input of resources (safe, affordable, and sustainable)
- Contributes to climate change mitigation, emissions reduction, and/or climate adaptation (the project is sustainable)
Result Area 3: Scaling-up and transfer
- Results can be shared, spread & scaled up (replicable elsewhere, not just benefiting one individual)
- Shows interlinkages to cross-cutting issues, such as (including, but not restricted to) peace-building, natural resources management, food security and/or health, water, and sanitation
Selection & Award
Initiatives will be reviewed by an international jury with members of the Women and Gender Constituency.
- Three winning projects will be selected, one for each project category The winners will receive a monetary prize of 5,000 euros; travel expenses to attend the Award ceremony at COP28 in Dubai, UAE, will be covered by the WGC (for 1 person); and they will benefit from a mentoring program offered by WECF and members of the Women and Gender Constituency, in partnership with the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN).
- Up to 20 nominated projects will appear in the Gender and Climate Solutions publication, which will be distributed in hard copy at the Awards ceremony during COP28, and published on the WGC and WECF websites.
Eligibility
All types of activist, grassroots and women-led, and gender equality organizations and groups working on issues related to climate change from all over the world are encouraged to apply. Only non-governmental initiatives are eligible (local or national government initiatives cannot be considered). The project/initiative should either have been completed or be in current operation for at least a year. The initiative must fit within one of the 3 award categories of projects.
Timeline
Applications Open: Monday, 05th June
Applications Close: Sunday, 30th July, midnight CEST
We look forward to receiving your submission - Please complete this form by Sunday, 30th July 2023, midnight CEST, in order to be considered for the 2023 Gender Just Climate Solutions Awards
Remember that you can save the form as a draft at any time and continue working on it later. To do this you can click on the button "Save as draft" at the very end of the form.
Please note that incomplete applications will not be taken into consideration. Therefore, we request that you answer every question thoroughly. Also, be careful that after you click on "Finalize and submit" you will no longer be allowed to edit the form. You will receive a confirmation email with your finalized submission.
If you have any questions about the Awards or the form, please e-mail valeria.pelaez@wecf.org
Photo from the 2022 Awards ceremony at COP27:
Thanks to the financial and technical support for the Awards:
