Who holds the power? Rethinking intermediaries in gender-just locally-led climate action
Climate finance systems often prioritise accountability to taxpayers in the global North, sidelining the needs and voices of climate-affected communities in the global South. To shift this paradigm, this session explores how mutual and downward accountability can be built into climate finance systems to uphold the principles of locally led adaptation (LLA) and gender-just solutions.
Intermediaries – organisations that channel funding from donors to local actors – play a critical role in shaping how climate finance is delivered. But what does it mean to be a 'good intermediary'?
Drawing on the organisers’ work developing LLA indicators, this session will unpack the attributes and institutional practices that enable intermediaries to support LLA effectively. Participants can share and learn how organisations are transforming their internal systems to prioritise local leadership and transparency through real-world examples and insights from diverse actors across the finance chain.
This session will be co-hosted by IIED, the UK government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action, and others.
Shifting climate adaptation finance to local communities through effective intermediaries
A new briefing sets out how to direct climate finance, and specifically financing for locally led adaptation, effectively to local communities and organisations engaged in climate action.
Drawing on the lessons of the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action, the report focuses on the role and purpose of intermediary funders to examine the important attributes they need to be effective. It examines how intermediaries can transform locally-driven climate action and invest in long-term capacity building, by getting funds where they are needed most.
