WOCAN has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) for Assessing the Landscape: Climate Adaptation, Women’s Organizations & Enterprises. This 18-month planning initiative is designed to create an innovative, gender-responsive model for climate adaptation and resilience.

The outcome will be a Strategy Implementation Framework providing rural women’s organizations and enterprises with a clear path to strengthen climate adaptation. By using the W+ Standard, the program will combine results-based financing with market-based approaches to ensure women gain direct revenue and technical assistance.

Objectives of the Program

The program aims to:

• Develop a proof of concept for a scalable model.
• Equip rural women’s organizations and enterprises with resources for climate adaptation.
• Support technical institutions and funding intermediaries to expand gender-responsive actions.
• Deliver climate adaptation and women’s empowerment outcomes simultaneously within vulnerable communities.

Ultimately, WOCAN’s vision is to enable rural women to become technically and financially self-sufficient in addressing climate challenges.

Why This Program Matters

Current gaps include limited knowledge about:

• The landscape of women’s organizations and enterprises working at the nexus of climate and gender.
• Support institutions and project developers ready to engage.
• Potential buyers of W+ credits and investors seeking gender-responsive projects.

This program addresses these gaps by mapping, training, and testing the model across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Key Activities

Over 18 months, the planning grant will fund:

• Research: Understanding the needs of women’s organizations in two regions (Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia).
• Mapping: Identifying support institutions, climate project developers, financial intermediaries, and investors.
• Application: Testing the W+ Standard on two projects.
• Training: Expanding the pool of W+ experts and verifiers.
• Market Development: Conducting research to grow demand for W+ credits.
• Assessment: Evaluating the W+ Standard’s benefit-sharing process for climate adaptation.

Taskforce Groups

Four Taskforce Groups have been formed to guide the program, each comprised of global experts:

1. Mapping Women’s Organizations
   
   • Members include: Larissa Dominguez (Mexico/Italy), Annabell Waititu (Kenya), Dibya Devi Gurung (Nepal).
2. Capacity Building
   
   • Members include: Dr. Barun Gurung (Hawai’i), Liz Allen (UK), Lisa McMullan (UK), Smita Biswas (UK/India).
3. W+ Market Development
   
   • Members include: Tanushree Bagh Mukherjee (Canada), Genevieve Soh (Singapore), Sue Phillips (UK), Justin White (USA), Mil Niepold (USA), Rachel Vestergaard (USA), Heidi Hafes (UK).
4. Financial Frameworks
   
   • Members include: Kaylene Alvarez (USA/Indonesia).

Each taskforce brings decades of expertise in gender, climate finance, social enterprise, carbon markets, and women’s leadership.

Looking Ahead

This program will culminate in a detailed program model to present to the Gates Foundation and other funders. The goal: scale gender-responsive climate adaptation, while ensuring women’s organizations have the financing, skills, and visibility to lead.

As WOCAN leverages the W+ Standard to link women’s empowerment with climate finance, this initiative represents a groundbreaking step toward climate justice, gender equality, and resilient communities.

Call to Action

Stay connected with WOCAN and the W+ Standard as we continue to share updates from this program. Together, we can scale women-led solutions for climate adaptation.

👉 Learn more about the W+ Standard and its impact on climate finance

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