The Local Adaptation Champions Awards spotlight and reward inspiring, innovative and scalable locally led efforts to address climate change and build resilience among vulnerable communities.
The 2023 Award Categories:
Capacity Building:This category includes innovations and initiatives that support a continuous and iterative process of learning for local communities, governments, and organizations. These innovations and initiatives should be based on established need from the participants and enable inclusive local decision-making that is sustained beyond project cycles, for instance by leaving an institutional legacy; facilitating skills for technical and soft institutional attributes (like collaborative leadership, trust, and network governance); and/or allowing local actors to autonomously increase their capacity and share skills over time. ?Examples include institutionalizing adaptation capacity in local organizations; support for peer-to-peer learning; and support for local experts and champions.
Business Adaptation Solution: This category is for small and large businesses that have supported leadership by local communities and governments in adaptation efforts; 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; and/or developed and made easily available adaptation solutions or technologies that address local climate-related vulnerabilities.
Women in Leadership: This category is for local, national, or global woman leaders who design, champion, and/or lead adaptation and climate resilience efforts in and for local communities. Applications are invited from, or on behalf of, women leaders at the local, national, or global level who have led in the design or implementation of efforts that demonstrably build climate resilience – particularly of the most vulnerable – within communities.
Innovation in Delvolving Finance: This category is for organizations, projects, initiatives or programs using innovative models that provide flexible, long-term, patient and/or predictable funding for adaptation at the local level. The funding should be made available in ways that enable and support local determination of climate challenges, priorities, and solutions.
About Global Center on Adaptation (GCA)
The Global Center on Adaptation advances bold actions that help societies across the world become more resilient to climate-related threats. They act as a solutions broker, bringing together governments, the private sector, civil society, intergovernmental bodies, and knowledge institutions that can address the obstacles slowing down adaptation action. The Center builds on, improves, and accelerates breakthrough solutions that catalyze transformation at scale and at speed.
Aim and Benefits of GCA Local Adaptation Champions Awards
- 20 nominees will benefit from publicity around their nomination for the Awards.
- Four winners will receive a cash prize of €15,000 and be invited to an Award Ceremony at COP28 in Dubai, which will take place from 30 November to 12 December 2023.
- Winners will be required to provide a spending proposal of how they intend to use the cash prize and to report on their progress up to one year after the disbursement of the prize. DAI Global will support the monitoring of the activities listed in the spending proposal, through video calls, digital surveys, and requests for photos and video materials.
Requirements for GCA Local Adaptation Champions Awards Qualification
- The Awards are open to any individual, organization, or group of partners worldwide, who have implemented or are in the process of implementing climate change adaptation/resilience interventions.
Interview date, Process and Venue for GCA Local Adaptation Champions Awards
Selection Process
Applications will be ranked according to a points-based system based on five main criteria:
- Effectiveness and community impact.
- Scalability and achieved (or potential for) replication.
- Devolution of decision-making, particularly by the most vulnerable.
- Gender and social inclusion.
- Expected use of Award money.
The first top 20 shortlisted applicants (5 from each category) will be nominated for the Awards and requested to provide additional information to support their entry.
Thereafter, a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will review the shortlisted candidates in their respective categories. The TAG will select two candidates per category, and a High-level Jury will make the final selection of winners.
Application Deadline
August 31, 2023
How to Apply
Interested and qualified? Go to Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) on form.collect.dai.com to apply
For more details,visit GCA website