GCF strengthens role of women on climate change frontline

In fossil fuel-dependent Mongolia, nomadic families often lack access to electricity, while high financing costs and short-term loans inhibit entrepreneurs from investing in efficient, renewable energy. By combining concessional loans with other financing, GCF enables women like Myagmarsuren to overcome barriers, grow a business, and provide nomadic herders with solar-powered appliances, boosting energy access and reducing Mongolia’s carbon footprint.

• GCF project in Mongolia
• Story in Mongolia

In Morocco, home of the only biosphere reserve of argan forests in the world, indigenous Berber women like Ouahtit Aicha depend on the fruits of these trees for a living. A positive co-benefit of GCF’s support for helping Morocco cultivate argan orchards to reduce emissions and enhance climate resilience is that these indigenous women can boost their incomes by learning how to farm argan sustainably and meet international standards. This helps them sell products of this nutritious fruit directly on the global market where it is known as “liquid gold” for its culinary, cosmetic, and medicinal powers.

• GCF project in Morocco
• Story in Morocco

Fishmonger Fanny Shaibu knows all too well how the weather can degrade the quantity and quality of seafood she sells. Changes in climate are forcing fishing communities living near Lake Malawi to search for fish further offshore, causing them to be exposed to more severe weather, like gales and storms. Working with UNDP, GCF is modernising climate information and early warning systems in Malawi, so that Fanny and other vulnerable fisherfolk like her can better prepare for climate disasters and secure their livelihoods.

• GCF project in Malawi
• Story in Malawi

Francine Mushambokazi used to worry that fire from her family’s use of candles could spark disaster in their home which is not connected to the main electricity grid. Thanks to GCF’s funding partnership with investor Acumen connecting Rwandans without power to renewables, her seven children now don’t need to use candles and have the chance to study at night - as the first step to realising career dreams which include acting, medicine and work in the tourism industry.

• GCF project in Rwanda
• Story in Rwanda

Shildah Nabimanya is at the forefront of efforts to save the world’s vital ecosystems and enhance climate resilience. She is now finding opportunities to secure her family’s future by growing cash crops and raising bees - alternative livelihoods to their previous agricultural work carving out Uganda’s wetlands. GCF is working with the national government and UNDP to reverse the degradation of these vital, national water reservoirs.

• GCF project in Uganda
• Story in Uganda

Martha Antuash Jempe is one of the reasons why 80 percent of Ecuador’s forest is still intact. GCF is partnering with UNDP to help Ecuador’s Government keep it this way, and to reduce deforestation in this country to zero by financing livelihood alternatives for indigenous people and others living in this part of the Amazon rainforest.

• GCF project in Ecuador
• Story in Ecuador