Article by Ursula Miniszewski, Global Greengrants Fund Director of Gender and Equity
“It’s important for us to ‘walk the talk’—and this type of learning helps us do that.”
– Program manager from Fundo Casa Sociambiental, Global Greengrants regional partner fund in Brazil
In honor of International Women’s Day 2024, Global Greengrants Fund launched a working group with 10 grantmaking advisors and partners—Gender Champions—to explore what it means for them to use a “gender justice lens” when choosing the over 2,000 environmental justice initiatives we support each year. The Champions represent diverse perspectives from around the world—from Indigenous women in East Africa, to young feminist activists in the Caribbean, to queer folks in Latin America.
We created the Gender and Environmental Justice Working Group (GEJWG) in response to our global grantmaking advisory network’s request for more opportunities for learning, dialogue, exchange, and accompaniment around Global Greengrants’ programmatic priorities. We also wanted to develop a more inclusive, participatory, and collective approach to understanding complex systems of oppression in the context of environmental justice at Global Greengrants among the advisors and grantee partners who are making the decisions about who and what to fund. This ensures that the way we integrate gender justice in our grantmaking is informed by and responsive to the movements we support. By including Gender Champions from across the world with different expertise, this approach also addresses being a global organization, knowing a “one size fits all” approach to gender justice does not acknowledge the complexities and nuances of global contexts.
The GEJWG is one of Global Greengrants’ first initiatives that seeks to strengthen alignment across our global, decentralized network of approximately 30 grantmaking advisory boards and partner funds. It has created an important model for our advisory network to exchange strategies, experiences, and learnings across regions and issues areas, building alignment towards our shared goal to resource just and sustainable climate action.
Gender and environmental justice continues to be a priority for Global Greengrants because the systems that exacerbate gender inequity and climate change are gaining power and momentum every day, impacting marginalized communities the most. We also know that women and gender-diverse people are leading powerful initiatives that address climate change and environmental degradation, while also promoting their rights. Unfortunately, however, the gap in funding for this intersection is far from being bridged. As leaders in philanthropy at funding and advocating for more attention to this critical intersection, we are more committed than ever to ensuring that we are supporting truly gender-just environmental and climate initiatives that help women and gender-diverse people get access to their rights, such as decision-making power, political power, resources, economic autonomy, and information.
One year on, the GEJWG is already having far-reaching impacts across our grantmaking boards and network. The Working Group members are challenging themselves and their colleagues across the network to understand what environmental movements need to tackle overlapping and intersecting sources of oppression and extraction towards people and the planet.
“The Working Group has helped me approach gender work differently. The idea of bringing Gender Champions together from across the boards is interesting because of each of the different experiences, norms, beliefs from the different regions the Champions bring.” – Next Generation Climate Board advisor
Meeting virtually twice a month, the 10 Gender Champions from around the world were identified based on their experience and interest in deepening the conversation at Global Greengrants about what it means to fund feminist, gender-just climate and environmental initiatives. They spent the past year getting to know one another, and learning, unlearning, and relearning what the intersection of gender, environmental, and climate justice means to them. They’ve grappled with questions like: what does gender justice look like in different contexts? What does it mean to use a gender lens in environmental justice grantmaking? When we say “gender”—what exactly do we mean? Additionally, conversations grappling with these questions have emerged across the Greengrants ecosystem to include all staff and our entire network of grantmaking partners—over 200—to participate in learning through the Engaging with Gender Justice Conversation Series held every couple of months. Already in its first year of existence, we’re seeing the powerful benefits of convening to learn together and build shared knowledge, analysis, and narratives of the current realities around the world related to gender justice.
Here’s what we have learned so far about the value of this Working Group:
1. Building relationships of trust matters.
The size of the Working Group makes it conducive for getting to know one another in a deep way over time. At different moments throughout the process, the group is separated into pairs to encourage more intimate sharing and trust building, creating a safe space for people to engage in and learn about gender-related topics that they may not feel able to discuss anywhere else.
“Some of the issues like trans rights I can only speak in this Working Group space about – in a space where I can freely discuss things that aren’t easily spoken about in Africa.” – East Africa Advisory Board advisor
“I have been learning how to talk about things that are tough.” – Staff member from International Rivers, who is part of our global advisory network
2. Diverse perspectives deepen the learnings.
The diversity of the GEJWG in terms of age, ethnicity, ability, and regional representation is leading to fascinating identifications of parallels and differences in how capitalism, colonialism, and structural adjustment have impacted marginalized communities and common struggles for natural resource defense and gender justice.
“The approach is well positioned for long-term integration, with a diversity of perspectives in the Working Group that allow us to learn a lot about different experiences.” – Disability Rights and Climate Justice Advisory Board Coordinator
“The group is so diverse, which is great and challenging at the same time.” – Program manager from Fundo Casa Sociambiental, Global Greengrants regional partner fund in Brazil
3. Meaningful learning takes time but is scalable and long lasting.
While a year of discussion might sound like a long time for learning, it is imperative that learning is allowed time and space so that it is integrated and lasting. Because we took so much time for learning in the first year, we are already seeing exciting cross-regional and cross-thematic grantmaking board collaborations begin to emerge! These collaborations include:
- The GEJWG member from our Next Generation Climate Board has been invited to attend the next India Advisory Board meeting to sharpen feminist youth inclusion strategies after a conversation that had never before taken place across those two advisory boards.
- Our partner funds, Fundo Casa Sociambiental in Brazil and Samdhana Institute in Indonesia/Philippines, have invited each other to speak to their staff about questions of gender diversity and how each organization has integrated gender-just grantmaking into their programming.
- Linking and learning opportunities are emerging across Indigenous communities and feminist organizations that had not previously existed in such intentional ways.
“I hear stories that I want to share with Samdhana Institute, so I want to possibly start a similar Working Group at Samdhana Institute.” – Staff member from Samdhana Institute, Global Greengrants regional partner fund in Southeast Asia
“I’ve noticed a lot of opportunities to bring knowledge back to International Rivers.” – Staff member from International Rivers, who is part of our global advisory network
Now what? Next steps.
To ensure we are responsive to the changing needs of movements doing gender-just environmental and climate work, this year we will integrate the voices of grantee partners who will share what these intersections mean to them, their work, what they need, and how Global Greengrants can best support them. We’ll come together in-person in June and create a plan for how to apply what we have learned over the past year and experiment with making grants that reflect the shared learning. We will also prioritize documenting what we have learned with the hopes of creating a resource that can inform the philanthropy sector’s long-term grantmaking strategies. Gender-just grantmaking is woven into the fabric that is Greengrants, and this Working Group exists to ensure it is formalized in a way that nurtures its meaning, analysis, integration, and longevity.
Stay tuned!
We’ll share more soon about the ongoing learning from the Working Group and the critical elements that will inform the group’s collective grantmaking experiment.