CJRF’s current and past grantee partners played a central role in a new grantmaking process that deployed $893,420 to communities to address Non-Economic Loss and Damage.
Adolescents and youths in peri-urban Khulna analyze the causes and impacts of climate change. Photo by Jagrata Juba Shangha
We are very pleased to announce our new grants in the Bay of Bengal!
Aaina is undertaking community-led, participatory research to co-create qualitative evidence on the non-economic loss and damage faced by coastal communities facing displacement, and will use this research to advocate with the state government for a just, inclusive and dignified Rehabilitation Policy.
Human Rights Advocacy and Research Foundation (HRF) supports women and youth’s psycho-social needs arising from climate impacts and displacement, and improves opportunities and income for women engaged in climate-vulnerable livelihoods to reduce the incidence of losses of food security and children’s education.
Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) raises awareness and action around non-economic loss and damage (NELD) by building the capacity of citizen and community-based journalists in India and Bangladesh to write and publish stories about NELD impacts and solutions.
Jagrata Juba Shangha (JJS) is establishing youth-led and women-led “living labs” in rural and urban areas to center the voices of affected populations in socio-economic development, decision-making, and advocacy.
Parittran addresses gender-based violence, improves women’s and girls’ health and well-being, and increases social cohesion amongst Dalit community members affected by climate change.
Prerona is using participatory methodologies to co-create and document the practices, language, and culture of communities being affected by climate change in the Sundarbans, especially women, to preserve cultural heritage and strengthen climate resilience for future generations.
Shariatpur Development Society (SDS) is addressing the NELD faced by the vulnerable populations of the Char (riverine island) areas by focusing on three key areas: mental health support, cultural preservation, and gender-based violence prevention.
Awareness meeting. Photo courtesy of Shariatpur Development Society
Grantmaking process
CJRF has prioritized the Bay of Bengal since its inception. It is also a key region for CJRF’s current grantmaking focused on Non-Economic Loss and Damage (NELD). In 2024, we sought new partners in the region that work closely with, and are guided by, their communities’ needs and priorities to address NELD.
To identify organizations to receive NELD grants in the Bay of Bengal, CJRF engaged with our network of current and past partners based in the region: we requested seven partners to each nominate three organizations, including a self-nomination if they wished. Their nominations were guided by a checklist of criteria developed by CJRF staff and board, and included a short description of why they felt the organization they nominated was a good fit.
We provided partners with categories of criteria and requested them to check off at least one criterion, if not more, for each organization they nominated. We expected the criteria to lead to nominations of groups deeply embedded in their communities, with diverse leadership that represented the people they served – women- or youth-led groups, for example, or groups with a board elected by community members.
Once partners nominated organizations, CJRF staff minimally processed them to ensure there were no overlaps and that the organizations met the criteria. We then requested the focal points of each nominated organization to submit an application and budget. We accepted submissions in English or Bangla, and in writing or through video or audio. The applications were reviewed and scored by CJRF staff, and staff nominated a sub-set of applications for grants to the CJRF board for review and approval.
We made two sizes of grants: smaller grants in the range of $50,000 - $75,000 and larger grants in the range of $200,000 - $300,000. In total, we are making 5 small grants and 2 large grants. Geographically, we have 2 partners in India, 4 partners in Bangladesh, and 1 partner whose work spans both countries. This round of grantmaking enabled CJRF to support four women-led organizations, two religious and minority caste-led organizations, and groups focused on disability rights and mental health.
EJN workshop participant Nidhi Jamwal speaks to a resident in India. Photo courtesy of Internews.
Lessons learned
Our hypothesis, that we could reach new partners through our current and past partners, was correct. Our network introduced us to many new partners doing very strong and compelling work in the region. Of the 7 grants we made, only 1 was to a past CJRF partner. The trade-off, however, was that we were not able to support our past grant partners to receive a new grant.
There was a concentration of applications from a particular district in Bangladesh. This could be because several of our partners are based in this region and their networks focus on other organizations in the region. It could also be because this region is extremely climate-vulnerable and happens to be where many organizations working on climate issues are based due to need. If we use a network-based approach to grantmaking again, we will consider whether and how to contend with the geographic focus this may result in.
Our initial criteria did not result in diverse enough nominations. We thought categories of criteria rather than a list of must-have criteria would make it easier for partners to identify organizations to nominate, but the result was that the set of nominations were not as diverse as we had hoped. For instance, we were hoping to have several nominations of organizations led by women, youth, or other marginalized populations. However, our first round of nominations were predominantly male-led organizations. To correct this imbalance, we decided to solicit a second round of nominations.
We course-corrected to try and increase the diversity of nominations. We decided to hold a second round of nominations, during which we were much more explicit about the leadership of organizations we were hoping to fund. This helped broaden the pool of nominations considerably and we were able to reach partners that were led by women, religious minorities, and other members of a marginalized populations. We took this same lesson into our next round of grantmaking in East Africa, making the leadership criteria both explicit and non-negotiable, and found that to be very effective.
The organizations that rose to the top were those that focused less on climate change and implemented less technical solutions; rather they focused more on social issues and processes that centered communities in their work. Given that NELD is such a personal and communal issue, perhaps this is not surprising. It did show the types of specializations and experiences that align with addressing NELD at a community level may lead us to organizations that may not normally be able to access climate finance.