GCA report shows philanthropy key to scaling locally led adaptation

Philanthropy’s ability to shift power to communities took center stage at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) as the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) launched its flagship publication, Stories of Resilience: Lessons from Local Adaptation Practice.

The report underscored how philanthropic capital, when used to transfer decision-making to local leaders, can unlock climate solutions that are faster, fairer, and more durable than top-down approaches.

Unlike traditional climate finance, which often moves slowly and remains concentrated at national or international levels, philanthropic funding has shown an ability to reach frontline communities directly.

GCA highlighted the Climate Justice Resilience Fund, which has already invested US$27 million across more than 65 community-led partnerships, as a model for how foundations can decentralize governance and empower local actors.

By giving activists, women’s groups, and grassroots networks control over adaptation decisions, the fund has demonstrated that resilience grows strongest where communities themselves define priorities.

This focus on community-driven leadership served as the entry point for GCA’s broader message: the world’s adaptation systems must urgently shift closer to the people most affected by climate shocks.

According to Stories of Resilience, less than 17 percent of adaptation finance currently reaches the local level. Meanwhile, the global adaptation finance gap is widening sharply, now estimated at US$187–359 billion annually.

Speaking during the launch, Professor Patrick Verkooijen, GCA’s President and CEO, warned that the disconnect between global pledges and local realities is deepening.

“Effective adaptation begins where climate risks are felt in people’s homes, markets, and natural environments,” he said.

“Communities are not just beneficiaries; they are architects of their own resilience.”

His message reinforced a theme running throughout the report: that adaptation breakthroughs depend on shifting both money and decision-making power to the ground.

The publication drew from case studies across Africa and Asia showing how devolved authority leads to more accurate risk mapping, more efficient investments, and stronger long-term resilience.

GCA’s People’s Adaptation Plans, now underway in eight African countries and 13 municipalities in Bangladesh, were presented as key examples.

These locally crafted plans enable communities to map risks, negotiate directly with governments and financiers, and integrate climate priorities into local development pathways.

In Homa Bay, Kenya, residents mapped more than 21,000 households, creating the county’s first integrated climate-resilient development plan.

Similar processes, supported by the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, are guiding investment decisions in Rwanda, Senegal, Zambia, and Bangladesh.

The report also examined the financial systems underpinning local resilience. Inclusive Financial Service Providers (IFSPs), including cooperatives and microfinance institutions, lend over US$1.5 trillion annually to low-income households.

But rising climate risks are destabilizing these institutions; in Pakistan, 40 percent of local lenders reduced lending, and 20 percent halted lending altogether due to repeated shocks.

GCA argued that blended finance mechanisms are urgently needed to de-risk these lenders so that vulnerable communities can maintain access to credit, savings, and insurance.

Closing the session, Anju Sharma, GCA’s Global Lead on Locally Led Adaptation, reframed adaptation as a matter of justice, not charity.

“By putting finance and power in local hands, we build resilience that lasts,” she said.

At COP30, GCA urged world leaders to adopt a Global Breakthrough on Adaptation Finance, ensuring at least 50 percent of adaptation funding reaches local communities through predictable, inclusive systems.

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