This publication presents the collective priorities of the GEF Women and Gender Caucus for GEF-9 and all GEF-related Funds, calling for environmental finance systems that are equitable, rights-based, transparent, and transformative. It argues that environmental effectiveness cannot be separated from justice, governance, and meaningful access to resources.
The publication advances five key priority areas:
- Transforming structural inequalities through environmental finance
- Scaling predictable and grant-based public funding
- Addressing inequalities linked to land tenure, governance, and resource access
- Strengthening women’s land and resource rights
- Ensuring direct and equitable access to finance
- Creating simplified and dedicated financing windows for women-led and community-led organisations
- Supporting readiness, proposal development, and compliance processes
- Monitoring whether funding effectively reaches grassroots actors and local communities
- Democratising environmental finance governance
- Strengthening transparency, representation, and accountability within GEF governance systems
- Recognising the role of the Women and Gender Caucus within GEF processes
- Promoting more inclusive decision-making and consultation mechanisms
- Embedding gender justice across GEF policy and programming
- Aligning GEF policies with recent CBD and UNFCCC gender commitments
- Supporting dedicated programming and budget lines for gender-responsive implementation
- Strengthening gender expertise, budgeting, monitoring, and indicators across GEF systems
- Strengthening transparency, accountability, and long-term evaluation
- Improving public reporting on financial flows and impacts
- Applying gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation frameworks
- Measuring long-term environmental, institutional, and community-level transformation beyond short project cycles
The publication ultimately calls for a shift toward environmental finance systems that redistribute power, strengthen locally led action, and support lasting social and environmental transformation.
Share these recommendations with policymakers, funders, civil society organisations, and advocates shaping the future of GEF-9 and global environmental governance.
