LocationsHow Access to Finance Empowers Communities to Drive Climate Action in Asia-Pacific
Funding Change from the Ground Up
April 24, 2025
Where Investments Are Transforming Lives
In Nepal, communities are stabilizing slopes to prevent deadly landslides and protect lives and livelihoods. In the Philippines, farmers, women, and youth are leading efforts to protect forests and promote sustainable land use. In Indonesia, village governments are embedding climate adaptation into local plans, ensuring sustainable development. In Sri Lanka, women entrepreneurs are accessing funding and tools to lead climate-resilient businesses. And in Cambodia, civil society organizations have launched national media campaigns and helped set up local climate finance taskforces, creating momentum for increased climate budgeting at the sub-national level.
What ties these examples together is not just their impact—but who is driving the change. At the centre of each are civil society organizations (CSOs), working at the frontline of the climate crisis. They are not only implementers but also accountability actors—ensuring climate finance reaches those who need it most, and that decisions reflect real community priorities.
Nepal – The Impact of Landslides
Yet across the region, grassroots action is held back by a simple problem: local actors rarely have access to the funding required to lead. Planning and budgeting for climate finance at the the sub-national level isn’t always a participatory process entirely, relying on intermediaries and missing the opportunity to empower those closest to the challenge.
Targeted support—like the Climate Finance Network’s small grants—is helping shift that. By putting resources directly into the hands of CSOs, these grants enable community-led planning, strengthen engagement with local governments, and unlock the potential for scalable, inclusive, and sustained adaptation.
What’s Holding Back Grassroots Climate Action?
Civil society organizations (CSOs) are often the first to respond to climate impacts—bridging the gap between national strategies and local realities. They act as both implementers and accountability actors, ensuring policies are grounded in community priorities and helping governments stay responsive. Yet, despite their critical role, CSOs frequently operate with limited autonomy and insufficient funding.
Most climate finance mechanisms remain centralized, with complex requirements and top-down approaches that rarely reflect the needs of those most affected. At the sub-national level, communities and their local CSO partners often struggle to access resources aligned with their own adaptation priorities. Without funding, even the most effective grassroots solutions—those rooted in trust, local knowledge, and collaborative networks—remain isolated or underdeveloped.
Indonesia – From Sand Mining to Climate Awareness
What’s needed is not only financial access but a shift in how we invest: channeling funds in ways that recognize CSOs as core actors in climate governance. When supported through flexible and timely funding, these organizations can amplify local voices, lead context-specific responses, and mobilize lasting change.
We’re sharing stories from across the region that bring this to life—featuring real examples from communities supported through Climate Finance Network grants.
The Power of Access to Finance
Direct finance empowers civil society organizations (CSOs) to take the lead in addressing climate challenges by shifting power dynamics and creating opportunities that traditional funding models often overlook. Here’s how:
Driving Local Impact
Direct funding goes straight to the organizations that work closest to the challenges. This allows CSOs to co-design and implement projects tailored to their community’s specific needs, whether stabilizing slopes, restoring ecosystems, or supporting vulnerable populations increasing their capacities to adapt to climate change. Acting locally ensures that solutions are practical, immediate, and culturally relevant.
Building Collaborative Networks
Grants for CSO collaboration offer a fantastic chance for CSOs to team up with governments, community groups, academia, and the private sector. By joining forces, these partnerships can really boost the impact of grassroots initiatives. They do this by combining resources, sharing knowledge, and fostering a supportive environment for meaningful, lasting change. For instance, in Indonesia, CSOs are collaborating with village governments to weave climate adaptation into local planning and budgets, setting an inspiring example of shared responsibility. Similarly, in the Philippines, CSOs are working with local authorities and farmers building upon national government reforestation efforts to increase overall community climate and business resilience. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, CSOs are working with the academia, local administration, the private sector, and development partners to integrate local climate priorities in national plans and budgets.
Cambodia – Youth and Local Governance Engagement
Shaping Policies That Last
Supporting CSOs with direct funding we invest in communities, making them stronger partners of local governments. This not only enables grassroots innovations to shape local and national policies but also creates lasting impacts that extend beyond term limits. With adequate funding, community projects can showcase their successes and inspire wider adoption of effective policies. Take Cambodia, for example. A local CSO have received grant funding to push for more climate budget allocations at the sub-national level through multi-stakeholder partnerships This provides a working group to ensure alignment of resources with climate needs and priorities, all while strengthening the ability of these organizations to tackle future challenges.
Case Studies: Where Direct Finance is Making an Impact
Nepal – Stabilizing Slopes and Saving Lives
In Kispan, bioengineering techniques like gabion walls and jute netting have helped stabilize landslide-prone areas. Led by PEEDA in partnership with National Society for Earthquake Technology and local authorities, the initiative trained 28 local residents and supported the municipality in identifying high-risk zones—laying the groundwork for lasting resilience.
Sri Lanka – Empowering Women Entrepreneurs
Women-led small businesses in Kalpitiya are getting the support they need to face climate challenges. Through training on finance and advocacy, they’re learning how to access funding and make their businesses stronger. The project is led by the University of Colombo and supported by local authorities, banks, media, and community partners, who all work together to provide training, tools, and advice.
Philippines – Restoring Forests, Revitalizing Communities
The Gerry Roxas Foundation is helping farmers, women, and youth protect forests and grow local businesses. Leveraging the climate grant from the Climate Finance Network, the members received further pledges of support and capacity building from partners like Capiz State University, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Trade and Industry, and the local government of Tapaz. Through increased collaboration, they’re building a stronger value chain across cocoa and coffee producers, contributing to more resilient communities adaptable to climate change
Cambodia – Advocating for Climate Budgets
The Coalition for Partnership in Democratic Development, together with Action for Development, STAR Kampuchea, and the National School of Local Administration, is influencing national climate budgets and helping sub-national governments get the resources they need to respond to local climate risks though the formation of multi-stakeholder working groups that contribute to transparency and accountability.
Indonesia – Building Village-Level Climate Resilience
Relung Indonesia partnered with village governments, BAPPEDA, and local community groups—including women’s and youth groups—to help include climate adaptation in village planning. Based a on field-based planning process, the identification and prioritization exercise with the community led to the submission of an increased budget allocation for climate adaptation ensuring that community needs, like clean water and income opportunities, were reflected in the 2025 village plans.
The Multiplier Effect: Scaling Small Grants for Big Impact
The impact of small grants often extends far beyond their immediate activities. With even modest seed funding, civil society organizations are able to unlock new streams of co-financing from public and private partners, build knowledge-sharing networks across regions, and demonstrate policy models that can scale. In Nepal, for instance, the success of slope stabilization techniques is already shaping local government planning—proving how grassroots innovation can influence national strategies.
The Ingredients of Effective Change
What makes these initiatives effective is not just funding—but the systems they help to build. Projects that integrate CSOs into government planning structures, shape policy direction, and foster collaboration with academia and the private sector are more likely to succeed and endure. By combining technical support with capacity-building for local leaders, these efforts lay the foundation for sustained, scalable climate resilience. In many cases, the grants also help communities tap into additional resources, further strengthening long-term outcomes.
These elements ensure that small grants don’t just fund projects—they create lasting systems for resilience and adaptation.
Philippines – Building Skills, Building Resilience
Driving Change from the Ground Up
The Climate Finance Network’s Grants Initiative with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), proves that even modest investments can drive meaningful change. While small in the grand scheme of regional adaptation investments, these grants unlock the potential of grassroots innovation by placing resources directly in the hands of those closest to the challenges. By fostering partnerships with the private sector, these initiatives also create opportunities for co-financing, innovation, and long-term sustainability, ensuring that locally led solutions can scale and thrive.
These efforts build resilience at the local level and create a foundation for broader contributions to global climate goals. By aligning with global frameworks such as the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), these locally led solutions contribute to a just, climate-resilient future on a global scale.
To truly combat the climate crisis, we must scale initiatives like these and ensure every community has the resources to lead the way toward a more resilient future.
For more information on the CFN Grants: Cristina Gregorio (Regional Climate Finance Specialist)
Written by: Duarte Branco (CFN´s Communication Specialist)