Gender-Just Climate Solutions
The Women and Gender Constituency knows that the solutions to the climate crisis are already here, built every day by women, gender-diverse people, and frontline communities. What is missing is the recognition, resources, and political will to scale them up.
Since 2015, the Gender Just Climate Solutions Awards have celebrated and amplified these transformative, locally-driven initiatives. From renewable energy projects led by women in rural communities, to collective land and water stewardship, to feminist climate advocacy reshaping policy, these solutions prove that climate action can advance gender equality, strengthen democracy, and protect our planet.
Each year, three winning solutions and more than a dozen additional honorees are highlighted in our global publication and showcased at the UN Climate Negotiations. Over 150 initiatives from every region of the world are now featured in our searchable online directory, creating a living archive of feminist innovation and leadership.
Call for Applications
The 2025 Call for Applications has now closed.
Criteria for Gender Just Climate Solutions
As we focus on implementing the Paris Agreement, the Gender Just Climate Solutions provide concrete examples on how to center gender equality and women’s rights in climate action. The Awards comprise of three categories: a) Technical Solutions, b) Non-Technical Solutions, and c) Transformational Solutions and they are evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Provides equal access to benefits for women, men and youth
- Aims to alleviate and/or does not add additional burden to women’s workload (such as via additional natural resource management or care responsibilities without compensation)
- Empowers women through better mobility/accessibility, enhanced livelihood security, enhanced food security, improved health, access to safe water, etc. (as many benefits as possible)
- Promotes women’s democratic rights and participation by ensuring decision-making by local women, men, women’s groups, cooperatives and communities
- Locally led and/or locally driven (decentralized and appropriate)
- Ensures self-sufficiency & a low input of resources (safe, affordable and sustainable)
- Contributes to climate change mitigation, emissions reduction and/or climate adaptation (the project is sustainable)
- Results can be shared, spread & scaled up (replicable elsewhere, not just benefiting one individual)
- Shows interlinkages to cross-cutting issues, such as (including, but not restricted to) peace-building, natural resources management, food security and/or health, water and sanitation
Sponsors



The program is more than an award. It is a platform for movement-building. It connects grassroots leaders with global policymakers, shifts power to those most impacted, and demonstrates that gender-just approaches are not only possible but essential for a liveable future.
Explore the directory, meet the awardees, and be inspired to demand climate policies that put care, justice, and rights at the center of solutions.
A gender-just transition is not just the future we need. It is already being built.
Annual publications
This database can be filtered for over 150 solutions from 2015 to 2023 by Country, Region, Topic, and/or Featured As (awardee, honoree, or WGC member solution). The 2024 awardees and honorees will be uploaded to the directory soon.
Learning library
This database can be filtered for over 150 solutions from 2015 to 2023 by Country, Region, Topic, and/or Featured As (awardee, honoree, or WGC member solution). The 2024 awardees and honorees will be uploaded to the directory soon.
Webinar Series on Funding Gender-Just Climate Solutions (with interpretation into French and Spanish)
31/03/2021
Training Session: “Women’s Entrepreneurship”
01/08/2020
The WGC’s “Advocacy for Gender Just Climate Action” Virtual Event
24/07/2020
Explore the Solutions Directory
The Gender Just Climate Solutions Directory is a global collection of more than 150 transformative, locally-driven climate initiatives recognized by the GJCS Awards since 2015.
Browse solutions by country, region, or theme to see how communities are advancing renewable energy, sustainable farming, land and water stewardship, feminist advocacy, and more. Each entry includes details on the project’s design, impact, and organizational contacts to support learning, collaboration, and scale.
Start exploring the directory and get inspired by what gender-just climate action looks like in practice.
Awardee
Tajik mountain women leading the solar energy just transition
Year: 2024
Country: Tajikistan
Topics: Capacity-Building, Community Education, Energy Transition
Region: Asia-Pacific
Awardee
Zág women defending earth and climate
Year: 2024
Country: Brazil
Topics: Biodiversity, Capacity-Building, Community Education, Healthy Ecosystems
Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
Awardee
Women leading on all fronts to save the ocean
Year: 2024
Country: Mozambique
Topics: Business, Circular Economy, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Livelihoods, Waste Management
Region: Anglophone Africa
Honoree
Fostering women’s leadership in climate resilient agriculture
Year: 2024
Country: Zimbabwe
Topics: Biodiversity, Business, Entrepreneurship, Healthy Ecosystems, Sustainable Livelihoods
Region: Anglophone Africa
Honoree
COMPACT, social innovation for low-carbon construction no information
Year: 2024
Country: Senegal
Topics: Business, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Livelihoods
Region: Francophone Africa
Awardee
Build for Safety: women contributing to climate resilient housing in Bangladesh
Year: 2023
Country: Bangladesh
Topics: Business, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Livelihoods
Region: Asia-Pacific
Awardee
Indigenous women uniting to bolster their knowledge and resilience to climate impacts In progress
Year: 2023
Country: Kenya
Topics: Biodiversity, Capacity-Building, Community Education, Healthy Ecosystems
Region: Anglophone Africa
Awardee
Feminist framework for gender equitable climate disaster response
Year: 2023
Country: Pakistan
Topics: Decision Making, Governance
Region: Asia-Pacific