This decade is our last chance to take meaningful and impactful climate action. The most vulnerable people in less wealthy countries are bearing the terrifying brunt of climate change’s rapidly accelerating impact. It’s a crucial moment for funders to boost core support to justice-based alternatives. FRIDA recognizes the need to support and catalyse the dreams of young feminists activists whose work is at the intersection of gender, climate and environmental justice. Young feminists, in the majority of countries, are resisting, undoing and mitigating the effects of environmental degradation because the current crisis represents a real threat to their present and futures, their bodies and territories.
In 2017, FRIDA awarded special grants dedicated to six groups especially working in the area of climate and environmental justice. Corporacion Sihyta in Colombia, FKM BKA in Indonesia, Island Pride in Micronesia, Kaiso Women’s Group in Uganda, Rise Up! in Papua New Guinea and StrongGogo in Georgia. They are based around the globe, from the high Andes to the Pacific coastlines. What unites them is the defense, protection and care for water as a key element in their fight towards ecological justice. In collaboration with Fósforo from México, FRIDA brings to life the vivid and beautiful dreams and reflections from these grantee partners.
Click here to watch a reflective animation by Climate and Environmental Justice activists from the FRIDA-verse
Young feminist activists should be given the support they need to sustain their movements and lead the radical climate action that we all need. Fostering young feminist leadership can transform the inequitable patriarchal structures that have caused the present climate crisis and carve space for a better and more promising future of safety, security and dignity.
What The Water Brings: Lessons on Funding Young Feminist Activism on Climate and Environmental Justice
Water is the quintessential life bringer. We must provide nourishment to our movements in the same way that water nourishes our bodies and lands. This remains our ultimate goal as a youth-led feminist funder. We need to learn how to wade into the rivers, streams and oceans of the young feminist activists that we support. Most importantly, we need to move with them, give them what they need, and bend to their purpose.
Our latest report, What The Water Brings: lessons on funding young feminist activism on climate and environmental justice, is a reflection at our work in climate and environmental justice during the past three years, and draws lessons, challenges, stories and recommendations from our shared history with the FRIDA community.
This publication comes from a participatory reflection that took place from May to September 2020 and involved in-depth conversations with numerous staff, grantee partners and selected donors who specifically support this thematic work at FRIDA. This report helps us understand who we have been and how we will carve out new paths together.
In this reflection, you will find five sections: 1) FRIDA’s vision of how feminist youth activism also takes up the struggle to move towards an ecologically just future while advancing gender rights; 2) highlights of FRIDA’s Climate and Environmental Justice work; 3) challenges and lessons that FRIDA identified while doing this work; 4) reflection on FRIDA’s role in the philanthropic ecosystem as an activist fund; and 5) FRIDA’s recommendations for social justice donors interested in delving deeper into the nuances of funding intersectional climate and environmental justice work.
The crises currently unfolding have made it clear that this is the most timely moment for us at FRIDA – and for humanity – to address the climate and environmental crisis with the urgency it requires to envision a better future for all.
While climate disasters are occurring with more frequency and devastation levels, we are also increasingly witnessing the power of youth climate activists around the world. They are questioning corporate power and government negligence to demand justice. They are creating the alternatives we really need to transition into a just and equitable future. Young feminist activism is blooming in many ways and all they need is our continuous nourishment. #WaterTheMovements by making a donation to FRIDA.
