Maldives News Beat

Adapting to Climate Change: New Grant Scheme for the Maldives

By Jonathan Kearney
November 21, 2019
Photo of Adapting to Climate Change: New Grant Scheme for the Maldives

Communities in the Maldives are being empowered to tackle the effects of climate change with the help of a new grants programme. Grants of up to US $50,000 per project are now available to community organisations for initiatives to help them adapt as temperatures rise worldwide.

Funded by AusAID (the Australian Agency for International Development), and managed by UNDP Maldives, the Small Island Developing States Community-Based Adaptation Programme (or SIDS CBA), provides small grants to support knowledge sharing, development of best practices and targeted activities.

The aim is to build resilience and adaptability in communities and ecosystems to enable them to cope with the impact of climate change.

SIDS CBA for the Maldives will target two priority areas for action; the coastal zone and beaches and freshwater resources.

Grants will be awarded to initiatives that conserve natural resources and ecosystems and preserve livelihoods. The programme was designed to put into practice, pilot and create widespread interest in community-based projects.

Small Island Developing States such as the Maldives are among the first and worst affected by climate change. Because they are by nature small and remote, they are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and coastal erosion. This means they must be agile and ready to adapt as climate change impacts become a reality.

Grants will be made directly to civil society organizations (CSOs) with priority for national and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs). A first round of concept papers has already been submitted, and successful candidates will be invited to submit full proposals.

Being an island nation, communities in the Maldives are often small and spread out, making top-down action challenging. The SIDS CBA programme hopes to stir a ground-level movement, with communities taking the lead to successfully embed change.

UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP has been a trusted development partner of the Maldives for almost 40 years, helping to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities and exclusion.