The Climate Gender Equity Fund (CGEF) has announced its first grants focused on Africa, a year after it first launched. 

The public-private partnership, focused on gender equity in climate finance, has publicised its first cohort of women-led organisations selected for grants. Each recipient works on advancing gender-equitable climate action in Africa. 

They include the Clean Technology Hub, a women-led acceleration hub in Nigeria scaling new climate technologies; WomanHub, an accelerator in South Africa that supports female science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) business founders; and M-Kayla Ventures, an incubator in Kenya that focuses on women entrepreneurs working on climate-smart agriculture solutions. 

USAID, Amazon, Reckitt, Visa Foundation, and The UPS Foundation are all founding members of the equity fund. They have committed $20 million to the fund so far. USAID announced an additional $5 million during the COP28 climate change conference held in the UAE in December 2023. 

“We are thrilled to announce the first cohort of women-led organisations to receive grants from the Climate Gender Equity Fund to advance gender-equitable climate action around the world,” said USAID chief climate officer Gillian Caldwell. 

Shafi Musaddique is news editor at Alliance magazine.