Feminist Futures

The Gender Just Climate Solutions (GJCS) Awards turned 10 this year!!! We celebrated on the 16th of June during the SB62 Bonn Climate Change Conference, with previous awardees and many of our partners present on this special day. This  celebration marks 10 years of a journey supporting and collaborating with grassroots and community-oriented climate initiatives– driven by women and feminist leaders.  

Looking back: About the GJCS 

Launched during the landmark Paris Agreement negotiations in 2015, the GJCS Awards were established by the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) to ensure that climate action is inclusive, equitable, and gender responsive. Over the past decade, this initiative received more than 3,000 applications, awarded 27 organisations, and featured 236 impactful projects in our annual publications. 

“The awardees are powerful women activists from diverse sectors who are not only improving lives on the ground but also challenging paradigms of growth and profit,” said Anne Barre, Former Coordinator of the GJCS. “They promote systems of care, equality, and well-being economies.” 

Celebrating 10 years: the GJCS community 

The 10-year celebration brought together past awardees, partners, and allies for an emotional and inspiring gathering, reflecting on the programme’s legacy and envisioning the future of gender-just climate action. 

Former awardees from India, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Guatemala, Togo, Cameroon, and Senegal, shared their experiences both in person and through video messages. Their powerful stories and activism in sectors including just energy transitions forest conservation, sexual and reproductive health rights, and food security and sovereignty, demonstrated how the GJCS Award has amplified their voices and elevated their work onto global platforms. 

“What makes me proud of being a GJCS Award winner is not just the recognition, it’s the confidence it built in our communities, the international exposure it brought us, and the network it connected us to,” said Sevidzem Ernestine Leikeki, 2019 awardee from  CAMGEW, based in Cameroon. “We’ve gained access to capacity-building, funding, and global advocacy opportunities.” 

Andrea Monzón Juárez, the 2021 non-technical awardee from Association Todos Juntos, based in Guatemala, addressed the audience with deep emotion: 

“It’s hard to be here and speak for the women in my community, whose realities many can’t even imagine,” she said. 

Looking to the future, Sascha Gabizon, our Executive Director, expressed both hope and determination: 

“We hope to continue this programme for as long as necessary. But ideally, one day, all climate solutions will be gender-just by default, and this award won’t be needed. Until then, this network will continue to grow and inspire negotiators and policymakers worldwide.” 

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