The CGIAR Climate Action Program has awarded six research grants to strengthen and deepen research on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) across its global climate initiatives.
The grants aim to ensure that climate solutions better support the most vulnerable communities—including women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and other marginalized groups—by generating stronger evidence on inclusive climate adaptation, equitable climate finance, and the impact of climate interventions on women’s empowerment.
The GESI Research Gap
Across food systems, these groups often face the highest climate risks while having limited access to resources, services, and decision-making opportunities. A recent portfolio review found that while GESI is integrated across Climate Action’s five areas of work, the depth and rigor of that integration varies considerably.
For CGIAR Climate Action, integrating GESI cannot stop at counting participation or reporting sex-disaggregated data. It must challenge unequal power dynamics and ensure that the most vulnerable can actively shape climate solutions.
The Grant Selection Process
A competitive call for GESI research grants was launched in April 2026, attracting 38 proposals from CGIAR Centers across three thematic areas. Following a single-blind peer review by members of the Climate Action core leadership team, six projects were selected for funding.
The grants are designed as targeted “top-up” investments, strengthening existing research rather than funding standalone projects. This approach builds on work already underway, reducing implementation risk, and helps ensure that new evidence feeds directly into ongoing climate action. All deliverables are expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
The Six Funded Projects
Topic 1: Addressing Inequalities in Locally-Led Adaptation
1. Exploring adaptation pioneer households and gender norms deviants for Locally-Led Climate Action
- CGIAR Center: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
- Lead Researcher: Alessandra Galiè
- Location: Kenya
- This qualitative study works with 45 adaptation pioneer households to learn how bending gender norms shapes climate adaptation. It will inform county guidelines for ILRI’s farmer-to-farmer scaling approach.
2. Rethinking Climate Information Services as innovation bundles
- CGIAR Center: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
- Lead Researcher: Béla Teeken
- Location: Ghana and Nigeria
- This research compares bundled climate information services to explore what helps women turn access into adaptation, working with Ghana’s Women in Agriculture Development Directorate and Nigeria’s National Root Crops Research Institute.
Topic 2: Increasing Equity in Climate Finance and Carbon Markets
3. Equity-by-Design: Expanding MRV+ for Inclusive Climate-Smart Rice-Based Food Systems
- CGIAR Center: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
- Lead Researcher: Jummai Yila
- Location: Uganda
- This project tests MRV+, an expanded way to track carbon-credit rice projects that adds social and economic measures to examine how costs and benefits are distributed. It is carried out with carbon developer Faeger Co. Ltd. and Uganda’s agriculture ministry.
4. Climate risk information, insurance, and lender decision-making
- CGIAR Center: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
- Lead Researcher: Berber Kramer
- Location: India
- Working with financial services provider Dvara E-Registry in India, this study runs a lab-in-the-field experiment testing whether satellite-based credit scores and crop insurance change how much credit women receive and reduce gender bias in lending decisions.
Topic 3: Assessing the Impact of Climate Action on Women’s Empowerment
5. Measuring women’s empowerment in climate action
- CGIAR Center: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
- Lead Researcher: Ranjitha Puskur
- Location: India (West Bengal)
- This study pilots a new climate change add-on to the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), surveying 400 women in West Bengal’s Socio-Technical Innovation Bundles (STIBs) Learning Labs.
6. Climate Information and Women’s Empowerment
- CGIAR Center: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
- Lead Researcher: Muzna Alvi
- Location: India (Gujarat)
- This grant funds a 2026 baseline survey of 1,500 women, using the pro-WEAI climate change tool, ahead of evaluating an AI climate advisory service built with SEWA and Gram Vaani.
Evidence for Future Programming
The six grants cover regions across East Africa, West Africa, and South Asia. Each grant is linked to an existing Climate Action program, ensuring that findings can directly inform ongoing research, policy development, and climate strategies.
Collectively, the grants are expected to produce actionable evidence, tools, and methodological contributions that strengthen Climate Action’s ability to address the structural inequalities that compound climate risk.
As the program continues to scale its work across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, these investments in GESI research are intended to ensure that the quality of inclusion keeps pace with the ambition of climate action.
