Global climate finance leader to deliver 2024 Barbara Ward Lecture

This year’s Barbara Ward Lecture welcomes Mafalda Duarte, the executive director of the?Green Climate Fund, to share her aspirations to challenge this major part of the global finance architecture, on Tuesday?14 May.

She is renowned for her innovative approach to development and climate-responsive investments, and her work aligns with IIED’s mission to ensure that climate finance is accessible to those most impacted by climate crises, fostering a more sustainable future for all.

IIED’s Barbara Ward Lecture series, hosted in honour of IIED’s founder – a world renowned economist, policy advisor and early advocate of sustainable development – celebrates outstanding women in development and has been a platform for many influential women in development to share insights on contemporary issues.

Find out more and register your interest in attending.

News?and blogs

IIED stakeholder survey 2024

At IIED we conduct regular surveys to understand how you view our work and learn how we can improve. As part of this process, we are keen to hear from everyone who has connected with us in the past five years. Hearing from our partners and stakeholders is invaluable and much appreciated, so please take a moment and tell us how we’re doing. Fill in the survey.

Don't miss CBA18

Join us at?the 18th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change (CBA18)?from 6-9 May 2024 in Arusha, Tanzania. CBA18 is the?space for the adaptation community to share and co-create learning on community-based and locally led adaptation through discussion, debate, skill-sharing?and knowledge exchange. And we will shortly share details of the fantastic field trips!?Register now!

REDAA grantees announced

The Reversing Environmental Degradation in Africa and Asia (REDAA) programme is excited to announce its first cohort of grantees. 21 locally-led initiatives will restore environments, helping people and nature to thrive in a changing climate. The programme is funded by UK International Development from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and managed by IIED. Explore the projects.

Lobbying for land then and now: reflections on what changed in Karachi

With affordable land a pipe dream for the urban poor what, if anything, has changed in the last 50 years, and what lobbying tactics are the most – and least – effective? Find out in the guest blog by?architect and planner, and former IIED fellow,?Arif Hasan. Read the blog. ?

Grant-making for locally-led action: views from the national champions

National champions from Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Cameroon reflect on how their leadership in the People and Conservation Learning Group (PCLG) small grants initiative impacted local actors’ access to funding, as we call on other funders to adopt this approach to channel more funding to the local level. Find out more. ??

Sisters are doing it for themselves in biodiverse Belize

In Belize, sisters Alice and Amelia are taking part in Planting Baskets, an innovative project that works with farmers to grow more nutritious local foodplants, spices and endangered timber trees using smallholder agroforestry. Duncan Macqueen discusses how the project is helping farmers to enhance on-farm biodiversity, climate-resilient livelihoods and food security. Read the blog. ??

IIED deepens links with largest global network of local governments

IIED has signed an agreement with United Cities and Local Governments, setting out a commitment to work together on increasing housing justice and urban equality and addressing urban responses to climate change. Find out more.

New publications

Rethinking capacity building

Development organisations in the global North consistently grapple with how they can decolonise the way they work and better integrate gender and intersectionality perspectives into their programmes.?IIED has been taking strides to bring these perspectives into our work, and we are now also using gender, intersectionality and decoloniality lenses to examine the concept and approach behind capacity building. Download the backgrounder for more info. ?

Moving towards gender justice

Focusing on distribution of resources and power within countries ignores how supra-national and historical forces shape gender inequality and the diverse, nuanced ways in which gender inequality operates in different parts of the world and at different moments in time.?The concept of gender justice provides an analytical lens through which we can make visible and address the multifaceted challenges faced by people of all genders.?In this backgrounder, we explore how this shift from equality to justice in gender analysis can be done and why it is so important. Download the backgrounder. ?

What about seafood? The role of seafood in UK food systems transformation

This paper argues that seafood should play a more prominent role in debates about food systems transformation in the UK. We discuss the connections between seafood and the broader food system, and consider seafood’s potential role in food systems transformation in the UK.?We unpack the opportunities this presents, as well as the challenges — including seafood’s overseas impacts — and we analyse future visions for seafood in the UK and the future of the UK food system. Download the working paper.