The just concluded Rio+20 or the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 20-22, 2012 witnessed the participation of world leaders who continued to make commitments on achieving sustainable development and lift people out of poverty by adopting a green path. Governments from Developed Countries have promised millions of dollars in funding to address poverty challenges in developing countries which have now worsened due to the impact of climate change. The UK Government’s £150m allocation for the international climate change fund and the UN Secretary General’s Zero Hunger Challenge are some of the new efforts launched in this direction at the conference.
Despite some major announcements on availability of funding to address the challenges outlined at Rio+20, it is not clear how NGOs will have access to it to improve their role in reducing the impact of these challenges. NGOs play a critical role in supporting the poor and disadvantaged groups, but funding constraints have prevented them from fulfilling their commitments. In context of this recently concluded UN conference, NGOs are inspired to make additional efforts to bring down poverty and reduce climate change affects. But where will the money come from to support their efforts?
To assist NGOs in this context, we have identified some open and close funding opportunities for NGOs to address some of the environmental challenges discussed at the conference. Although these opportunities have no direct relationship with the Rio+20, yet they have been established to address the same kind of issues and challenges. NGOs can apply to these opportunities for improving their efforts for a better world.
The Dutch Postcode Lottery is one of the major opportunities that calls for submitting business plans that can reduce CO2 emissions and it is offering €500,000 and an additional €200,000 in funding to such plans (read more). The Zayed Future Energy Prize is another interesting opportunity that has allocated US $1.5 million grant award for NGOs (read more). Ashden International Awards 2013 recognize organizations that have enabled the delivery of sustainable energy while bringing health, education or livelihood benefits to the energy poor (read more). The USAID’s Development Grants Program to support small NGOs and grassroots projects also has sectors like water, environment, energy efficiency awareness where crucial funding can be offered…[read more].
There are several other open and close NGO opportunities for funding environmental and climate change challenges listed at this link. Even if there are closed opportunities, NGOs can still make a note of them as a prospective grant calls as they get opened up every year.
