The Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities
A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 2 2
Direct funding for IPLC's leads to sustainable solutions & long-lasting impacts
Foreword from the Global Steering Committee Co-chairs
Bharati Pathak, Nepal | Manuel Aldrete, Mexico
© Daniel Martínez/WWF Perú
Since the beginnings of the Dedicated Grant Mechanism in 2009, Indigenous Peoples and local communities have advocated for the allocation of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) Forest Investment Program (FIP) funds to be governed, managed, and implemented by Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in FIP countries. Thanks to the arduous efforts, advocacy, and mobilization of the DGM IPLC working group (DGM Interim Steering Committee), in 2011 the FIP Sub-Committee approved the overall DGM proposal presented by the working group. It endorsed the fundamental principle of this mechanism that IPLCs take the lead in designing the program according to their needs and requested Multilateral Development Banks and IPLC representatives further develop the project proposals required for approval of FIP funding and operationalization of the grant mechanism. This resulted in the allocation of USD$80 million to the 12 DGM IPLC-led and designed country projects, including 1 global project.
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The DGM has been a pioneer mechanism in providing more direct access to climate finance for IPLCs. Despite the abundant research showing immense potential of forests for climate change mitigation, and the fundamental role IPLCs play in conserving forests with their local knowledge and expertise, over the last decade only 1% of international climate finance has gone to Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
The DGM results are a testament that IPLC's access to direct climate finance leads to sustainable solutions and long-lasting impacts. Since 2015, with the launch of the first DGM country project (Brazil), Indigenous Peoples and local communities, Quilombola, and traditional peoples in 8 countries (Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Ghana, DRC, Mozambique, and Peru) utilized funding and technical support to design and manage 628 subprojects, with a combined value of over US$ 19.5 million put towards community-led initiatives.
Seven of the twelve country projects are currently active and demonstrating significant results on the ground including DGM Saweto Peru’s success in titling 230,239 hectares of indigenous land, in addition to the recognition, and registration of 253 indigenous communities and 44 indigenous enterprises., as well as DGM Brazil financing of 64 subprojects in 10 states and 85 municipalities in the Brazilian Cerrado, which benefitted 34,780 community members and preserved 6 million hectares of land managed by the peoples of the Cerrado.
We, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities need to be truly recognized and treated as equal partners in the global fight against climate change. We need a genuine exchange of knowledge and support to strengthen our organizations and institutions and develop the capacity to receive and manage climate funds.
In 2022, the DGM achieved important milestones in terms of program implementation and closeout, subgrants, gender equity and inclusion, and youth participation. As a year of continued innovation, growth, and transformation, the DGM Global project supported 2 cohorts of Global learning fellows, 20 fellows total from Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mexico, Nepal, Brazil, Mozambique, and Republic of Congo, strengthening the leadership and capacity of a new generation of IPLC leaders in DGM countries.
As we close out the 7th year of implementation since the official launch of the first DGM country project, we pause to reflect on the lessons learned, achievements, challenges, and gaps.
While there is still significant work to be done on the ground and in providing greater access to climate finance for IPLCs, since 2015 DGM country projects have demonstrated the critical need for partnering with communities in the design and implementation of climate finance initiatives. Ensuring IPLCs play leadership roles in the governance of climate finance is key to achieving global climate goals.
© Clea Guedes
A Message from Climate Investment Funds and The World Bank Group
Valerie Hickey, Global Director, Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy, the World Bank
Mafalda Duarte, Former Head of the Climate Investment Funds
Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities are the most effective stewards of the natural world. Having lived in close harmony with nature for generations, they understand the world’s ecosystems intimately and know what practices work best on the ground. Their input and leadership are invaluable in creating a sustainable, biodiverse, and inclusive future.
That is why the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) established the first-of-its-kind DGM with financing from CIF’s FIP. This unique mechanism, financed by the Climate Investment Funds and implemented by the World Bank, has directly empowered local leaders all over the developing world and helped IPLCs participate and lead in governance, implementation, and climate decision-making.
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Since inception, CIF has invested $70 million in 12 countries to support community-led, context-specific programs that draw on local expertise to advance sustainable forest stewardship and elevate IPLC voices in climate action locally and globally. This finance is improving the livelihoods of more than 300,000 people. Together, CIF and the World Bank are helping reduce deforestation-related greenhouse gas emissions, curb forest degradation, support sustainable forest management, and promote forest carbon stocks.
We have also shared those lessons far and wide. The DGM Global Learning and Knowledge Exchange Project brings the mechanism’s successes, challenges, and learnings to the broader development community, so that other countries and organizations can understand the importance of local input and leadership.
The program also conducts training programs for IPLC representatives to better familiarize themselves with topics relevant to participation in global climate forums.
As you read through DGM’s latest Annual Report, you will see countless examples of the power of drawing on local expertise to advance sustainable forest stewardship. Forests are essential to our climate future – and when Indigenous peoples and communities lead the way to protect them, we all benefit.
© Leo Lopes
Global Map
Each country has its own process for making grants to subprojects proposed by in-country communities and organizations. Before subprojects can begin, however, each country project must go through a series of steps:
NSC establishment through consultation with IPLCs in each FIP country
Project concept approval
NEA selection by NSC
Project appraisal and approval by FIP Subcommittee and WB
Signed grant agreement between NEA and WB
Project effectiveness after meeting grant effectiveness conditions, including completion of project operational procedures manual
Disbursement of project funds
Since 2015, IPLCs in DGM countries have designed, selected, led, and implemented 628 subprojects benefitting over 300,000 community members. DGM communities cultivate, harvest, manage, and sustainably source a variety of natural resources through currently implemented or proposed DGM activities. Some of these resources and activities are highlighted below.
DGM Projects At-a-Glance
IPLCs in DGM countries designed, selected, led, and implemented more than 600 subprojects benefitting over 250,000 community members.
DGM communities cultivate, harvest, manage, and sustainably source a variety of natural resources through currently implemented or proposed DGM activities. Some of these resources and activities are highlighted below.
National Executing Agency: International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – Burkina Faso
Funding: US $4.5 million
Implementation: September 2015 – June 2021
National Steering Committee: 10 voting members (7 men/3 women)
DGM DRC
National Executing Agency: Caritas Congo
Funding: US $6 million
Implementation: April 2016 – July 2022
National Steering Committee: 40 voting members (36 men/4 women)
DGM Ghana
National Executing Agency: Solidaridad West Africa
Funding: US $5.5 million
Implementation: April 2017- November 2021
National Steering Committee: 13 voting members (11 men/2 women)
DGM Mozambique
National Executing Agency: WWF Mozambique
Funding: US $4.5 million
Implementation: February 2018 – February 2023
National Steering Committee: 17 voting members (13 men/4 women)
DGM Cote d’Ivoire
National Executing Agency: CARE
Funding: US $4.5 million
Implementation: January 2020 - April 2024
National Steering Committee: 8 voting members (8 men/0 women)
DGM Republic of Congo
National Executing Agency: CIPIVIE- Caritas
Funding: US$ 4.5 million
World Bank approval: July 2021
National Steering Committee: 17 voting members (11 men/6 women)
DGM Brazil
National Executing Agency: Centro de Agricultura Alternativa do Norte de Minas (CAA-NM)
Funding: US $6.0 million
Implementation: October 2017 – January 2022
National Steering Committee: 14 voting members (9 men/5 women)
DGM Mexico
National Executing Agency: Rainforest Alliance
Funding: US $6.0 million
Implementation: October 2017- August 2023
National Steering Committee: 15 voting members (13 men/2 women)
DGM Guatemala
National Executing Agency: Sotz’il Association
Funding: US$ 4.5 million
Implementation: May 2021 – April 2026
National Steering Committee: 15 voting members (12 men/3 women)
DGM Peru
National Executing Agency: World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – Peru
Funding: US $5.5 million
Implementation: November 2015 – June 2021
National Steering Committee: 10 voting members (8 men/2 women)
DGM Indonesia
National Executing Agency: The Samdhana Institute
Funding: US $6.5 million
Implementation: March 2017 – November 2022
National Steering Committee: 9 voting members (5 men/4 women)
DGM Nepal
National Executing Agency: Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN)
Funding: US $4.5 million
FIP Subcommittee approval: May 2021
National Steering Committee: 14 voting members (10 men/4 women)
DGM Through the Years
Impact Stories
Brazil
Quilombo Ribeirão da Mutuca strengthens local economy through agro-ecological actions
The natural resources of the Cerrado have become a way to enhance the production chain of the Rural Black Community of Ribeirão do Mutuca Quilombo, in the region of Nossa Senhora do Livramento, in Mato Grosso. This quilombo is part of the Mata Cavalo complex, located in an area occupied by five other quilombo communities in Mato Grosso. There, the population of about 130 families lives within a territory rich in pequi, banana, jatobá, babaçu, cumbarú, coco bocaiúva, and other typical fruits from the Brazilian Cerrado. In recent years, this community has become a reference in agro-ecological practices in the state due to the residents' dedication to manage the land and produce food without the use of pesticides and in a sustainable way. Besides the use of typical fruits, the urubamba, a typical vine from the region, and the golden grass are the raw material for ancestral handicrafts created by the women of the community, who boost the local income by producing baskets and jewelry that are sold to tourists.
These actions were further enhanced with the DGM Brazil-funded subproject "Value addition and market consolidation", which invested in the collection and processing of fruits from the Cerrado and in the internal training of the community through business plans to reach the market. According to the community, the implementation of the project is, above all, the realization of a dream in having their own fruit processing unit within the territory, which offers long-term independence to the families that live there. Other initiatives contemplated by the project involve training in management and optimization of consolidated production and the structuring of a telecenter within the quilombo.
© DGM Brazil/CAA
Impact Stories
Ghana
DGM Ghana took an inclusive approach to engaging all community members in leadership, decision-making, capacity building, project design and implementation. The project designed training to support women’s participation, strengthen their skills, and assets in sustainable forest management. This resulted in 47% of women as grant beneficiaries.
One of the grant recipients was Sarah Ewudzi, a cocoa farmer in Asantekrom in the Western North region and one of 156 individual grant beneficiaries. Sarah received financial and technical support to engage in climate-smart cocoa production. “Two years ago, I destroyed all the trees on my cocoa farm. But after participating in a DGM training and learning that shade cocoa has longer productive years than full sun cocoa, I have been planting more trees. Now, I have 30 mahogany and frake trees on my cocoa farm,” says Sarah Ewudzi.
Sarah attended weeks of training on climate change and climate-smart cocoa production organized by DGM Ghana project. “Through the training, I learned that burning produces a lot of carbon which makes the weather hot as a result. We also learned that we are experiencing hot weather conditions and less rain because we have cut down the trees which would have absorbed the carbon from the air.”
Sarah indicates that had it not been for DGM Ghana training and support, which has raised the awareness of farmers on climate change and ways to adapt, most farmers like herself would have remained unaware of how they could protect their livelihoods. Having benefited from implementing climate-smart farming practices, Sarah shares her experiences with other farmers in her church. To ensure the sustainability of her new cocoa farm for her seven children, Sarah received support from the project to incorporate shade trees on her two-and-a-half-acre farm.
Sarah intercropped 14 kilograms of maize seeds and 950 plantain she received from the project on her cocoa farm, and has harvested corn worth over GHC 400 (69 US Dollars). The plantain and maize plants are serving as temporary shade for the young cocoa seedlings she has planted on her two and a half-acre land. The project has also supplied her with 45 tree seedlings of frake, emire and mahogany which will provide long-term protection for her cocoa farm against the harsh weather conditions.
Sarah is also raising tree seedlings for the Forestry Division in her district under the Forest Investment Programme, an opportunity she became aware of after her involvement in DGM activities.
Sarah Ewudzi during a DGM Ghana site visit to her cacao plantation. © Solidaridad Ghana
© Solidaridad Ghana
Impact Stories
Peru
After 5 years of implementation, DGM Saweto Peru through leadership of Indigenous Peoples and organizations made important progress in the recognition and registration of Indigenous communities, and titling of lands. The project also strengthened Indigenous Peoples capacities and worked together with government to improve the process and timeline for recognizing indigenous communities, reducing the time to one-tenth. In addition, 100 Indigenous communities have strengthened their production chains.
Overall, the Saweto Peru project benefitted more than 10,000 Indigenous families, provided legal security to more than 230,000 hectares of threatened forests. It also officially registered more than 250 Indigenous communities and 119 indigenous communities were able to sustainably develop their production chains. Through Saweto Peru, it became evident that the recognition of an Indigenous community requires a US$3,000 investment, which includes logistical field expenses, recruitment costs of brigades and government personnel, and approximately 12 months’ time. Each Indigenous land titling costs an average of US$12,000, including field logistical expenses, brigade and government personnel, and an average of 36-48 months of implementation.
© Segundo Chuquipiondo
Impact Stories
DGM Burkina Faso was implemented in 32 communes spread across five regions of the country: i.e., the center-east, center-west, southwest, east, and Boucle du Mouhoun. Women were a central focus of the Burkina Faso project, and gender equality was therefore an important theme in project implementation. There are 85 interventions under the FIP DGM in Burkina Faso, which include 53 microprojects and 32 sub-projects. There are 29 microprojects that have been implemented exclusively by women, 6 of which were selected from the first call for proposals and 23 of which are from the second call for proposals.
One of the women-led microprojects supports Allah Wallou, a dairy processing cooperative in Sapouy, in the Center-West region, composed of 28 women. They designed and received DGM funding for a microproject titled: promotion of animal-raising activities through the establishment of a dairy in Sector 5 of the Sapouy Community.
The women of Allah Wallou make decisions by meeting on the 25th day of each month and discuss options until they reach a consensus among all members. The women of Allah Wallou have been able to expand the production of their dairy products and now have a store in the Sapouy market.
Burkina Faso
© IUCN Burkina Faso