Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments
(RISE grants challenge)
About the RISE grants challenge
Addressing gender-based violence and environment links
The Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments (RISE) grants challenge is the first-of-its-kind to address gender-based violence (GBV) in environment contexts and climate-related sectors. Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), RISE is a direct response to key research findings by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on gender-based violence and environment linkages. Gender-based violence is used across environment sectors to assert control over land and natural resources and can be exacerbated in the context of degradation and biodiversity loss caused by climate change, extractive industries and environmental crimes; with women environmental human rights defenders experiencing targeted risks. Investment is urgently needed to implement solutions that address these serious risks, fill critical knowledge, facilitate cooperation and catalyze investment in this nexus. USAID and IUCN’s partnership through the RISE grants challenge directly addresses these key international development priorities.
Why RISE?
Building community
Winners of the RISE grants challenge contribute new learning to the global community on how to include gender-based violence considerations and prevention measures within environment programming. RISE grantees have their work featured by the Gender-Based Violence and Environment Linkages Center (GBV-ENV Center), access networking opportunities, and receive technical assistance to support the proposed activity in achieving measurable results and impacts.
In natural resources sectors and contexts, preventing and addressing GBV is critical for healthy and sustainable environments as well as for realizing women’s empowerment and gender equality outcomes. The RISE grants challenge uniquely identifies and implements interventions to reduce and prevent GBV in environmental programming and environment-related projects.
Shared learning
Building knowledge. Informing action.
Inspired by and grounded in the evidence base built by IUCN under its AGENT partnership with USAID, the RISE Challenge projects are now generating new information and learning that help enrich the knowledge base on GBV-environment linkages. Scroll down to learn more.
Meet 2020 and 2021 winners!
Meet the nine winners of USAID’s RISE grants challenge. These projects do critical work in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fiji, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru, Uganda, and Vietnam. The activities are designed to address GBV in environmental contexts and generate learning and evidence on promising interventions.


Advancing Equitable Gender, Social, and Power Norms in Community Conservancies

Conservation of the Alto Mayo Landscape without Gender Violence

Creative Capacity Building to Address Gender-Based Violence in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector

Gender-Based Violence and REDD+ in Fiji: Tackling Resource Conflict and Addressing Gender-Based Risk in the Environment

Reducing Gender-Based Violence in Vietnamese Conservation

Resource-ful Empowerment: Elevating Women’s Voices for Human and Environmental Protection in Congolese Small-Scale Mining

Rising Up! Promoting Congolese Women’s Land Access and Preventing GBV in Eastern DRC

Securing Land Rights and Ending Gender Exclusion Project

Tz’unun: Ending Environmental Violence Against Indigenous Women in Guatemala through Empowerment in Community Forestry, Agroecology, and Collective Healing Spaces
A collaborative effort of impact
The 2020-2021 the RISE grants challenge winners are supported to incentivize organizations to adapt and implement promising or proven practices that have been used to effectively prevent and respond to GBV in other sectors to environmental programming.
These rounds of the RISE grants challenge draw insights from other development and humanitarian sectors that have proven or promising practices to address GBV. It spurs partnerships between environmental organizations, local communities, indigenous peoples organizations, and gender and GBV experts who can help bridge knowledge gaps and work to build an evidence base of effective GBV interventions. Under AGENT, IUCN provides targeted and specific technical support while distilling and sharing experiences from RISE to inform environmental programming.
Starting now, in 2022, IUCN is running a new call for proposals under AGENT and the GBV-ENV Center.

Stories on how we RISE together

Profiles for Change: Reama Naco and Ulai Baya
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Worthy of dignity and safety
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Protecting people and biodiversity: Addressing gender-based violence (GBV) and conservation links
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Security for Me and My Own: Land Demarcation and Preventing Gender-Based Violence in Uganda
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Profiles for change: Trang Nguyen, WildAct
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A Place to Call Her Own: Land titling and gender-based violence in South Kivu, DRC
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