56 cooperatives get climate funding boost

By MATETE SIMUTANDA

THE PEOPLE Process on Housing and Poverty in Zambia (PPHPZ), in collaboration with representatives from the Alliance Partners under the Voice for Just Climate Action has provided support to 56 groups and cooperatives throughout the country.
Through the Next Level Grant Facility (NLGF), PPHPZ aims at empowering marginalised communities, including women, youth, and indigenous groups, by ensuring they are key actors in climate decision-making and directly benefit from climate initiatives.
Speaking during the NLGF project closeout meeting with grant beneficiaries, PPHPZ country coordinator Nelson Ncube stated that NLGF is not only funding, but also an indicator of inclusivity and community-driven climate action work. 
Mr Ncube said this is because the funding process was very flexible, people-centred and focused on practical climate change action instead of paper work.
“NLGF is a very flexible, people-centred design. We sought evidence of climate action, not paperwork – and the sub grantees delivered innovation and passion,” he said.
“The next level grant facility is more than funding; it proves that inclusive, community-driven climate action works. As the climate crisis intensifies, initiatives like ours will be pivotal in forging a resilient, equitable future – one community at a time.” 
“Through the next level grant facility – we made access to finance flexible, making it easy for grassroots organisation to apply for funding including non-registered groups. We received over 1, 200 applications underscoring the demand for accessible climate funding.” Mr Ncube added.
And Jomo Simbaya, The Grant Manager said through the bottom up approach, PPHPZ targeted people and communities that have been affected by climate change and have come up with activities and interventions that were going to be put into effect.
“But we wanted to give the funding to the people themselves who are the climate actors through what we are calling the bottom-up approach – a system where people come up with their activities and their interventions for climate change,” Mr Simbaya emphasised.
Meanwhile, the grant beneficiaries have described the initiative as a game changer to individuals and their communities as a whole.
Ms Theresa Chewe, aged 72, is part of a team that secured the grant and has so far trained 25 members in producing mushrooms using materials that are left in the fields.
Ms Chewe said the mushroom project has helped in eradicating climate change because the group members have been trained in this method of farming, ultimately reducing the cutting down of trees.
“We use materials that are left in the fields, you know, like maize cobs, stalks of soya, stalks of sunflower, stalks of maize, rice, and whatever waste material that we use to grow our mushroom,” she explained.