We undertook this learning journey in India by engaging with partners and experts in the field to truly understand the threat the climate crises poses to the people we serve, and the intersections of our existing work with climate.

Through in-depth conversations with select partners and a secondary analysis of all investments and partnerships in India over the past five years, we charted the cross-cutting impact of climate change on individual lives. This pushed for a rearticulation of the climate crisis where conventional quantitative indicators (lives impacted & carbon emissions abated) are supplemented with qualitative measures (using stories and case studies) to spotlight the human impact of our partnerships. Our learnings from India further emphasized the need for a holistic approach that enables the most vulnerable to not simply survive, but thrive, while averting the climate catastrophe.

As we continue to reflect on our past while also building our future fight against climate change, our learnings from India reveal:

  1. Climate change cuts across development issues (health, livelihoods, energy etc.) with a lasting impact on people’s lives. To address this, it is critical that marginalized populations are heard and seen through local leadership, capacity building, and participation in decision-making processes.
  2. We have an increasing need for a portfolio approach which looks at the intersection of climate and other development issues holistically. One way to do this is to capture stories that showcase the impact created by partners’ work. For example, stories of change from students who are able to study into the night because of access to electricity, or women who experience reduced health risks due to the deployment of heat resilient infrastructure.
  3. We have a large partner network in India, and there is a need for ecosystem collaborations with these existing and new partners, to exchange knowledge, share best practices and learn from past failures, and articulate a common understanding of the climate crisis for the Global South.

With these actions and our unwavering commitment, The Rockefeller Foundation is placing climate at the forefront of our programmatic, operational, and investment strategies in India and across the world. We will help meet the climate challenge by centering our work on the lives of Vijuben and millions of other marginalized communities to ensure opportunities are universal and sustainable.

Read the full article about global climate change efforts by Deepali Khanna at The Rockefeller Foundation.