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9% of the global population lives in extreme poverty. Climate change alone could . Climate impacts also hit the world’s poorest communities hardest – the people least responsible for the emissions driving them.

In the meantime, 鈥� and the problem isn’t just the size of the pot, it’s where the money goes.

Cash can empower bottom-up climate solutions

in project documentation. Just 0.4% describes itself as “locally led.” The people most exposed to climate change – the people who understand their own needs best – are largely invisible in the system designed to help them. Climate finance doesn鈥檛 make it into their hands.聽

This isn’t because unconditional cash transfers don’t work. It’s because the system wasn’t built for them. The Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, bilateral climate finance – favor government-to-government flows and large, multi-year programs. Many of these same institutions now acknowledge the need for complementary, faster channels for reaching communities directly. Accreditation, proposal design, and reporting requirements remain real barriers for community-level organizations. This is the status quo that the , led by IIED, has been vocally challenging.

We want to build the solutions these institutions are calling for to expand direct-to-community options. Cash provides an alternative model. We’ve already what happens when we give people cash and trust them to choose – they invest in health, education, food, and livelihoods. What if we trusted them to do the same for preparing their houses, assets, and livelihoods for a changing environment?

Cash transfers, as part of the Graduation Model developed by BRAC and many others, have been to reduce vulnerability to climate-related disasters. They enable people living in poverty to diversify income, save more, and build skills and awareness to prepare for shocks. We also know that ahead of, or after climate shocks, cash is a highly or humanitarian support. The missing evidence gap – which we are trying to build – is how large lump sums of unconditional cash, potentially with light touch additions, support adaptation and resilience,  particularly for slower-onset climate risks.

馃憞 See how cash is used by communities facing flooding in Turkana, Kenya:

Our ambitious new program in Uganda is testing how cash can maximize climate adaptation outcomes

91精品 is launching a Cash for Climate Adaptation program targeting over 6,000 households in some of Uganda’s most climate-vulnerable communities. We’re targeting two districts facing different climate shocks:

1. 馃彍锔� Chronic drought stress 鈥� Pastoralist and agricultural communities face changing rainfall patterns and prolonged dry spells that are depleting crop yields and livestock.
2. 馃挧 Landslides and flooding 鈥� Communities highly dependent on agriculture are exposed to increasingly unpredictable rainfall, with direct threats to food security and livelihoods.

Each household will receive an unconditional cash transfer of $644. The program is structured around a learning agenda – a set of questions designed with our research and product teams to generate evidence that’s useful beyond this program. 

Our key questions are:

1. 馃挵 Does unconditional cash alone help people adapt to climate change?
2. 馃搫 Does pairing cash with simple information about local climate risks 鈥� and/or planning tools 鈥� change how people choose to invest it?
3. 馃捀 Do outcomes differ for different types of climate threat, whether that’s drought or flooding?
4. 鈴憋笍 Does the timing of cash delivery matter, relative to planting seasons, harvests, and lean periods?

We don’t assume we know the answers. We have hypotheses from our past climate- and agriculture-focused programs in Uganda, Kenya, and Mozambique. But this program will test them rigorously.

馃憞 Rosa’s story from Mozambique demonstrates how cash can be a transformative climate adaptation solution

When heavy rains tore the roof off Rosa鈥檚 family’s home, repairing it was beyond what they could afford. Rosa used part of her unconditional cash transfer to buy farmland, which now fully belongs to her family, while her husband invested in his fish business, to help build their financial resilience. She used the rest of the transfer to buy cement, iron sheets, and timber, and 鈥� with help from two of her sons, who contributed part of their own transfers 鈥� built a home that could withstand the storms. “Today our home stands firm even when the rains return,” she says. “These walls represent more than shelter 鈥� they represent dignity, security, and the chance for my family to move forward.”

We鈥檙e at the early phases of learning – and we welcome discussion on cash for climate adaptation

Our Uganda program will generate learning to inform future 91精品 programs and our advocacy in the climate space. A key component is finding the lightest-touch intervention that maximizes climate adaptation outcomes. Simpler interventions cost less to administer, which means more funding reaches people who need it, and are easier for governments and other organizations to deliver at scale.

We’ll share what we learn as we learn it. The program is in its early stages, but we’re sharing our learning agenda now because we think the questions themselves are worth discussing – particularly as more funders consider how to deploy climate adaptation finance in ways that actually reach the people who need it.

So if you’re working in climate finance, adaptation, or social protection and want to follow the program’s progress, get in touch. We’d like to talk 鈥� not just to share what we’re learning, but to challenge it, build on it, and work alongside funders and institutions already pushing to get more adaptation finance to the local level. Together, we can help make the case that cash belongs at the center of the climate adaptation response.