Application Deadline: 26 February, 2024 at 11:59PM EST
Applications are now open for the Equator Prize. The Equator Initiative is a United Nations-led partnership that brings together governments, civil society, grassroots organizations, and businesses to foster resilient communities by recognizing and advancing local nature-based solutions for sustainable development. The Equator Initiative creates opportunities and platforms to share knowledge and good practices, develops capacities of Indigenous peoples and local communities, informs policy through convening multi-stakeholder dialogues, and fosters enabling environments to replicate and scale up community action.
The Equator Prize 2024 will be awarded to outstanding Indigenous peoples and local community initiatives that advance innovative nature-based solutions for sustainable development, in alignment with the newly adopted Global Biodiversity Framework. The winners will join a prestigious network of 285 leading community-based organizations from around 89 countries that have been awarded the Equator Prize since 2002. Each Equator Prize winner will receive USD 10,000 and will be supported to participate in a series of policy dialogues and special events in the fall of 2024.
Equator Prize 2024 Theme: Nature for Climate Action
This year’s Equator Prize will recognize innovative initiatives that showcase how action on nature, led by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, can provide effective climate solutions, and demonstrate effective pathways to transform our global systems for people and Planet. Winning initiatives will be honored for their successes in protecting, restoring, and/or sustainably managing nature for nature-positive development outcomes.
Thematic priorities include:
- Nature for Climate Mitigation.
- Nature for Climate Adaptation and Resilience.
- Nature for a Just Transition.
Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for the Equator Prize 2024:
- The initiative must have been in existence for at least three years, and/or the actions taken must have been in place for at least three years.
- The nominee must be either a local community-based initiative, operating in a rural area, based in a country receiving support from the United Nations Development Programme (for a list of eligible countries, please click here); or an initiative led by Indigenous peoples in any country, operating in a rural area.
- The actions taken by the nominee must be nature-based and must deliver benefits related to two or more Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Selection Criteria
Equator Prize 2024 winners will be selected by an independent Technical Advisory Committee, which will assess nominations based on the following criteria:
- Impact: The extent to which the nominated initiative has resulted in measurable and positive environmental, social and economic impacts that deliver benefits towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals;
- Innovation: The extent to which the nominated initiative demonstrates new approaches and models that overcome prevailing constraints, and could offer fundamentally new approaches to adapting to and/or mitigating climate change, while advancing local sustainable development;
- Scalability and/or replicability: The extent to which the nominated initiative could be scaled up sub-nationally or nationally and/or, the extent to which the initiative can be replicated within the country and beyond;
- Resilience and Adaptability: The extent to which the nominated initiative demonstrates adaptability to environmental, social and economic change, and/or resilience in the face of external pressures;
- Reduced inequalities: The extent to which the initiative reduces inequalities in income as well as those based on age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, economic or other status, in particular for the poor;
- Social Inclusion: The extent to which the nominated initiative includes youth, elders, indigenous peoples, and other diverse groups in the decision-making processes and the actions that affect them;
- Gender Equality: The extent to which the nominated initiative is led by women or ensures the equality and empowerment of women and girls.
For More Information: