New RISE Challenge grantees and guidance launched to address gender-based violence and environment linkages – International Women’s Day 2026

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”. It calls for action to dismantle all barriers to equal justice: discriminatory laws, weak legal protections, and harmful practices and social norms that erode the rights of women and girls.

“Gender-based violence is one of the most overlooked barriers to climate and conservation success. IUCN recognises that the safety, dignity and rights of all individuals are integral to achieving our vision of a just world that values and conserves nature,” said Dr Grethel Aguilar, IUCN Director General. “This International Women’s Day, IUCN is proud to announce the winners of this year’s RISE Challenge, and to launch guidance supporting organisations with this vital work."

Projects in Cambodia, Vietnam and Democratic Republic of the Congo win RISE grants

The Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Environments (RISE) Challenge is the first granting mechanism of its kind, supporting activities designed to address gender-based violence and environmental linkages in environmental and climate-related programmes and generate evidence on promising interventions. The winning projects of the 2025 Call for Proposals are based in Cambodia, Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of the Congo:  

Safer landscapes, stronger voices: tackling gender-based violence in natural resources and biodiversity conservation in Cambodia

Led by Oxfam in partnership with Banteay Srei and the Culture and Environment Presentation Association, this project will embed gender-based violence risk mitigation and promote women’s participation and leadership in conservation and climate resilience initiatives in Cambodia’s Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces. Working across 17 community fisheries and three community protected areas, the project will strengthen the capacity of community management committees through inclusive participation and leadership, implement safeguarding measures, and ensure the inclusive and sustainable management of natural resources.  

Safeguarding communities and tackling gender-based violence for inclusive conservation in Vietnam

This project, led by Fauna & Flora in partnership with the Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender, Family, Women, and Adolescents (CSAGA), will build the capacity of local partners and communities living in Ninh Thuận, Tuyen Quang, and Quang Ngai to mitigate gender-based violence. Fauna & Flora and CSAGA will work together to strengthen organisational safeguarding policies and practices. Additionally, the project will promote healthy gender norms through community dialogues, engage women and men as champions, and support women’s leadership and participation in natural resource management.  

Integrating gender-based violence risk mitigation measures in terrestrial Indigenous-managed lands of Tanganyika Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Led by Tearfund in partnership with Congo Initiative and the Initiative des Femmes Entrepreneurs pour le Développement Durable (IFEDD), this project will integrate gender-based violence mitigation strategies into a United Nations Development Programme-funded project addressing environmental degradation and conflicts between farmers and herders over natural resources on Indigenous-managed lands in Tanganyika. Alongside the existing project, the partners will work with communities to develop and implement community-led gender-based violence risk mitigation plans. The project will also build the capacity of provincial officials and local leaders to recognise gender-based violence risks in their communities and effectively implement community-led risk mitigation plans.  

Funded by Norway, the RISE Challenge is a direct response to key research findings by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on gender-based violence and environment linkages.

New guidance on responding to gender-based violence

In partnership with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), IUCN has launched a new guidance note, “Gender-based violence referral pathway for environmental programs and projects”.  

“Women make up nearly half of the global fisheries workforce, but many face unequal access to resources and are at high risk of gender-based violence. Organisations working in the fisheries sector have a responsibility to help prevent and respond to gender-based violence. Doing so improves safety for survivors, strengthens communities, and supports better conservation outcomes,” said Jackie Siles, Senior Gender Programme Manager at IUCN, who worked on the guidance note.

This guidance is particularly targeted towards environmental organisations, especially those in the fisheries sector. It will assist them to support survivors of gender-based violence in the communities in which they work, by explaining how to set up referral pathways — the steps an organisation takes to respond to incidents of gender-based violence by sharing information and connecting survivors to appropriate services and support.