ARA’s Grassroots Action Research Microgrants

The ARA’s Grassroots Action Research Microgrants connect action and research partners with local communities to identify knowledge gaps and explore solutions to adapt to and build resilience against a changing climate.

The ARA micro-grant approach seeks to empower grassroots actors to identify needs and opportunities, and to co-develop potential solutions for adapting to the local impacts of climate change alongside researchers and relevant stakeholders who can scale up and implement actions. 

In this way, the financing is used effectively and sustainably, with local voices leading rather than funding institutions or outsiders. 

Between 2023 and 2025, 55 grants were awarded in the Global South, amounting to GBP 700,000. Microgrants emphasise the importance of co-creation in fostering effective, meaningful, and equitable outcomes, while also highlighting less-explored areas of adaptation action research. These projects last for eight months. They received up to GBP 15,000 to conduct inclusive, locally led action research to identify needs and opportunities for building resilience. The awarded projects were based in 22 countries from the Global South, including Argentina, Bangladesh, Haiti, Kenya, the Philippines, Somalia, India, and Uruguay.

For background on these microgrants, watch this video.

To hear from communities implementing them, check the following videos:

ARA Micro-grants – Women’s Life and Wellness (Zambia) on indigenous seeds and knowledge

ARA Micro-grants – Teia Dos Povos (Brazil) on strengthening adaptation through local knowledge

ARA Micro-grants – ICLEI Independencia (Chile) on the use of greywater to grow food

ARA Micro-grants – ICLEI Renca (Chile) on how communities use data to help themselves adapt better to the impacts of climate change

ARA Micro-grants Short – ICLEI Vitacura (Chile) on the use of green spaces to address heatwaves

ARA Micro-grants – SaciWATERs (India) looks at how women’s menstrual health intersects with the climate change adaptation needs in the Sundarbans

ARA Micro-grants – GESI in Antsahabingo (Tanjona association) on the role of women in protecting mangroves

ARA Micro-grants – GESI in Katsepy (Tanjona association) on a community of navigators in Madagascar, and how farming improved their income, particularly growing and weaving Raffia

ARA Micro-grants – GESI in Mariarano (Tanjona association) on climate change education in Madagascar

ARA Micro-grants – GESI in Mandrosoa (Tanjona association) on the role of a women’s association in addressing the adaptation needs of a community

ARA Micro grants – EarthLanka Sri Lanka on how a community fights water scarcity

Nature based solutions – Centre for People and Environment (CPE) to prevent the erosion of the haor

Perceptions and actions to reduce the impact of floods on the community – Vida Silvestre Uruguay

Fundacion CoMunidad Panama on a resilience action plan for the Santa Maria Watershed

Universidad Nacional De Rosario (Argentina) on strengthening adaptation planning and land use in the Middle Paraná Delta

Upscaling climate-smart agriculture in Madagascar

Integrated Design’s (IND) on socially just and adaptive community spaces in India

These microgrants were showcased in this video.

For a synthesis of the highlights of these microgrants, read this:

Catalysing local solutions for urban adaptation challenges: highlights from ARA micro-grants