March 18, 2025

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The climate crisis represents an unprecedented global challenge, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable regions and populations, particularly women in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to Latindadd’s analysis, rural and Indigenous women face historical and structural barriers to accessing financial, technological, and decision-making resources in climate projects. Despite being key actors in biodiversity protection and sustainability, these barriers reinforce inequalities and limit their ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The assessment reviewed 24 climate projects funded in Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia between 2014 and 2022. Of this funding, 94 % came from the World Bank (WB), 5 % from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and 1 % from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF). While some projects incorporate gender elements, Latindadd identifies a lack of a structural approach to ensure meaningful participation of women in planning, execution, and most importantly, in the outcomes achieved. Additionally, the predominant financial mechanisms—non-concessional loans—increase the debt burden of countries in the region, perpetuating dependency on creditors and transferring the burden of adaptation costs to the most vulnerable populations.

Latindadd warns that this dynamic reproduces power asymmetries between the Global North and the Global South, using the climate crisis as a new front to perpetuate inequitable financial relations. Multilateral Development Banks must not only prioritise climate justice but also restructure their policies to enable equitable and accessible financing, including grants, particularly for adaptation projects, and concessional terms for climate mitigation initiatives.

To transform this reality, Latindadd recommends incorporating a gender and intersectional approach at every stage of climate projects, establishing transparency and monitoring mechanisms with disaggregated indicators, and ensuring that women are recognised not only as beneficiaries but as leaders in climate governance. Reforming the international financial architecture 6 GENDER AND CLIMATE: CHALLENGES FOR MULTILATERAL BANKING IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN is imperative to advancing a climate financing model that addresses the true needs of Global South countries and women in their communities.

Latindadd underscores the urgency for developed countries to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fulfill their commitments to provide new and additional resources beyond Official Development Assistance, and establish a new global financing goal aligned with their accumulated climate debt to the Global South, building a just, sustainable transition rooted in gender justice.

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