A funder’s guide to locally-led Just Transition projects

This briefing by GreenCape provides guidance for funders—including independent power producers, donors, and philanthropists—on implementing locally-led Just Transition community projects in Africa. It emphasizes the necessity of using trusted intermediary organisations to bridge the gap between funders and local communities, moving away from top-down models toward a continuum of empowerment that culminates in local leadership and ownership.

• Funders of Just Transition projects in Africa face significant barriers in accessing local knowledge, building trust, and obtaining the social license to operate. To overcome these, the document recommends partnering with intermediary organisations—such as not-for-profits, community foundations, trade unions, or research institutions—that possess contextual relevance and existing community relationships.
• There is a shift in African philanthropy and corporate social investment toward 'localisation,' which involves decentralising decision-making and funding. This process is described as a continuum moving from 'Less locally-led' to 'Substantially locally-led,' progressing through stages of informing, consulting, partnering, delegating, and finally supporting local leadership where goals originate from the community.
• Effective intermediaries provide a wide range of critical functions for funders, including grant management, risk absorption, capacity building for civil society organisations, and the facilitation of co-design engagements. They act as a bridge to ensure funds reach small local groups and bring expertise into the decision-making process.
• To work effectively with intermediaries, funders are advised to adopt specific operational changes: budgeting for multi-year projects, avoiding strictly pre-defined solutions to allow for agile goals, and ensuring the pace of the project does not exceed the speed of trust-building with stakeholders.

APA

GreenCape (n.d.). A funder’s guide to locally-led Just Transition projects. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/COP-Funder-Brief-V5.pdf

Chicago

GreenCape. A funder’s guide to locally-led Just Transition projects. n.d. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/COP-Funder-Brief-V5.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=GreenCape |title=A funder’s guide to locally-led Just Transition projects |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/COP-Funder-Brief-V5.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greencapendfunders, author = {{GreenCape}}, title = {{A funder’s guide to locally-led Just Transition projects}}, institution = {GreenCape}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/COP-Funder-Brief-V5.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }