In this edition, we will take you to Latin America to learn about our ground-breaking project using nature-based solutions, as well as to Lake Victoria in Africa, where NDF and partners worked with local small businesses to find sustainable solutions.

We are also recruiting. We are looking for a Senior Counsel to our Legal team, and an Associate to our Strategy, Outreach & Communications team.

Blue Energy Mechanism drives nature-based solutions for resilient hydropower

In 2016, the Blue Energy Mechanism was a new and risky idea to invest in watersheds and get hydropower companies as downstream beneficiaries to pay. Back then, nature-based solutions were just coming into their own, but now pilots like this one are bringing big scale-up opportunities in other downstream water sectors for boosting critical global climate resilience goals.

NDF gave a grant of USD 275,000 as part of the USD 1 million starting point. The project was co-financed by the Dutch development bank FMO, the Inter-American Development Bank and Conservation International Seligmann Innovation Fund.

“At that time, nature-based solutions were still coming into their own, specifically in the context addressing the impact of climate change on ecosystems. This was something entirely new that just a few years earlier wouldn’t have been possible because the math didn’t exist,” says Isabel Leroux, NDF.

This is how small businesses can help the vulnerable Lake Victoria Basin

The Lake Victoria region, shared by five East African countries (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) is home to about 45 million people, many of whom depend on the lake watershed for agriculture, fishery, and livestock production.

The impact of population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation over the last few decades has put enormous pressure on the lake and its surrounding environment, particularly as the lake is the region’s main source of drinking and agricultural and industrial water.

With the population only continuing to grow, this environmental degradation, exacerbated by climate change, is also putting the long-term economic and social prospects of the region at risk, while at the same time making it even more vulnerable to future climate-related events.

Looking for new team members!

We are currently recruiting two new colleagues:

If you are interested in working with NDF, read more and apply!

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Nordic leadership in addressing climate change and development challenges

Together with our strategic partners, we develop, launch and scale high-impact projects to support developing countries and the most vulnerable people affected by climate change.