Collaboration and Partnerships
Mutual capability strengthening is integral to amplifying voices for just climate action. It goes beyond building the capabilities of partner organisations (e.g. the 5C framework12) and includes the capabilities of civil society actors to implement strong advocacy strategies. It is a process that involves the transfer and mutual exchange of specific skills, ideas, abilities, or resources to set the climate agenda and achieve development goals.
Collaboration and Partnerships in VCA
The VCA programme promotes and builds movements through collaboration and partnerships between coalitions and networks related to climate justice while building new and surprising alliances for influence with, for example, private sector associations, faith-based organisations or media to ensure more leverage and a diversity of perspectives. Within the VCA alliance, there was strong potential to share knowledge, skills, and experiences from diverse contexts, thereby strengthening individual, institutional, and community capabilities to promote just climate action.
How was this done?
At the outset, the alliance has been committed to co-creation and a bottom-up, needs-driven approach. During its implementation, the programme created an environment in which organisational development and new collaborations can take place through mutual capability strengthening for co-creating alternative solutions. At the same time, the alliance and its partners promoted them and aimed to connect scalable solutions to external private and public funding sources.
Rooted in its Theory of Change, VCA integrated mutual capacity strengthening, amplified voices, and relentless advocacy to align policies and finance with the needs of those most impacted by climate change, fostering locally-led responses and demonstrating resilience amid a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape.
Through meaningful, symbiotic, innovative, and diverse collaborations and partnerships, we have been able to realise strategically important national climate transitions. The direct beneficiaries of these partnerships are women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, urban poor, digital activists, and citizen journalists, among others. As an alliance of a strong network of civil society organisations and actors that unite behind a common agenda, with improved strategic lobbying and advocacy capacities and a supportive public debate, we can no longer be ignored by decision-makers.
What has VCA achieved?
The Voices for Climate Action (VCA) programme is a testament to the power of collaborative action in pursuing climate justice and resilience across a diverse global landscape that is experiencing increasing pressure on civic space and natural resources. The programme’s achievements were profound, with quantifiable impacts reinforcing its strategic relevance. By expanding its network to 247 partners since 2021, VCA continued to nurture local capabilities in advocacy, gender equity, and climate finance.
No. of Subcontracted Partners:
- Globally = 247
- Bolivia = 17
- Brazil = 92
- Indonesia = 36
- Kenya = 32
- Paraguay = 23
- Tunisia = 26
- Zambia = 21
Over 120 knowledge products, including tools like the Gender Audit Tool, enriched intersectional approaches, with 179 partners reporting stronger, more inclusive climate interventions. From feminist climate justice training in Kenya to nature-based solutions workshops in Indonesia, VCA empowered communities to lead with confidence and creativity.
Through these efforts, we have earned legitimacy and built synergies. Working together, blending local and Indigenous insights with technical expertise, supporting each other, and developing long-term relationships allows VCA partners to achieve far more than they could achieve alone.
Examples of Collaborations and Partnerships
Many developments are encouraging in terms of sustainability beyond the VCA programmatic period. Local partnerships, like Brazil’s coalition model and Kenya’s county-level co-creation, maximised resources and advocacy. Governments became allies, with Zambia’s policy breakthroughs and Indonesia’s sub-national alignments driving change. Embassies amplified efforts, from Kenya’s flood response funding to Bolivia’s financial partnerships. Academic and private-sector ties in Indonesia and Brazil scaled innovations, while international alliances, like Brazil-Tunisia exchanges for COP30, enriched global advocacy. These connections underscored a truth: shared vision and trust magnify impact.
In Bolivia, WWF prioritised capability-building workshops on territorial rights and community leadership training. One example of this is the workshop titled “Update on multilateral climate change negotiations and common proposal for climate carbon mechanisms and ecosystem management", held with the participation of different institutions and youth platforms at the national level. The Bolivian Platform for Climate Change (PBFCC) organised the workshop with the Youth Platform for Action against Climate Change (PBACC). During the event, an innovative proposal was presented, focusing on ecosystem restoration and management as an alternative to carbon markets. The objective was to strengthen the alliance between the participating institutions and create a joint agenda to influence the UN multilateral climate change negotiation process from the perspective of Bolivian civil society.
Where to from here?
Supporting and facilitating collaborations, partnerships, and mutual capability strengthening initiatives helps build a more equitable and resilient future for all. As the VCA programme reaches its final stages, it continues to collaborate with and build capabilities of local CSOs enabling them to implement strong advocacy strategies, participate as equal partners regardless of their identities, (by addressing power relations), promote local ownership and equip them to use their combined resources (skills, knowledge, networks and funding) to strengthen their voices for influence and impact.
