Who Controls Climate Finance? ADB’s Gender Window Shifts Resources Directly to Women

ADB’s Gender Window is directing climate finance to women across Asia-Pacific, linking adaptation with stronger livelihoods, financial inclusion and economic empowerment. Early results show promise, but governments and development partners must now scale successful models while ensuring finance delivers measurable, sustainable resilience.

The Asian Development Bank's Community Resilience Partnership Program (CRPP) is testing a different approach to climate adaptation across Asia and the Pacific: giving women greater control over the money used to protect their livelihoods and communities from climate risks. Through its Gender Window, the CRPP Trust Fund directs adaptation finance toward women-led households, cooperatives, grassroots organisations, entrepreneurs and producers. This approach matters because women are often heavily involved in agriculture, water management, food security, and household welfare but still face limited access to finance, productive assets, and decision-making power.

Climate Finance Is Moving Into Women's Hands

The Gender Window goes beyond simply including women in climate projects. Projects must demonstrate that adaptation resources are transferred to women so they can implement measures they have identified as priorities.

The financing numbers show strong early uptake. CRPP originally planned to tag at least 10%–15% of Trust Fund resources under the Gender Window. Between 2022 and 2025, approximately 30% of CRPP Trust Fund financing was tagged under it.

Agriculture, finance and social protection have emerged as important channels. Of $6.2 million approved for agriculture, food, nature and rural development, $2.6 million, or 41.9%, was tagged under the Gender Window. In finance, the figure was $500,000 out of $1 million, or 50%. In public-sector management focused on social protection, $3 million of $4.85 million, or 61.9%, was tagged.

For governments, these figures suggest that existing agriculture and social-protection programmes could become practical channels for delivering adaptation finance directly to vulnerable women.

From Small Grants to Climate-Resilient Businesses

Projects are testing different ways of turning finance into economic resilience. In Indonesia and Nepal, the Community Resilience Fund provided $50,473 through grassroots women's organisations and supported 885 women. Participants learned to assess local climate risks and manage funds while implementing solutions involving water management, resilient agriculture and livelihood diversification.

Nepal's Climate-Resilient Landscapes and Livelihoods Project is operating on a larger scale. It has $2.6 million tagged under the Gender Window and is expected to support around 7,500 women. At least 50 women's cooperatives and women-led enterprises can receive financing covering up to 50% of eligible investment costs.

Supported activities include indigenous crops, medicinal plants, business incubation, improved production and homestay operations. This creates opportunities for private companies to work with women-led businesses as suppliers, producers and commercial partners.

But money alone will not guarantee successful businesses. Women entrepreneurs will also need market access, technical skills and stronger business networks. Development partners therefore have an important role in connecting climate finance with enterprise development rather than treating grants as isolated interventions.

Social Protection and Microfinance Become Climate Tools

The programme also demonstrates that governments may not need entirely new institutions to deliver climate finance.

In the Lao People's Democratic Republic, $500,000 is tagged to a project expected to support 25,000 women, including at least 4,500 participating in a climate-resilient graduation programme directly financed by the CRPP Investment Fund. Conditional cash transfers support pregnant women and new mothers in high-risk areas while livelihood assistance aims to build longer-term resilience.

Another $500,000 initiative targets at least 2,700 women through microfinance institutions in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Participating institutions have client bases that are more than 95% women. Training covers climate-risk assessment, resilient farming, resource conservation and income diversification.

For banks and microfinance providers, this creates opportunities to develop climate-focused financial services. However, there is also a risk that vulnerable households could face additional debt burdens. Climate finance products therefore need careful affordability and risk assessment.

The Bigger Challenge Is Taking Successful Models to Scale

Timor-Leste offers another route. The INSPIRE initiative has $2.5 million tagged under the Gender Window and targets 10,000 women, particularly pregnant and lactating women exposed to climate shocks. It seeks to integrate climate-risk information into social-protection systems and connect assistance with early-warning mechanisms. Women represented 88% of 100 community members consulted in pilot municipalities.

For policymakers, the wider lesson is that social registries, cash-transfer programmes, cooperatives and microfinance networks can potentially become part of national climate-adaptation infrastructure.

International development partners should now focus on measuring results beyond the amount of money distributed. Future assessments should examine whether women-controlled investments improve incomes, protect assets during climate shocks, create sustainable businesses and strengthen household resilience.

The Gender Window is still generating evidence, so its long-term impact and scalability remain to be demonstrated. But its central policy message is important: involving women in climate planning is different from giving them control over adaptation resources. If governments, development institutions and private financial providers can successfully scale the strongest models, climate finance could simultaneously strengthen resilience, reduce poverty and expand women's economic opportunities across vulnerable communities in Asia and the Pacific.