From the call for proposals to the Curatorial Committee, the first edition at COP30 connects diversity, socio-environmental justice, and innovative solutions in a seven-day itinerary.
The program of the Global South House at COP30 was co-created with leaders from the Global South, centering local voices and strengthening community solutions for climate action.
We are approaching COP30 (United Nations Climate Change Conference), which will be held in Belém (Brazil). With it comes the first official edition of The Global South House. As a platform for political articulation, mobilization, knowledge production, and collaboration, its proposal is to offer a plural, co-created program, bringing together representative actors from different fields and sectors of financing and philanthropy – from the South to the South, anchored in participatory program design.
From November 13 to 20, at Canto Coworking, in the heart of Belém, The Global South House will open its doors to connect funding for nature and people with agendas of socio-environmental justice, gender, youth, Indigenous peoples, traditional communities, rural communities, among others, emphasizing community-led approaches.
The Global South House is a joint creation of Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur (Socio-Environmental Funds of the Global South) and the Rede Comuá. In this first edition, it is organized in partnership with the Rede de Fundos Comunitários da Amazônia Brasileira and the #ShiftThePower movement. They bring together 40 independent, locally rooted organizations and funds dedicated to socio-environmental justice philanthropy and community philanthropy, based in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Rooted in the territories and peoples of the Global South, approximately 50 countries will be represented in one space.
With such plurality, the great challenge is to create an environment and program that are fair and respectful of this diversity. The proposal of The Global South House was to involve, from the very beginning, representative voices and perspectives of the Global South in the process of designing and curating the activities.
The first step was a call for proposals for the program, aimed at members of partner networks and organizations, in a co-creation effort – an essential trait of The Global South House. Nearly 40 ideas were submitted, going through an initial screening carried out by the coordination of The Global South House, which selected those that met the basic criteria.
Among the strengths of The Global South House’s seven-day itinerary is its Curatorial Committee, a group designed to ensure diversity and representativeness in the final program, broadening the horizons of the selection process and enriching it with different perspectives, with an emphasis on co-creation and shared governance.
Composed of members from the Aliança Territorial da Rede Comuá (Brazil), Fundo Rutî (Brazil), Pastor Rice Small Grants Fund (Southeast Asia), Red Comunidades Rurales (Argentina) and Youth Climate Justice Fund (global, with representation from Kenya), the Committee was responsible for evaluating proposals and recommending the activities that will make up the final program of The Global South House at COP30.
“The final result will be a program rooted in solutions from the South for global challenges, especially regarding flows of money and power – a topic that is increasingly urgent,” says Clara Daré, from the executive coordination of the Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur. The selection sought to integrate experiences and perspectives from different regions of the Global South, encouraging collaborative sessions that bring together institutions, networks, and countries in the same space.
The workflow of an intercontinental Curatorial Committee is complex, involving people based in four countries, across time zones with up to eleven hours of difference, and working in two languages – which, in some cases, are not their native language. “In this context, a truly collaborative effort requires intentionality,” Clara notes.
The process was facilitated by the prior engagement of organizations in the Road to COP30, a preparatory pathway to Belém that included content exchanges and the development of The Global South House Manifesto, to be launched soon. “Each member of the Committee entered the curation process already deeply familiar with the philosophy of The Global South House,” she adds.
The selection of activities prioritized proposals capable of sparking important reflections in the context of The Global South House, articulating plural voices, and generating concrete solutions for climate action and nature finance, with socio-environmental justice in Global South territories as a central value. Three guiding principles were considered: the intersection between financing and themes such as gender, youth, and socio-environmental justice; inspiring experiences that demonstrate methodologies and strategies for the redistribution of resources and power; and innovation, with philanthropic arrangements created from and for the Global South.
The final program will be released soon, with a spotlight on community solutions and South-South collaboration.
The Global South House program was co-created from an open call for proposals to a plural Curatorial Committee, with representatives across regions, languages, and biomes of the Global South, applying criteria such as thematic relevance, regional representation, and partnership potential aligned with socio-environmental justice.
This process centered community-led solutions and participatory governance, shaping a seven-day itinerary in Belém that connects financing for climate and nature with agendas on gender, youth, Indigenous peoples, and traditional and rural communities.
The co-creation involves Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur and Rede Comuá, in partnership with the Brazilian Amazon Community Funds Network and the #ShiftThePower movement, bringing together about 40 independent funds and organizations from Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
The Curatorial Committee gathered representatives from these networks to select proposals via an internal call, prioritizing interterritorial collaboration and applicable outcomes, with activities hosted at Canto Coworking in central Belém during COP30.
By bringing decision-making and curation closer to the territories, co-creation legitimizes local knowledge, ancestral technologies, and grassroots experience, boosting the effectiveness of solutions and influence over climate finance flows.
This approach consolidates partnerships among funds, networks, and funders, fostering medium- and long-term systemic transformations and ensuring resources reach those on the frontlines.
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