Climate Change Resilient Development (CCRD) was a global, four-year project in support of USAID’s Global Climate Change Office. CCRD’s small grants program, which ran from 2013–2015, was developed to pilot innovative adaptation approaches; build capacity to adapt to climate change; develop tools, methods, and information resources; and test CCRD’s "development-first" framework. The grants also served as seed projects in some cases―with their impacts used as a foundation for linking grantees to larger projects in the region, or to position them to attract funding from other donors.
The Small Grants Process The project cycle for each small grant solicitation involved the preparation and issuance of requests for applications; review and selection of proposals by the CCRD technical leads in consultation with USAID; and award, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the grants. Proposals were reviewed by the CCRD team and USAID staff. Performance indicators were established to evaluate the grantees’ success in meeting their stated objectives and the goals of the CCRD project.
Small Grants Program Categories The grants were provided under six different categories with distinct objectives: - Climber-Scientist Grants: These grants aimed to nurture a new generation of specialized climate adaptation researchers while strengthening the research capacity of local mountain organizations and generating knowledge relevant to climate change adaptation and climate-smart development.
- Climate Resilient Infrastructure Services Grants: CCRD’s Climate Resilient Infrastructure Services (CRIS) program developed and tested approaches to increase the climate resilience of infrastructure assets in coastal and low-lying cities. CCRD awarded an initial round of four grants to support the CRIS program through collaborations with city governments to increase the climate resilience of infrastructure services. A second round of grants focused on working with CRIS pilot cities to test CCRD’s Fast-Track Implementation approach for implementing adaptation options.
- Climate Adaptation Academic Grants: This program provided grants to universities and research institutes that support research on methods and tools to support adaptation planning and implementation. Grants also supported evaluations of adaptation approaches. Grants for Scaling up Climate Services for Farmers in Africa and South Asia: These grants supported innovative projects to fill critical gaps in the design, delivery, and effective use of climate-related information for risk management among smallholder farmers in Africa and South Asia.
- Grants for Climate Resilient Agriculture in Central America: These grants focused on increasing South-South learning and cooperation and providing opportunities to build climate resilience in key agricultural value chains. The projects helped smallholder farmers cope with climate impacts.
- Sole Source Grants: Grants were awarded to organizations for specific tasks, such as implementing workshops, providing training, or providing logistical support for projects.
A list of all small grants is available in the CCRD report Climate Change Resilient Development Small Grants Lessons Learned. See the CCRD Resource Library. | 
