UNDP Equator Prize 2025

The Bibifathima Swa Sahaya Sangha SHG from Karnataka has been named one of the ten global winners of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Equator Prize 2025, a leading community award for tackling climate change and protecting nature. The award was announced on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (9 August), recognizing the group’s use of nature-based solutions to enhance livelihoods and build climate resilience.

Work of the Bibifathima Swa Sahaya Sangha SHG

• The Bibifathima Swa Sahaya Sangha, a women-led self-help group (SHG) from Teertha village in Karnataka’s Dharwad district, supports more than 5,000 farmers across 30 villages.
• Their work focuses on several key areas that combine traditional knowledge with modern sustainability practices: Millet Cultivation, Seed Banks, Solar-Powered Processing.

The Equator Prize

• Launched in 2002, the Equator Prize is awarded biennially to honor Indigenous peoples and local communities from around the world.
• Each of this year’s ten winners, selected from over 700 nominations, will receive a $10,000 cash prize.
• The prize celebrates initiatives that protect and restore critical ecosystems, advance a just transition to inclusive green economies, and demonstrate the power of local solutions to achieve global climate goals.
• The other nine winners of the Equator Prize 2025 hail from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Peru, and Tanzania.