Celebrating 15 Years of Impact: A Letter From Steve Brescia, Executive Director
Cultivating real solutions: our 2023 Annual Report showcases the transformative impact of agroecological experimentation on rural communities, and highlights the powerful capacity of farmers to address some of the world's most pressing challenges.
Dear Friends,
Groundswell will celebrate 15 years in 2024. We feel both humbled and proud as we reflect on what we have been able to accomplish together so far, and are determined to have an even greater impact in the future.
Since our founding, we have learned a lot about how to coordinate an effective international network for collective impact, one that reflects our shared values and centers the agency of smallholder and indigenous farming communities. We are pleased to share some 2023 highlights in our latest Annual Report. Together as a network we have generated:
- Impact: Strengthened the capacity of over 1.5 million people who are facing severe poverty, in 11 countries across West Africa, the Americas, and South Asia to restore the land and improve their food production, incomes and nutrition. In Mali, as you’ll learn in our 2023 Annual Report, farmers have regenerated their farmland, agroforestry systems, and food production in the challenging context of the West African Sahel.
- Innovation: Facilitated vital innovation of technical practices and social methodologies across our network partners’ allies. Farmers are experimenting with and spreading agroecological strategies where they live and sharing key practices across borders, increasing their resilience to climate change, improving their nutrition, ensuring greater opportunities and voice for women and youth, and participating in local markets. For example, we supported women to organize and drive community change in Guatemala and Nepal. We continue to strengthen youth leaders to share real solutions to more families and communities.
- Influence: Synthesized, documented, and disseminated effective strategies and lessons, generated by farmers’ organizations and NGO partners, within and across national contexts, in order to continually improve our programs and inform decision-makers and allies.
In today’s turbulent world, we face a political, economic, ecological and social “poly-crisis”. There is a growing consensus that we must do things differently. Fortunately, an incredible, global human intelligence network is generating solutions. About 2.5 billion people in the world are involved with smallholder farming and food production. Their creative capacity to farm productively and regeneratively with nature, instead of against it, is perhaps the most powerful force that can be unleashed to overcome the linked challenges of hunger, poverty, climate change, and environmental degradation.
Groundswell’s mission is to strengthen that work. Read our Annual Report to see how agroecology and community-led solutions helped 1,446 communities address poverty and food insecurity, build resilience to climate change, and regenerate over 162,409 hectares of land.
Be part of the solution
Agroecology is the foundation of our work, enabling us to:
- Strengthen farmers’ capacity, dignity, and agency: Empowering them with knowledge and tools to improve their practices and livelihoods.
- Foster community solidarity and collaboration: Building solid and supportive networks that enhance resilience and innovation.
- Apply ecological principles and working regeneratively with nature: Promoting sustainable practices that restore and preserve natural ecosystems.
- Facilitate experimentation to identify and spread effective practices: Tailoring solutions to local contexts and scaling successful approaches.
- Manage power in a decentralized and democratic way: Ensuring equitable participation and decision-making within communities.
Decades of research prove that agroecology is a viable, holistic solution to address poverty, hunger, inequality and climate change. As you’ll see in our 2023 Annual Report, we start with small islands of success before scaling effective strategies to benefit communities worldwide.
You can be a part of this work. Here’s how you can make a difference:
Invest in rural farmers to keep spreading grassroots change. Your gift will directly impact farmers as they lead the charge for regenerative and equitable food and farming systems that benefit people and the planet.
Spread the word: educate your peers on alternative agriculture practices to scale agroecology, support rural communities and amplify bottom-up change. If you don’t know where to start, our book Fertile Ground, now available in three languages, provides a comprehensive overview of how agroecology can help address urgent global challenges.
Follow the next chapter in our journey: Experience the transition of rural communities to agroecology through monthly stories across our social media channels and email newsletter.
“An incredible, global human intelligence network is generating solutions. About 2.5 billion people in the world are involved with smallholder farming and food production. Their creative capacity to farm productively and regeneratively with nature, instead of against it, is perhaps the most powerful force that can be unleashed to overcome the linked challenges of hunger, poverty, climate change, and environmental degradation.”
—Steve Brescia, Groundswell International Executive Director