2024 in Review: Urgency, Solidarity, and Love
Photo Credit: Jake Ratner
As the year comes to a close, we are left with a deep sense of urgency to step up pressure for an end to genocide, occupation, and other forms of violence facing people and the planet. We are also left with a sense of awe and gratitude to our movement partners for their unflagging commitment to a better world for all of us, which is needed more so now than ever. And we are grateful to our entire Grassroots International community for joining us in mobilizing resources, in protest, and in other elements of radical praxis grounded in love, solidarity, and internationalism. The following are some highlights as we look back on 2024.
Growing Solidarity with Palestine
As genocide against the Palestinian people has raged on relentlessly for over a year, we continue to support our partners in Gaza, the West Bank, and throughout Palestine in their heroic work to save lives and their steadfast struggle for self-determination and liberation. Here in the US, in the midst of anti-Palestinian backlash, we have joined other funders to add our voice to the global call for a ceasefire and stopping arms shipments, and continue to mobilize resources with hundreds of supporters. We have also taken heart in how our movement partners and allies across the globe, including within the US, have deepened collective analysis on Palestine and stepped up for Palestinian liberation.
Standing with Haitian Movements to Defend Sovereignty
As crisis deepened in Haiti, with deployment of more than 3000 UN troops over the past year, our Haitian partners have been unwavering in their response. They have denounced foreign intervention, uplifted Haitian-led solutions for a political process upholding Haitian sovereignty, and carried out critical work in food production, reforestation, human rights advocacy, and more. These measures have been bolstered by a variety of solidarity actions from outside Haiti. In late 2024, Grassroots International and more than 75 partners and allies from across the globe released a letter calling on the Biden administration and United Nations to re-evaluate their involvement in the country. This action is part of a broader effort to strengthen ongoing solidarity with Haiti.
Momentum toward the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum for Food Sovereignty
For several years now, social movements have been building toward the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum for Food Sovereignty, planned for September 2025 in Bengaluru, India. Representatives from diverse sectors and regions across the globe will converge at this forum to collectively chart a path forward for the global struggle for food sovereignty in the face of the multiple intersecting crises of our times. The forum is part of a broader two-decade-long process of global articulation around food sovereignty known as the Nyéléni process, which has been instrumental in advancing food sovereignty. The past year marked several milestones in the run-up to the 2025 forum, including participatory social movement consultations across regions and a public launching online.
Confronting Climate Crises in Brazil with Movement-Led Recovery
Amidst unprecedented flooding across Brazil, including the states of Acre, Pernambuco, and Rio Grande do Sul, our Brazilian partners demonstrated movement-led emergency relief grounded in solidarity and mutual aid. Even while facing their own losses, our partners worked together to get essential supplies into flood-stricken areas and to establish solidarity kitchens to feed those in need. Solidarity brigades formed from across the country to help with both immediate and longer-term recovery. In demonstrations of unity and solidarity, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra/Landless Workers Movement (MST) postponed its national congress and the Levante Popular da Juventude/Popular Youth Uprising (LPJ) postponed its national youth encampment to focus on flood response.
Uniting to Reclaim Land in Puerto Rico
In the face of accelerated land grabbing by foreign entities in Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican agrarian movements have united around the Land Access Campaign to put land in the hands of the people who work and live from it. The campaign has successfully secured more than 200 acres of threatened land, which are now entrusted to rural families, agroecological collectives, and land trusts organized by peasants of the food sovereignty movement. The vision is to secure at least 500 acres by 2028. These efforts are supported in part through the Friends of Boriken donor organizing initiative, a community of people connected to movements in Puerto Rico and committed to mobilizing resources to support their work.
Organizing by African Youth to Transform the Food System
In October, African youth gathered from 47 countries for the First Thousand African Youth Summit on Food Systems and Agroecology in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Organized by the youth members of our grantee ally Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), the summit convened 300+ youth in person and 1000+ participants virtually, offering a powerful platform for deep discussions on the future of Africa’s food systems. AFSA leadership shared that “it was a landmark gathering that inspired, educated, and empowered Africa’s young leaders to take a stand for sustainable food systems…With government collaboration, a clear vision for advocacy, and a commitment to inclusivity, this generation is poised to shape the future of agroecology in Africa.”
Elevating Grassroots Power
A bright spot in tough times has been witnessing increased awareness of the power of grassroots movement building. We have been thrilled to witness recognitions of some of our movement partners and allies through various awards, including members of Rede Social de Direitos Humanos/Network for Social Justice & Human Rights of Brazil, Health of Mother Earth Foundation of Nigeria, and Domestic Workers United of the US (a grantee of our Martín-Baró Initiative for Wellbeing and Human Rights), among others. We were also honored to take part in the 2024 Food Sovereignty Prize recognizing Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) in the US and La Via Campesina – Arab Region and North Africa for paving the way toward food sovereignty.
Building Power Among the World’s Fisher Peoples
November marked the 8th General Assembly of our global grantee ally the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) in Brasilia, Brazil. The gathering brought together representatives of national and regional organizations of fishers from 50 countries counting over 10 million fisher peoples to discuss and address critical issues facing their sector. Culminating with a public action for World Fisheries Day, the assembly included a diverse range of activities to foster solidarity, exchange knowledge, and develop collective solutions to challenges such as ocean grabbing, the climate crisis, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. The assembly was an important milestone in the path toward the above-mentioned Nyéléni Forum planned for next year.
Advancing Territorial Rights in Honduras
Despite challenging odds, our partner Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras/Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) shared two recent wins in their decades-long struggle to defend ancestral Lenca territory in Honduras. One is the advancement of 12 land titling processes that had been stalled by the government agency overseeing them. These titles will be a critical tool in the recognition and protection of community land rights. There was also a further step toward justice for assassinated land and water defender Berta Cáceres. In November, the the Supreme Court of Honduras confirmed the sentences of seven men previously convicted for involvement in Berta’s murder and the attempted murder of her comrade.
Donor Organizing Through the Framework of Solidarity Philanthropy
2024 was a dynamic year for further articulating and actualizing our guiding framework of Solidarity Philanthropy – organizing donors to accompany movements in the praxis of solidarity and liberation. A highlight was our inaugural Solidarity Philanthropy Praxis Retreat, in which twenty donors, funders, philanthropic organizers, and representatives of global social movements reflected together on how to advance an internationalist, movement-centered Solidarity Philanthropy. Another highlight was our delegation to Brazil, through which donors connected directly with Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra/Landless Workers Movement (MST) and Movimento Camponês Popular/the Popular Peasant Movement (MCP), among other partners and allies. Participants witnessed inspiring work in agrarian reform, agroecology, resistance to mining, and more, and built linkages extending beyond the trip.