Over the course of 2023, we extended support to over 1.2 million small-scale farmers and 75,308 workers and miners across 39 countries. As a direct result, 1.9 million more hectares of land are now managed using good agricultural practices to the benefit of communities and nature. The impact of this work contributes to systemic change across supply chains.
“While there is growing momentum towards sustainability among consumers, businesses, and policymakers, we must navigate complex economic, regulatory and social dynamics to drive change in global supply chains,” said Andre de Freitas, the new Executive Director of Solidaridad Network. “The past year’s performance has demonstrated our ability to be a capable contributor to the progress the world needs.”
Advocating alongside farmers
The rollout of the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation, and the recent passage of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive provide great opportunities for making business better, but present a new set of challenges for how farmers, miners and workers maintain access to market and benefit from these initiatives
Solidaridad is uniquely positioned to participate in these dialogues and advocate with farmers on public policy around the world. In this role, we contributed to and improved 19 mandatory sustainability frameworks that improve supply chains and the position of small-scale farmers.
In 2023, we also looked deep into the priorities and perspectives of small-scale farmers in our Small Farmer Atlas, a comprehensive satisfaction survey of sorts based on interviews with nearly 10,000 small-scale farmers in 18 countries.
Supporting an effective network
Solidaridad is a network made up of regional and country offices, which allows us to tailor our work to local needs. Across this diverse network, we now count with 1,334 staff (831 male, 503 female). As an organization committed to gender equality, we are proud to note that women hold 55 percent of senior leadership positions and make up 50 of our Executive Board of Directors.
In 2023, Solidaridad Network’s revenue increased by 6.4 million Euros to a total of 75.3 million, which exceeded the secured 70 million Euro budget by 5.3 million.
“Thanks to our partners’ trust and investment, we were able to deliver significant and tangible results in 2023 for the farmers and workers who are so often on the losing end of value distribution in supply chains.”
andre de freitas
We invite you to read through our 2023 Annual Report and the reports from each of our regional offices to learn about our stories of impact, meet the farmers, workers and miners we serve, and understand the challenges and opportunities we see going forward.