The food sovereignty movement has built itself on global long-term vision – will allied funders get on board and recognize the vital role of solidarity philanthropy in supporting food sovereignty?

The third Nyéléni Global Forum that took place in Sri Lanka this past September was a landmark convergence for food sovereignty organising – and for global social justice more broadly. Yet it nearly did not happen due to a lack of understanding of the role of solidarity philanthropy.

Despite representing a feat in movement building, the forum was delayed twice due to a lack of funding. It’s a common story – movements that have transformed global discourse and practice are still forced to scrape together the resources to gather, strategise, and lead.

The Vital Role of Solidarity Philanthropy

Building upon years of accompaniment of the global food sovereignty movement since its inception, Grassroots International, together with our movement partners and allied funders and donors, has been taking a hard look at what is needed to sustain this vital movement.

A key shift, we argue, is to orient ourselves around the framework of solidarity philanthropy. This involves challenging the uneven power dynamics between philanthropy and social movements and forging deep relationships built on alignment, trust, and continuous learning, grounded in principles of the important role of solidarity philanthropy and internationalism.

Solidarity philanthropy is particularly important to the food sovereignty movement, which aims to challenge existing power structures and build new relationships toward long-term visions of transformation.

Nyéléni: More Than a Forum

The third Nyéléni Global Forum in September brought together more than 700 people from 101 countries to advance the movement of food sovereignty and recognize the important role of solidarity philanthropy. While next steps are still being synthesised, the energy and momentum coming out of it are palpable. Notably, a key output of the Forum – a Common Political Action Agenda – will be launched in November at the People’s Summit Toward COP30 in Brazil, representing direction and alignment for the food sovereignty movement.

These developments and the recognition of the crucial role of solidarity philanthropy are only possible because of a decades-long movement-building process, of which Nyéléni has played a key role.

Read the full article about supporting food sovereignty by Chung-Wha Hong and Saulo Araujo at Alliance Magazine.