REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Solidaridad Asia deepened its mission of driving systemic change by not only improving agricultural and industrial practices, but by building alternatives to the extractive economic models that dominate global systems. Our work reaffirmed the transformative power of regenerative agriculture, localized economies, ethical supply chains, and community-centred ownership.
In 2024, we worked with 51 companies in Latin America to test sustainable solutions that improve product traceability, monitoring and technical assistance for their suppliers and producers. By creating spaces where producer organizations, the private sector and public actors can engage in dialogue, we contribute to sector transformation, our ultimate goal, through policies that ensure conditions enable small-scale producers to thrive and steward the lands.
Solidaridad East and Central Africa accelerated transformation across farms, factories, and mines—empowering over 170,000 farmers, workers, and miners with climate-smart practices, inclusive finance, and stronger supply chains. In 2024, we championed regenerative agriculture, carbon markets, gender equity, and waste-to-value innovations, creating tangible results for people and planet.
Solidaridad Europe engages with donors and companies, knowledge institutes and civil society organizations to make global supply chains more sustainable. With our offices based in the Netherlands and Germany, we work with various European partners and explore opportunities to create a sustainable and inclusive impact. We continue our work and collaborations with determination despite the increasing rifts and challenges across the world, also with the additional challenge of eroding political support for international development cooperation.
In 2024, Solidaridad in North America focused on implementing existing partnerships, and gained traction with private and public sector actors as we work to build new programmes. From working to reduce deforestation in the Amazon, to implementing regenerative practices with soy and oil palm farmers, and rolling out digital tools among small-scale farmers and miners, our focus on sustainable production, digital innovation, and climate solutions provides value to farmers, workers, miners and our partners.
In 2024, Solidaridad Southern Africa advanced inclusive, high-impact initiatives—unlocking 4 million Euro in farmer savings in Malawi, raising tracked cotton yields by 71% in Mozambique, restoring 150,000 hectares of rangeland in Zambia, growing SME revenues in Zimbabwe, and securing key policy support regionally.
In 2024, Solidaridad West Africa deepened its influence in shaping policies and equipping small-scale farmers with knowledge and skills in sustainable practices. We championed solutions that enhanced market access, fair prices, financial inclusion, and stronger cooperatives to ensure lasting transformation for smallholder farmers, workers, and agribusinesses across the region.
Executive Summary
2024 at a glance
Navigating Volatility, Driving Sustainable Change
Record-high coffee and cocoa prices highlighted the importance of stable supply chains. Solidaridad addressed this volatility by implementing projects to build resilience and manage uncertainty, achieving significant outcomes in benefit of small-scale farmers.
Dear reader,
As Chair of the International Supervisory Board of Solidaridad Network, I am pleased to present our 2024 Annual Report. This past year has been one of achievement and challenge, a testament to the dedication and resilience of every person connected to Solidaridad’s mission.
My gratitude first goes to our staff. Your commitment to our mission is the bedrock of our success. Powered by your hard work, our programmes are driving sustainable development around the globe.
We are also grateful to our diverse network of partners, donors, and supporters. Your trust and collaboration are the key to lasting impact. In 2024, despite an increasingly challenging funding landscape, we successfully secured Euro 78 million to support our vital work. This demonstrates the trust and confidence that our partners place in Solidaridad.
We recognize that the path forward has its challenges, yet I find confidence in the dedication of our staff, the support of our partners, and the resilience of the communities we serve. Solidaridad will continue to make change that matters.
Sincerely,
Shahamin S. Zaman
Chair of the International Supervisory Board, Solidaridad Network
Dear friends,
Over the course of 2024, we watched as coffee and cocoa prices approached or reached record highs. The situation highlighted the critical role that stable supply chains, and reliable weather patterns play in our global economy. And just as important, the interdependence among every actor in the supply chain.
While high prices may seem like a windfall for farmers, it presents a challenge for producer organizations, unprepared to effectively handle such volatility; roasters and importers struggle, too. Our research on value distribution in coffee provided detailed insights into how value is shared across the value chain and showed ways that these risks can be better mitigated.
At Solidaridad, we’re used to this role, implementing small-, medium- and large-scale projects and programmes, and also harvesting learnings that help farmers and all of our partners build resilience and manage uncertainty. We are proud to celebrate another year of harvest at Solidaridad.
A RELIABLE PARTNER FOR PROGRESS
In 2024, we delivered significant outcomes and impacts across our programmes, globally. Despite a challenging funding landscape and a slowing global economy, we secured Euro 78 million to drive sustainable development and power change that matters. This investment in our work is a testament to the effectiveness of our pragmatic approach and a regional focus that meets local needs.
We’re grateful for collaboration with private sector partners, governments and the public sector, civil society and service providers that enabled us to reach over 1.2 million farmers, who experienced improved yields with more than 770,000 of them increasing farm income. Our work with service providers has resulted in access for 750,000 farmers and miners to new or improved services which are essential to improve their farms or mines.
Our efforts in the social and economic spheres were complemented by strong outcomes in environmental stewardship. Currently, over 2.3 million hectares of land are under sustainable management. These efforts contributed significantly to environmental goals, resulting in the avoidance, sequestration, or removal of 130,508 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. Much of this success comes through the implementation of sustainable practices, including agroforestry, climate-smart farming, and regenerative agriculture.
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
We are also proud of how we continue to grow and professionalize as a global network organization. In 2024, our team grew to 1,514 globally, exceeding projections, and welcomed 153 new colleagues. In line with the network spirit, we strengthened our regional offices. We gave room to insights from every region and built our programmes and strategy together. To ensure consistency with our mission, we rolled out a digital learning platform, invested in staff well-being and development, and strengthened diversity and inclusion efforts.
Integrity remains a focus with dedicated teams in our regional and country offices, frameworks, and protocols in place. We have continued improving or professionalising our internal systems in the areas of HR, Finance, IT, communications and PMEL Overall, more than 40 evaluations have been conducted worldwide allowing us to better understand the impact and contribution of our work – helping us to adapt and adjust where necessary.
I invite you to read through our regional annual reports, and check out the inspiring stories and the teachable moments we chronicled on our website in 2024.
Best regards,
Andre de Freitas
Executive Director Solidaridad Network
The Solidaridad Network Foundation is registered as a foundation at the Chamber of Commerce in Utrecht, the Netherlands, under the number 51756811.
Solidaridad Network Secretariat
‘t Goylaan 15
Utrecht 3525 AA
The Netherlands
Email: info@solidaridadnetwork.org
772,313
farmers with improved farm income
2.3 million
hectares under sustainable management
188,047
workers and miners with improved working conditions
130,508
tCO2 emissions avoided, restored or removed
241
service providers with increased turnover
30
new or improved mandatory sustainability frameworks
451
processors who have reduced pollution
282
corporates supported in sustainability solutions
753,767
farmers and miners with access to improved services
428
civil society organizations trained in decision making and dialogue
1.2 million
farmers with improved farm yields
11,899
workers and miners trained
6,726
hectares with improved soil
1.7 million
farmers trained
447,143
citizens mobilized to raise their voice
Change that Matters Stories
Organization & Governance
Supporting an effective network
The Solidaridad Network is supported by a secretariat in the Netherlands. The secretariat works on synergy and alignment within the network on Human Resources, IT, Learning, Communications, Finance, and Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation. It also supports the Executive Director. Next to our shared strategy, the policies and collaboration in these areas bind the network together and make it strong.
As of 31 December 2024, the Solidaridad family comprised a total of 1,514 people, exceeding our growth projections set at the beginning of our 2020-2025 Strategic Plan. We continue to strive for gender balance across our organization and across all levels of staff. As of 31 December 2024, 38% of our overall staff were female.
In May 2024, we launched our third annual integrity and inclusivity survey, gathering feedback for the period January to December 2023. An excellent global response rate of 80% was recorded with a total of 790 participants. In this third edition of the annual survey we incorporated additional questions on how our leadership is giving voice to values. This inclusion was well received and viewed as tangible evidence of leadership walking the talk. Key participant feedback highlighted a wish for training and capacity development, specifically supporting the development of women in leadership and management.
We welcomed 153 new colleagues across the network. To support onboarding and future learning, we rolled out a digital learning platform. The first modules have been developed and tested, and initial feedback has been positive.
See below an overview of our staff and how it is spread across our countries of operations:
More information about our staff, management and supervision can be found here.
In line with our ongoing efforts to remain an integrity-led organization, eliminate internal misconduct, and prevent the misuse of finances and power, we continue to promote and safeguard our robust global integrity, inclusivity & diversity framework, Code of Conduct and Whistleblower Protocol. Each region has a dedicated integrity team with integrity advisors and persons of trust in place. During 2024 these teams continued to implement their regional action plans and train staff, along with resolving any reported integrity cases in their region in accordance with Solidaridad’s Integrity Framework. The number of formal integrity cases for 2024 was two: one in East and Central Africa (resolved) and one in Southern Africa (expected completion of investigation in 2025).
In support of organizational learning, a strong focus was placed on enhancing knowledge accessibility. The internal Knowledge Hub was improved to provide staff with access to key learning resources. We have made a concerted effort to systematize and capture project and programme lessons learned, disseminating these through articles, publications and other learning products, and webinars.
Knowledge management and learning groups—organized around themes such as climate, fair value distribution, decent work, and food security, or focused on commodities like palm oil, textiles, coffee, and cocoa—met regularly to exchange experiences, draft discussion papers, and explore strategies to strengthen the position of their target groups.
Cross-regional learning occurred through digital exchanges, primarily. Topics included the upcoming EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), piloting of biochar technology, participatory agroforestry design methods, and measuring regenerative agriculture.
Workshops were held to share experiences on innovation, and gender and social inclusion. Regional innovations in the tailored development of business cases were supported by the organization, Bopinc.
New organizational policies were drafted, reviewed, and approved—promoting gender and social inclusion, responsible use of artificial intelligence, and embedding knowledge management and learning into our strategic and operational agendas.
Solidaridad has significantly enhanced its communication efforts, achieving measurable growth in online visibility, particularly through LinkedIn. Our work was prominently featured at various events, including webinars and conferences on EUDR/CSDDD, as well as strategic platforms like COP29, the Africa Food Systems Forum, the Specialty Coffee Expo and the World of Coffee.
Solidaridad’s media presence has also expanded, with coverage in key international outlets such as AP, Bloomberg, Reuters, and various national publications, reaching a potential audience of 1.7 billion in 2024. We have produced influential publications, including policy recommendations to the G20 and reports on gender and inclusivity, climate-smart agriculture, and coffee value distribution, along with multiple podcast series and documentaries. Solidaridad’s efforts have received recognition with awards, like the Gran Latino award for the song Asómbrate promoting farmers’ work on carbon credits, runner-up for the National Coffee Association’s Charity of the Year Award, finalist recognition for the RSB Transition Leaders’ Awards, and recognition of Rachel Wanyoike in the Top 40 under 40 women 2024 with Business Daily Africa.
In 2024, Solidaridad made significant strides in strengthening Programme Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (PMEL) systems, with a strong focus on data integration and adaptive learning, making important progress towards being data-driven. We continued operationalizing our data model across all projects and aligning it with digital systems to improve data aggregation and analysis. Core activities included revising and integrating digital data collection tools, such as hyper-local weather stations. We also improved data visualization with global dashboards, bolstering adaptive management by enabling reliable, real-time tracking of results.
Beyond tracking deliverables and outputs, we started documenting impact stories to complement quantitative data collection. We prioritized pause and reflect sessions, contribution analysis and most significant change stories involving project teams and project beneficiaries. This marked a cultural shift towards better understanding and communicating long-term outcomes, impacts and systemic change.
In 2024, we conducted more than 40 evaluations globally, including baseline evaluations, mid-term and end-of-project evaluations. These evaluations were pivotal either in shaping or adapting project strategies, generating critical insights for adaptive management or understanding impact. Worth mentioning is the mid-term review of our current multi-annual strategy, which involved all regions and facilitated the documentation of outcomes achieved, challenges faced, and strategic pivots required for 2025. This effort aligned field-level evidence with Solidaridad’s global ambitions, ensuring that the final year of the strategic plan is informed by robust reflection and learning.
Finance
Continued support for our mission
Solidaridad secured Euro 78.3 million in aggregated income from external sources in 2024, which surpassed the secured budget by Euro 5.7 million and the 2023 income by Euro 2.7 million. This revenue growth is attributed to successful fundraising in support of Solidaridad’s vision to achieve greater impact.
N.B: all figures are pre-auditing.
Euro 41.8 million (53%) of the total revenue was generated by Solidaridad Europe, Euro 6.6 million (8%) by Solidaridad North America and Euro 29.9 (38%) by Solidiaridad implementing regions across Africa, Asia and Latin America. This represents a 7.6 percent increase in funding through Solidaridad Europe and North America compared to 2023.
Solidaridad’s revenue is a global team effort whereby all regions work together in order to deliver the best possible impact for our donors and above all, the farmers and people that are benefiting from Solidaridad’s programs.
Revenue from Government Grants of Euro 45 million comprises 57 percent of total income while Income from Companies of Euro 14.6 million represents 18.7 percent and Income from non-profit Organisation of Euro 9.3 million is 11.9 percent. The remaining 11.8 percent of income is from Individuals, Lottery Organisations and Other Organisations.
There has been an increase in revenue generated from grants of Euro 3.5 million compared to 2023. Income from other sources has remained relatively stable with a decrease of 2 percent in income from companies and a decrease of 14% in income from other Organisations.
Aggregated direct expenditure for 2024 is Euro 80.6 million, Euro 8 million higher than 2023. The increase in expenditure is attributable to the increase in project implementation during the year and funded through the increased income.
The above graph represents the expenditure allocation across the continents. Expenditure in Africa represents 32 percent of total expenditure (2023 – 41%), while Latin America amounts to 25.3 percent (2023 – 25%) and Asia 21.3 percent (2023 – 21%).
Solidaridad runs all of its programs and projects with their own staff. So most staff costs are directly related to our activities in the field. Activity costs are all external costs related to the execution of our programs and projects in the field. Other costs are costs of a more operational nature related to running our offices.
All information above is based on the unaudited figures over 2024.
The official audited financial statements over 2024 will be uploaded here as soon as they are available.