Europe 2025

Highlights

Partnerships with donors for meaningful impact

In 2025, several of our large-scale programmes reached full implementation. The Pathways to Prosperity programme entered its third year, while the 5-year RECLAIM Sustainability! programme concluded, with a strong focus on learning and ensuring continuity through other programmes or local ownership. We also continued with the implementation of our flagship NISCOPS programme in palm oil sustainability, as well as the Acting Now and Climate Heroes programmes.

Navigating headwinds: the battle for CSDDD and EUDR

In 2025, the European political landscape shifted dramatically. For Solidaridad, this required a strategic pivot: from proactively shaping new laws to defending existing gains. The goal was to ensure that the drive for administrative simplicity does not come at the cost of human rights or the exclusion of smallholder farmers from European supply chains. This was evident in the case of CSDDD, due to the introduction of the Omnibus package, and for the EUDR due to renewed pushback.

Reality checks: volatile markets and producer voices

We addressed the disconnect between market volatility and farmer poverty. With the launch of the 2025 Cocoa Barometer, we provided a reality check on rising cocoa prices, arguing that mandatory living income references are necessary to solve systemic poverty. We also launched the Palm Oil Barometer 2025, which advocates for a transition from current sourcing practices toward a ‘Procurement for Prosperity’ approach.

Income growth and diversification

We are proud of the contracts secured with donors in 2025, including agreements with the Nationale Postcode Loterij (Dutch Postcode Lottery), Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and the Heineken Africa Foundation. A significant focus was geared at covering an anticipated income shortfall as of January 2026, following the conclusion of the RECLAIM Sustainability! programme and several RVO- and EU- funded projects.

Strengthening inclusive market connections in fashion and palm oil

Solidaridad worked with European-based companies to strengthen inclusive market connection systems and sustainable sourcing practices, making significant progress in fashion and palm oil. In fashion, several brands made strides through training, factory action plans and RVO-funded implementation. In palm oil, long-standing partnerships with Henkel and Puratos deepened strategic alignment on inclusive sourcing, smallholder inclusion and global key performance indicators, reflecting movement toward more integrated business models.

Challenging the fashion industry’s synthetic shift

In partnership with Good On You, Solidaridad published the latest Cotton Rankings, revealing that the global fashion industry is increasingly bypassing sustainable cotton in favour of fossil-fuel-based synthetic fibers. The launch reached a global potential reach of more than 85.5 million readers, with numerous publications running in-depth articles addressing the 2025 Rankings’ findings.

Driving living income commitments in the cocoa sector

In 2025, we intensified our campaign to stimulate Dutch supermarkets to transition to 100% fair chocolate under both premium and private labels. By engaging supermarkets directly and mobilizing consumers, we increased awareness around living incomes for cocoa farmers. These efforts, integrated with broader policy work in the sector, successfully moved a number of supermarkets to publicly pledge Living Income strategies—a milestone we celebrated by presenting them with our Living Income Award.

Facilitating continuous learning for an effective and resilient organization

In a joint process with our staff, we developed our new European multi-annual strategic plan for the 2026-2030 period. Continuous learning and organizational excellence are embedded as a core strategy. Furthermore, we delivered on high-quality planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning (PMEL) to continuously strengthen our programming and impact; and continued to ensure that knowledge products are easily accessible to our staff.

Results

Our Impact in 2025

Advocating for livelihoods of smallholder farmers and workers in turbulent times

The world is in turmoil. Civic space is shrinking, and multiple challenges continue to hinder progress toward a sustainable and inclusive society. Smallholder farmers, workers and miners have an essential role in tackling these challenges, yet their voices are often unheard among the decision-makers in our global supply chains. Solidaridad’s partnerships and collaborations thus remain, more than ever, an essential part of our work. Companies and governments of both producing and consuming countries must prioritize the sustainability, inclusivity and the livelihoods of the people at the heart of these processes. Solidaridad continues to advocate for this systemic change.

Advocating for responsible procurement practices and smallholder-inclusive EU legislation

Global supply chain sectors have as of yet avoided addressing the big questions around value distribution, income and price volatility. These issues disproportionately impact small-scale producers, and yet also hold the key to their prosperity. Our Policy Influencing work in 2025 contributed to turning the tide on unequal value distribution, and supports both farmer livelihoods and more sustainable production.

In 2025, the European political landscape shifted dramatically. The momentum of the European Union’s Green Deal gave way to a powerful narrative of deregulation and “economic competitiveness”. For Solidaridad, this required a strategic pivot: from proactively shaping new laws to defending existing gains to ensure that the drive for administrative simplicity does not come at the cost of human rights or the exclusion of smallholder farmers from European supply chains.

Navigating Headwinds: The Battle for CSDDD and EUDR

A key challenge in 2025 was the introduction of the “Omnibus” simplification package, which threatened to hollow out the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). The proposal sought to limit due diligence obligations to only direct (Tier-1) suppliers. We argued this would effectively “flip due diligence on its head” by ignoring the deeper layers of the supply chain, where risks like child labour, lack of living incomes and deforestation are most acute.

Solidaridad campaigned strongly against this dilution. We published a Joint CSDDD Position Paper and engaged directly with policymakers to highlight the dangers of “irresponsible disengagement,” where companies simply cut ties with suppliers rather than supporting them to improve. While the final agreement significantly reduced the number of companies in scope and delayed implementation until 2029, one of our key advocacy points was retained: the obligation remains applicable to the full supply chain.

Simultaneously, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) faced renewed political pushback. The EUDR is a landmark regulation decoupling EU imports of forest risk products from deforestation. However, costs of demonstrating compliance often fall on the shoulders of smallholders, and can also possibly lead to their exclusion from supply chains to Europe. We continued to champion a “smart mix” of regulation and support, and walked a fine line to raise awareness on risks of the regulation for smallholders without giving ammunition to the forces fighting against EUDR. As we argued in our article “EUDR delayed again: Time to Show Farmers Some Solidarity”, if there must be a delay, we must “make it count for the farmers” by using the extra time to prepare smallholder-inclusive implementation systems, rather than dismantling the rules entirely. The EUDR has again been postponed by a year, and is now expected to enter into force on 31 December 2026.

Reality Checks: Volatile Markets and Producer Voices

Beyond Brussels, we focused on the disconnect between market volatility and farmer poverty. 2025 saw cocoa prices hit historic highs due to climate shocks, yet our advocacy highlighted a painful paradox: high prices do not automatically translate to prosperity for farmers without structural reform. With the launch of the 2025 Cocoa Barometer, we provided a reality check, arguing that mandatory living income references are needed to solve systemic poverty.

In the palm oil sector, we launched the Palm Oil Barometer 2025, advocating for a transition from current sourcing practices to a “Procurement for Prosperity” approach. This procurement strategy focuses on creating a positive impact on suppliers, particularly independent smallholders, guided by fairer trading practices and genuine partnership.

A highlight of our work was bringing the voices of producers directly to decision-making tables. We supported Pedro Seijas, a smallholder leader from Peru, in addressing the RSPO conference in Kuala Lumpur on the failure of credit markets, and Nkoh Ambroise, a cooperative chair from Côte d’Ivoire, in sharing the farmer perspective at Amsterdam Cocoa Week.

Transforming Textiles and Mining

In the cotton and textiles sector, we championed a holistic approach that links environmental stewardship with decent work. A notable milestone was the publication of our Cotton Rankings together with Good On You. The rankings assess the cotton sourcing of 101 fashion brands across three axes: the proportion of certified sustainable cotton in major brands’ material mix, the total cotton purchased by these brands, and the comparative balance between their use of cotton and synthetic fibers. Moreover, our Cotton and Biodiversity paper demonstrated that biodiversity loss cannot be tackled without addressing the economic reality of cotton farmers.

In the gold sector, we continued our engagement with the European Partnership for Responsible Minerals (EPRM), where we contributed to the adoption of explicit expectations for members when engaging with Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM). Furthermore, we secured additional commitments to the OECD-WRM statement on gender-responsive due diligence, pledging specific actions to advance women’s rights in mineral supply chains.

Shifting corporate practices toward inclusion

In 2025, the Corporate Engagement and Partnerships team translated long-term corporate engagement into concrete shifts in supply chains.

In fashion, brands advanced decarbonization roadmaps and factory improvement plans;
in palm oil, partnerships moved toward stronger smallholder inclusion and aligned global performance indicators;
In coffee, collaboration expanded to facilitating digital training for smallholders and improving sustainability frameworks;
in inputs, our collaboration with groups of farmers and groups of companies delivered measurable income gains.

Amid regulatory shifts, partnerships matured toward deeper strategic alignment and longer-term impact.

Our Results:

Inclusive market connections

Throughout 2025, we worked proactively with European-based companies to strengthen inclusive market connection systems and sustainable sourcing practices. We engaged with 35 existing and new corporate partners on introducing and further developing sustainable and inclusive market solutions. In our collaboration we were able to prioritise responsible procurement practices, traceability, and due diligence linked to EU sustainability regulation such as EUDR, CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and CSDDD.

We experienced most progress in our work linked to fashion and palm oil. In fashion, Better Mill Initiative (BMI)-linked brands (Zeeman, G-Star, Hunkemöller, America Today, Prenatal) progressed through training, factory action plans, and RVO-funded implementation, while exploratory work with WE Fashion, HEMA, Tex.Tracer, Aware, and Smit & Zoon strengthened the pipeline. In palm oil, long-standing partnerships with Henkel and Puratos deepened toward strategic alignment on inclusive sourcing, smallholder inclusion, and global key performance indicators, reflecting movement toward more integrated business models.

Decarbonization and Payment for Ecosystem Services

Decarbonization and Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) were increasingly embedded in corporate engagement. We were able to introduce carbon, regenerative agriculture, and PES ambitions to existing partnerships on coffee, cocoa, fashion and palm oil. ACORN remained a key marketplace, supporting access to markets for small-scale farmers based on their carbon credit generation and enabling additional farmer income. This innovation agenda also generated learnings on the dynamics and complexity of these still immature carbon markets. Within fashion and palm oil, decarbonization discussions (e.g. Zeeman’s decarbonization roadmap and Henkel’s alignment on future phases) indicate growing corporate openness to integrate emission reductions and ecosystem services into supply chain strategies.

Inclusive service delivery systems

Access to inputs, technology, and services showed steady progress, with 17 partners engaged during the year in a number of interventions. Our producer base clearly has a need for accessible and available inputs, such as seeds, equipment, and environmentally friendly processing means. We advanced with BASF Agricultural Solutions in co-creation sessions on smallholder livelihoods and nature-based solutions. This materialized a.o. in new joint initiatives on healthy diets and healthy soils in India and Ethiopia with BASF/Nunhems. The partnership with East-West Seed on improved access to vegetable seeds for smallholder farmers in India and Bangladesh demonstrated tangible impact through its input aggregation model, reporting a 30% income increase for farmers. In fashion-related innovations, several partnerships with European brands advanced from concept to proposal or early implementation, particularly around clean production technologies, waste valorization, and circular solutions.

Funding and account management

While overall fundraising targets were challenging, the team actively pursued public-private partnerships and co-funding opportunities (e.g. RVO, DeveloPPP) and supported tripartite proposals with corporates and donors. Seven impact investors were engaged with Solidaridad, with a small number moving into implementation. Strong account management remained a defining feature: despite external delays, reprioritization by partners, or internal capacity constraints, most collaborations were either deepened or closed on good terms. This reinforced Solidaridad’s reputation as a reliable partner and preserved future engagement potential.

Leveraging powerful communication to foster adoption of sustainable policies and practices

The Communications & Campaigning team leverages powerful communication strategies to inspire market actors to adopt sustainable policies and practices. In close collaboration with our Policy Influencing, Corporate Engagement and Donor Relations teams, we inspire stakeholders to adopt responsible procurement policies and practices, aiming to create positive outcomes for smallholder farmers, workers and miners. We build momentum by engaging citizens, consumers and the media, to help shift market demand while also mobilizing individual donor support for our mission.

Reframing the sustainability narrative

In 2025, the political narrative in Brussels shifted dramatically, moving away from sustainability regulation. Together with the Policy Influencing team, we shifted our own narrative. The goal was to emphasize that businesses themselves demand regulatory certainty and a level playing field, rather than deregulation, and we campaigned to ensure that a delay would not become a cancellation.

Driving living income commitments in the cocoa sector

Building on Oxfam’s call to action for a fair chocolate industry, we intensified our campaign to stimulate Dutch supermarkets to transition to 100% fair chocolate, whether premium or private label. By engaging supermarkets directly during Valentine’s day and by mobilizing consumers, we increased awareness of the need for living incomes for cocoa farmers. These efforts, integrated with broader policy work in the sector, successfully moved supermarkets like Albert Heijn and PLUS to publicly pledge Living Income strategies—a milestone we celebrated by presenting them with our Living Income Award. The campaign was strengthened by the publication of the 2025 Cocoa Barometer, through which we generated significant media attention, resulting in 197 online publications across 24 countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas. This media coverage had a substantial potential reach of 410 million visitors on the publishing websites, with the most extensive publicity generated in Germany (76 publications) and Switzerland (25 publications).

Shaping a balanced discourse about palm oil in European media

Following an extensive consultation in 2024, Solidaridad launched the 2025 Palm Oil Barometer to redefine the global discourse. By actively engaging European media, the report contributed to shifting the narrative toward smallholder inclusivity and becoming a vital tool for buyers exploring responsible procurement models. We are now seeing a more nuanced dialogue emerge in Dutch and German media—moving away from the ‘all palm oil is bad’ trope toward a more sophisticated conversation on sustainable production.

Challenging the fashion industry’s synthetic shift

In 2025, in partnership with Good On You, Solidaridad published the latest Cotton Rankings, revealing that the global fashion industry is increasingly bypassing sustainable cotton in favour of fossil-fuel-based synthetic fibers. The report, which analyzed the top 100 fashion brands, found that two-thirds of the market continues to operate with a significant lack of transparency regarding their fiber volumes and purchasing practices. The launch of the report was successful, reaching a global potential reach of more than 85.5 million readers. These results were heavily buoyed by North American media outlets. Strikingly, through targeted efforts by the German Communication team, the report performed exceptionally well in Germany, potentially reaching over 15 million readers. Results in the Netherlands were not negligible either, with over 500k reached.

A significant number of publications ran in-depth articles addressing the 2025 Rankings’ findings. In addition, Solidaridad and Good On You made the metadata of the findings public and easily accessible, leading to academics and industry experts engaging in varied online discussions about the results on LinkedIn.

Mobilizing public support and funding

2025 saw the first steps in the field of individual fundraising in Germany. We set up the infrastructure for online fundraising and launched our first online campaign. Meanwhile, we organized the third edition of the ‘Climbing against Climate Poverty’ fundraising event in the Netherlands, activating thousands of new people to join our community. We additionally mobilized thousands of supporters through a strategic mix of online campaigns, in-person events and direct dialogue, fostering a deeper commitment to our mission. This all led to an income stream of €1.15 million euros from individuals.

Building and maintaining trustworthy relationships with donors in a changing ODA landscape

The aim of the Donor Relations team is to grow and diversify Solidaridad’s income while building and maintaining trustworthy relationships with its donor community. The team raises funds from European donors to allow for the implementation of our global multi-annual strategic plan, and to grow the income of the global network. Furthermore, the team is responsible for stewarding relationships with existing donors, and managing existing programmes and projects to the highest standards.

New and ongoing programme implementation

In 2025, several of our large-scale programmes were in full implementation. Our Pathways to Prosperity programme entered its third year, accelerating efforts to ensure that producers (men, women and (rural) youth) have improved access to knowledge and entrepreneurial skills, services and technology as well as markets, enabling them to professionalize and sustain their businesses and livelihoods. We focused on accelerating implementation, including connecting European markets to producing countries, while also defining our joint learning objectives for the remainder of the programme (until 2029).

RECLAIM Sustainability!, which concluded in December 2025, focused on programme learning (through an end-term evaluation expected to be finalized in Q1 2026); phasing out the implementation of several interventions; and seeking new funding and/or ensuring the continuity of a number of interventions under other programmes or local ownership.

Learning was also a central element of the NISCOPS programme in 2025, as we organized a well-received learning visit to Malaysia and selected a learning partner for the remainder of the programme. We also continued the implementation of Acting Now, a three-year programme on food security in nine African countries, and developed a follow-up proposition based on identified needs and key programme learnings. Meanwhile, our Climate Heroes programme, funded by both the Nationale Postcode Loterij (Dutch Postcode Lottery) and the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie (German Postcode Lottery), continued to deliver. Last but not least, the team continued to manage various other projects, such as public-private partnerships (PPPs), and maintained trustful relationships with key foundation partners Achmea Foundation and the Heineken Africa Foundation.

Income growth and diversification

A significant focus in 2025 was on securing new contracts. This was geared in particular at covering the anticipated income shortfall as of January 2026, resulting from the conclusion of the RECLAIM Sustainability! programme funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as several projects funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and the EU. This shortfall affects not only our European budget, but also the budgets of Solidaridad offices in other regions.

We are proud of the contracts secured with donors in 2025, including agreements with the Nationale Postcode Loterij, RVO and the Heineken Africa Foundation. A particular highlight was the German Postcode Lottery’s commitment of five years of unrestricted funding directly to our German office. In addition, together with our colleagues in Asia, our Solidaridad Germany colleagues secured Green Climate Fund funding in partnership with GIZ in Indonesia. We continued to invest into our presence in the UK, maintained visibility at various events, pursued ongoing conversations with like-minded organizations across Europe (for example, in Denmark), held over 100 meetings with donors and donor prospects and submitted 28 concept notes and proposals. We were successful in progressing beyond the concept note stage in several highly competitive calls for proposals, such as NICFI and the Mitigation Action Facility, and submitted a proposal on Women Entrepreneurship (FemFocus) to the Focus facility by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the outcome of which will be communicated to us in 2026.

Despite these successes and our efforts, we were unable to secure sufficient funding to cover the 2026 shortfall. We observed that competition continues to intensify, and that even high evaluation scores (such as 85/100 for EU Horizon) are not sufficient to secure a grant. We also faced considerable delays in the issuance of a call for proposals by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Civil Society support funding (FOCUS). Furthermore, we concluded that the UK fundraising landscape was more challenging than anticipated, largely due to significant Official Development Assistance (ODA) cuts.

Facilitating Learning, Knowledge and Evidence for Impact

In 2025, the Knowledge Management and Learning team focused on three goals: strengthening learning processes in our organization, capturing and sharing knowledge, and improving the quality of our planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning (PMEL) to continuously strengthen our programming and impact.

Building a learning organization

To build a learning organization, the Knowledge Management and Learning team designed, prepared and facilitated various learning sessions to sharpen Solidaridad Europe’s strategies, drive innovation and reflect on programming achievements. We created structured spaces for staff consultation during the development of the new multi-annual strategic plan for the 2026-2030 period, and supported thematic learning sessions, for example on EUDR, Payment for Ecosystem Services, agroforestry and biochar. These sessions facilitated strategic discussions and helped colleagues to deepen their understanding of priority themes. The team also developed nine e-learning modules (covering global onboarding, an introduction to Solidaridad’s strategy and PMEL, and data privacy) to provide staff training in an accessible self-paced format. In various global programmes, the team facilitated learning sessions to review achieved outcomes and shape new learning agendas. Continuous learning and working towards organizational excellence has also been embedded as a core strategy in our new plan.

Making knowledge accessible

We ensured that a variety of knowledge products were produced in 2025, strengthening both strategic positioning and internal guidance. We developed positioning papers on Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD); supported the development of various tools and learning documents related to the RECLAIM Sustainability! global learning themes of Decent Work, Fair Value Distribution, Gender Equality & Social Inclusion, and Climate & Natural Resource Management; and developed methodological guides for better PMEL in our programming. We also continued our efforts to ensure that key knowledge products are easily accessible on the internal Knowledge Hub. We further developed thematic and programme pages, started learning blogs and developed a page with all our project evaluations from the last five years.

Quality PMEL for better programming

In 2025, the Knowledge Management and Learning team provided extensive PMEL advice in Solidaridad’s core programmes and corporate partnerships, delivering quality plans and reports and strengthening both accountability and learning.

Within the RECLAIM Sustainability! programme, we facilitated outcome harvesting processes and coordinated the End-of-Programme evaluation. In the Pathways to Prosperity and Acting Now programmes, we refined monitoring tools and templates, increased the monitoring capacity of programme staff, coordinated strategic knowledge partnerships in the programmes and supported the design of new learning agendas. In our NISCOPS and Climate Heroes programmes, and in a variety of smaller projects, we provided similar types of advice.

Our team also strengthened monitoring frameworks and reporting quality in corporate partnerships like Puratos and Henkel. Finally, we led an evaluation of the Intel4Value project in Colombia, provided advice to increase the quality of other project evaluations (e.g. for the Smart Farming, Healthy Food project), and provided PMEL advice during the development of new proposals like FemFocus. All these efforts helped to increase the quality of PMEL in our programming, a prerequisite for good evidence collection and continuous improvement of our work.

Change that Matters Stories

Whilst market actors have an important role and responsibility in ensuring smallholder-inclusive and sustainable supply In February 2025, the European Commission presented its first Omnibus simplification package, proposing sweeping changes to key laws, including the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Together with our advocacy coalition partners Fair Trade Advocacy Office, Fair Trade International and Rainforest Alliance, Solidaridad prepared a position paper in response to this Omnibus package. It has been co-signed by 40+ other civil society organizations.

The Promoting Regenerative Agriculture for Sustainable Livelihoods (PRASL) project is a partnership between Solidaridad, HEINEKEN Africa Foundation, Kvuno and Hiveonline. With this programme in Mozambique, we work on fostering smallholder farmers’ efforts in regenerative agricultural practices that restore ecosystems, enhance soil health, and build resilient communities. This 3-year programme aims to engage with 4,000 smallholder farmers, with a focus on supporting at least 60% women and 30% young adults, and with a farmer-centered approach to promote local ownership.

Palm oil is a highly productive crop that is vital to food security, and a source of income for millions, particularly smallholders in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Though sustainably-produced palm oil can be a vital contributor to resilient livelihoods, the current approach often leaves smallholder farmers in a precarious situation. The 2025 Palm Oil Barometer: Procurement for Prosperity makes the call for a fundamental shift in this. The core finding is that value is inequitably distributed throughout the supply chain, leaving smallholders at a loss in their efforts to produce sustainably.

The power of collective action in cocoa

A European movement for responsible procurement

Under the RECLAIM Sustainability! programme (2021-2025), Solidaridad Europe and partners have moved beyond traditional agronomic fixes to attempt to break down the structural inequalities, power imbalances and unfair value distribution that prevent smallholder farmers from achieving a living income. By leveraging high-level advocacy, partnerships and public campaigning, this work contributed to shifting responsibility from individual farmers to all supply chain actors. The result is a commitment from leading Dutch supermarkets to adopt responsible procurement practices for their private label cocoa, enabling cocoa farmers to earn a living income. Significant potential exists to scale this model geographically, expand into other commodities like coffee and tea and extend the approach to major chocolate brands.

The cocoa sector has been experiencing unprecedented turbulence and price volatility; whilst many small-scale cocoa farmers continue to draw the short straw. Farmer poverty is a driver of just about every problem in the cocoa sector: deforestation, child labour and gender inequality are all made so much harder to tackle if cocoa household incomes are not raised significantly.

There is significant evidence, such as shown in the 2025 Cocoa Barometer, that current approaches to raise farmer income have had a marginal impact at best. For decades, these approaches have been mostly, if not exclusively, focused on agronomic solutions. Implicit in these approaches is that farmers are poor because they are either not working hard enough, not working smart enough or a combination of both.

In collaboration with fellow civil society organizations (such as with VOICE Network on the Cocoa Barometers), Solidaridad Europe has pushed to rebalance accountability for farmer livelihoods, moving away from individual farmer responsibility toward a collective supply chain approach involving all supply chain actors.

Our movement towards good procurement practices began in 2020, through the Dutch Initiative on Sustainable Cocoa (DISCO), a multistakeholder platform uniting traders, brands, retailers, governments, civil society organizations and research institutes. As a steering committee member, Solidaridad Europe pushed for action and delivery of a 2030 living income ambition.

Building upon our work in cocoa and good procurement practices, we developed a multi-annual consumer campaign to increase pressure on Dutch supermarkets, to call on them to ensure that all chocolate products sold on their shelves contain sustainable cocoa, and that they use their procurement power to change the status quo and influence brands to adopt responsible procurement practices.

Our efforts have laid the groundwork for Dutch supermarkets Albert Heijn, Superunie, Jumbo and Lidl to adopt responsible procurement practices for their private label cocoa. By committing to Living Incomes for cocoa farmers in their supply chain, these supermarkets have committed to a proven model for responsible procurement.

The key insight: systemic change requires long-term persistence, but gains significant momentum when stakeholders align their unique strengths through collective action.

Solidaridad continues on this work, in collaboration with partners.

About us

A diverse international organization

Solidaridad’s regional expertise centre in Europe comprises three entities: Solidaridad Europe, Solidaridad the Netherlands and Solidaridad Germany. In 2025 Solidaridad also had representation in the UK, and partnerships in various European countries. This created ample opportunities for our work in influencing corporations, governments and citizens to take up and commit to more sustainable supply chains.

Solidaridad Europe consists of 63 staff members of diverse cultural backgrounds and different age categories. Our staff is the key factor for realizing the vision and strategy of Solidaridad.

Solidaridad conducts an annual Employee Engagement Survey to assess employee satisfaction across 12 areas related to work, e.g. our work environment, employee support and working conditions. For areas that received lower scores, a targeted action plan is developed and implemented to focus on improvement.

Number of staff in Europe per country and gender

In 2025, 13 staff members left the organization and we recruited and onboarded 7 new staff members, of which 2 were temporary staff to cover long-term sickness. Furthermore, a total number of 11 interns were supervised. We implemented a resilient organizational trajectory in December 2025, which included a reduction in our FTE staff count by 12.9, effective April 2026. Q1 of 2026 is a transition phase into a smaller organization.

Solidaridad has its own job & salary framework, which is based on job descriptions. The tasks and responsibilities are described per job function. The functions are weighed on the basis of the following four characteristics: knowledge and experience, independence, social skills and risks, responsibility and influence. Solidaridad’s salary policy is guided by that of the Dutch government (CAO Rijk).

At Solidaridad, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are central to our mission and the way we work. We are committed to fostering a fair and inclusive workplace where everyone feels heard, respected and valued for their diverse identities, experiences and perspectives. Gender is not a selection criterion for any role, and all employment decisions are based solely on skills, experience and performance.

By embedding inclusive practices across our recruitment and people processes, we ensure equal opportunity for all and create a safe and supportive environment where individuals can thrive and contribute fully to our collective mission. Our diverse staff is a reflection of modern European society.

The Head of Operations is responsible for the integrity system, i.e. developing and implementing tools that provide structural and formal procedures, and supporting a culture in which staff feel safe to work and speak up. The Code of Conduct is discussed during on-boarding and staff meetings to enable moral deliberations which provide meaning to the moral compass of Solidaridad. Staff can approach three Persons of Trust (one in the Netherlands, one in Germany and one contracted externally) to discuss any concern they have and seek counselling and/or support.
The Solidaridad Code of Conduct and the Whistleblower Protocol form the heart of the integrity system to prevent, monitor, report and account for integrity. A Partner Code is included in the contracts. Procedures are in place that ensure a satisfactory response to a complaint and guide an investigation into a report. An external party is contracted in case internal reporting and investigation capacity are not sufficient or best placed. Solidaridad has zero tolerance for not acting, and will vigorously pursue disciplinary or any other actions necessary against perpetrators of any inappropriate behaviour. In 2025 no integrity breaches were reported to the CBF.

Finance

The total expenditure in 2025 was € 41,734,074, which is € 116,349 higher than in 2024, and € 1,995,074 higher than budgeted. Of the total expenditure, € 40,134,309 was spent directly on our objectives. Interest and income from investments was € 382,297. This has led to a positive result of € 483,929 in the statement of income and expenditure in 2025, where 2024 had a positive result of € 709,799. The result of 2025 is affected by movements in the reserves and designated funds, leading to an addition of € 420,802 to the continuity reserve.

DIRECT EXPENSES
Activity costs	€ 704,433
Other costs	€ 1,162,960
Partners and consultants	€ 4,432,692
Employee expenses	€ 6,281,659
Balance to be paid
Total direct expenses	€ 12,581,744
Expenditure to Solidaridad entities	€ 29,12,330
Total expenditures	€ 41,734,074

EXPENDITURE
Direct expenses
Activity costs	€ 704,433
Other costs	€ 1,162,960
Partners and consultants	€ 4,432,692
Employee expenses	€ 6,281,659
Balance to be paid
Total direct expenses	€ 12,581,744
Expenditure to Solidariad entities	€ 29,12,330
Total expenditures	€ 41,734,074

The total income in 2025 was nearly 42 million Euro; a small decrease of € 58,000 compared to 2024. Income from subsidies decreased by € 720,689 compared to 2024, but was € 1,322,757 higher than budgeted. Income from other fundraising increased by € 708,218 compared to last year, and was € 1,410,949 higher than budgeted. This is mainly due to higher income from lotteries.

All information above is based on the un-audited figures for 2025.
Updated audited statements will be added as soon as possible.

Netherlands audited
financial statements 2024 Germany
financial statements 2024 Europe audited
financial statements 2024

2026 ANNUAL REPORT