May 22, 2024
TrustAfrica and the Agroecology Fund announce a new partnership to launch Regional Agroecology
Funds in West and Eastern Africa.
Agroecology, recognized in most parts of the world as a climate and hunger solution, is gaining
traction in Africa and worldwide. A quickly growing grassroots agroecology movement in Africa is
shifting policies, practices, and investments toward climate-friendly food systems. The African
agroecology movement is a dynamic ecosystem, composed of thousands of associations, cooperatives,
networks, policy makers and academics working to decolonize Africa’s food systems and regenerate
Africa’s soils weakened by overuse of chemical inputs and failed Green Revolution policies. The
Regional Agroecology Funds in Africa are financing and learning tools to support agroecology
networks and organizations across the two regions. The funds will be co-managed by TrustAfrica and
the Agroecology Fund.
The Funds will:
● Offer donors a simple way to fund grassroots organizations, networks, and emerging enterprises
that are critical to scaling agroecology up and out across Africa.
● Ensure that organizations representing Indigenous Peoples, women, and youth receive the
support they need to advance agroecology and uphold their rights.
● Support grantee organizations in monitoring their progress against sought outcomes
● Contribute to regional learning, and to knowledge generation and exchanges, to deepen
grassroots evidence for agroecology, and to adjust and improve strategies for scaling up
agroecology.
“Trust Africa has a strong record of seeding and nurturing new, leading
organizations, voices and networks and anchoring collaborative processes and
movement building to find solutions to critical questions that can advance a
progressive continental development agenda. Agroecology is one such critical
solution.”
- Dr. Ebrima Sall, Executive Director, TrustAfrica
Using a unique participatory philanthropic model that relies on guidance from grassroots African
advisors, experts in the field and embedded in agroecology movements, the funds will provide
resources to highly effective practitioners, scientists, and movement builders working across the
continent to achieve equitable and sustainable food systems. The core business of the Funds is to
support an ecosystem of collaborating African grassroots organizations and networks to transform food
systems through agroecology.
“The African agroecology movement is so dynamic and creative. We are thrilled
to team up with TrustAfrica to provide support to a movement that lies at the
heart of a sustainable and equitable future for Africa.”
- Tabara Ndiaye, Agroecology Fund African Regional Funds Coordinator
The Funds have been capitalized by philanthropic organizations both large and small, from the Ikea
Foundation to the 11
th Hour Project. With agroecology increasingly embraced as a critical solution to
multiple challenges that Africa is facing, the funds are expected to grow quickly. Territorial-based
approaches to funding is a key Agroecology Fund strategy, and the Africa Funds are the third and
fourth regional funds to launch in the last four years. The first was in Mexico in 2020 and the second in
India in 2022. Regional funds give bilateral and multilateral agencies, as well as private philanthropists,
an opportunity to support hard-to-reach grassroots work and to jointly fund inclusive and rights-based
initiatives rooted in agroecology principles that support impacts as diverse as food security, food
sovereignty, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience. This approach will transform global food
systems.
Please contact Daniel Moss, Co-Director, at daniel@agroecologyfund.org or Bethule Nyamambi,
Programme Manager, at nyamambi@trustafrica.org if you’re interested in becoming a donor of these
funds or to learn more.