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Editorial

This first quarter 2026 edition of the AFSA Newsletter captures a period of intense reflection, sharpened advocacy, and strategic action across Africa and beyond. From Lilongwe to Dakar, Garuga to Cartagena, AFSA and its members engaged critical questions shaping the future of African food systems, including school meals, land justice, seed sovereignty, public agricultural finance, cross border agroecological trade, territorial markets, and citizen mobilisation. Across these interventions, one message stands out clearly: the struggle for food sovereignty is not only about production, but also about power, policy, markets, culture, and the right of African people to define their own food futures.

In these pages, readers will see how AFSA continued to link grassroots realities with continental and global advocacy. This edition highlights the adoption of the Lilongwe Declaration on agroecology based school and college meals, AFSA’s participation in ICARRD+20 in Colombia, the launch of a major report on the African Development Bank’s role in reshaping African agriculture, renewed calls to centre farmers in regional seed policy processes, and important internal moments of alignment through the AFSA staff retreat, the Citizens Working Group on Agroecology meeting, and the TAFS annual review workshop. It also documents growing momentum in public campaigns and movement spaces, including the #MyFoodMyIdentity online campaign and continued efforts to strengthen agroecological trade, territorial markets, and African food cultures.

What this edition reflects most of all is AFSA’s continued commitment to building a food systems movement rooted in justice, resilience, dignity, and African knowledge. Whether confronting corporate capture, defending land and seed rights, supporting local markets, or reshaping public narratives around food, AFSA’s work remains anchored in the conviction that Africa’s food future must be led by its farmers, communities, women, youth, and social movements. We invite you to read, reflect, and continue walking with us as we strengthen the movement for agroecology and food sovereignty across the continent.

Download the newsletter here

Hi there

After a brief period of hiatus we’re very happy to announce that we will be returning to regular programing on May Day, May 1 at 1pm EST for a webinar on protecting workers’ safety in the climate crisis.

Our panelists, to be announced shortly, will speak about the vital work trade unions do to protect workers from rising temperatures, new pollutants and other stresses on the job and what they are doing to ensure that their members are safe.

We will have a Zoom link to RSVP shortly but if you would like to discuss joining the panel, please reach out to convener@greeneonnet.ca

See you there.

Our Guests:

Alex Callahan: National Director of Health, Safety and Environment with the Canadian Labour Congress.

 Anne Tennier: President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety 

Roger Duffy: Health & Safety Representative Canadian Union of Public Employees

Registration info:

You are invited to register for a Zoom webinar!

When: May 1, 2026 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Topic:  Green Economy Network

Register in advance for this webinar.

See you there

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) launches a new report asking a critical question: Is the African Development Bank (AfDB) financing food systems that truly serve Africa’s people?

Based on an analysis of 20 AfDB-supported agricultural projects, this study, researched by Dr Keiron Audain for AFSA, reveals a troubling pattern. Despite strong rhetoric around food security and climate resilience, a significant share of AfDB financing continues to reinforce agro-industrial models built on monocultures, synthetic inputs, and corporate value chains. Meanwhile, farmer-managed seed systems, agroecological practices, territorial markets, and Indigenous knowledge remain underfunded and marginalised.

The report exposes persistent gaps in transparency and participation. Communities are frequently consulted but rarely empowered to shape decisions. Investments that affect land, livelihoods, and diets are too often designed without meaningful co-creation with the smallholder farmers who feed the continent.

At a time when Africa faces escalating climate shocks, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity, public finance cannot continue to support systems that deepen dependency, degrade soils, and concentrate power in corporate hands. Africa does not need a blind expansion of industrial agriculture. It needs investment in agroecology, crop diversity, resilient seed systems, and local food economies that strengthen sovereignty and community control.

This report is not just an analysis. It is a call to redirect agricultural finance toward justice, ecological integrity, and food sovereignty. AfDB and African governments must ensure that public resources build resilient, community-rooted food systems rather than entrenching models that undermine them.

Download the full report here.

Protect Our Land, Restore Our Soil: Collective Territorialities for Land Justice, Pastoralist Futures, and Ecological Restoration

As civil society organisations, social movements, faith-based actors, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralist and peasant organisations from Africa and across the Global South, we come to ICARRD+20 at a moment of deep crisis and urgent possibility.

Twenty years after the first International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, rural communities across the world continue to face dispossession, land concentration and ecological destruction. Despite global commitments to end hunger and poverty, land and food systems are increasingly controlled by corporate and financial interests, while communities that produce food remain marginalised and insecure.

Across Africa and other regions, customary and collective land systems are being undermined in the name of development, conservation, climate mitigation and large-scale investment. Carbon offset projects, extractive industries, agribusiness expansion and speculative land markets are accelerating dispossession, soil degradation and social inequality, often excluding communities from territories they have governed collectively for generations. At the same time, agribusiness corporations and financial investors are driving the rapid expansion of factory farming and industrial livestock production across Africa, concentrating land and resources, degrading ecosystems, and undermining pastoralist and small-scale livestock systems essential to food sovereignty.

Pastoralist communities are among those most severely affected. As 2026 is the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, this conference must recognise pastoralists as central to sustainable food systems and ecological resilience. Policies that restrict livestock mobility, privatise communal rangelands or convert grazing lands to agribusiness, conservation or carbon-offset projects undermine pastoralist livelihoods while intensifying conflict, poverty and environmental degradation. Yet pastoralism remains one of the most climate-resilient land-use systems in drylands. Through mobility and communal rangeland management, pastoralists sustain livelihoods, supply vital meat and milk production, and maintain ecological balance in areas where crop farming is often unsustainable.

Meanwhile, communities defending their territories face criminalisation and violence. Women pastoralists and small-scale producers, youth, and Indigenous Peoples remain excluded from decision-making processes, despite being central to food production and environmental stewardship.

ICARRD+20 must therefore not be a commemorative event. It must become a turning point.

Our Calls to Governments and International Institutions

Ahead of ICARRD+20, we call on governments, international institutions, and development partners to commit to the following:

1. Recognise and protect collective and customary land tenure systems, including individual and collective land rights as affirmed in CESCR, UNDRIP and UNDROP.
2. Protect pastoralist rangelands and livestock mobility, including cross-border corridors essential for climate adaptation and peace, and prevent conversion of rangelands to inappropriate uses such as monoculture tree plantations.
3. Implement genuine agrarian reform and equitable land redistribution, prioritising landless farmers, women, youth, pastoralists and Indigenous communities, while addressing the historical and political drivers of land degradation and induced land scarcity.
4. End land speculation and financialisation, including large-scale land acquisitions and carbon or biodiversity credit schemes that dispossess communities.
5. Redirect agricultural and climate finance toward agroecology, rangeland restoration and community-led food systems, and integrate pro-pastoralist strategies into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Promote conservation models that uphold pastoralists’ rights and ensure restoration strengthens pastoralist livelihoods as part of a just green transition.
6. Invest in decentralised infrastructure and services compatible with mobile pastoralist systems, including water, veterinary care, markets, education and health.
7. Guarantee meaningful participation of affected communities, and free prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples, in land, agriculture and climate decision-making.
8. Protect land and environmental defenders, and end violence, criminalisation and forced displacement.
9. Establish binding corporate accountability mechanisms for human rights violations and ecological harm across global value chains.

Toward Land Justice, Pastoralist Futures and Ecological Restoration

The future lies not in further commodifying land and food systems, but in restoring community control over territories, securing pastoralist mobility and commons, and supporting agroecological transitions rooted in justice and ecological integrity.

ICARRD+20 must renew global commitments to agrarian reform, land justice, and food sovereignty, led by communities that sustain the world’s food systems and ecosystems.

Land justice is climate justice. Pastoralist mobility is ecological resilience.

Thiès, Senegal, 12 February 2026

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), in collaboration with civil society organisations and farmers from West and Central Africa, has expressed deep concern about the sub-regional workshop on the seed sector organised in Abidjan by CORAF (West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development) and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) from 11 to 13 February 2025.

While recognising the importance of regional dialogue on seed systems, AFSA and its partners warn that the current process risks violating farmers’ rights by marginalising the peasant seed systems that are the foundation of food production in Africa. Their rights are, in fact, guaranteed internationally by major legal instruments, namely the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) and Article 9 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).

The workshop, which aims to define regional strategies for the seed sector, has largely excluded peasant organisations and civil society actors with long experience of peasant seed systems, including community seed banks and seed boxes, seed fairs and participatory seed development initiatives throughout the region.

“Any seed strategy that excludes farmers and their organisations is fundamentally flawed,” said Alihou Ndiaye, coordinator of the West African Farmers’ Seed Committee (COASP), a member organisation of AFSA. “Farmers are not peripheral actors. They are the guardians and innovators of the seed systems that feed Africa. Policies must be developed with them, not for them.”

AFSA also expressed concern about the continued use of the term “informal seeds” in policy discussions, even though African Union processes under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) recognise peasant seed systems as essential to agricultural transformation and climate resilience.

According to recent African Union studies, between 80 and 90 per cent of the seeds used by African farmers come from peasant seed systems, but these systems remain poorly supported, if at all, by policies and regulations.

“To label farmers’ seeds as ‘informal’ or inferior is to ignore the reality that these systems provide the majority of seeds used in Africa,” said Famara Diédhiou, coordinator of the AFSA seed working group. “Farmers’ seeds are diverse, resilient and adapted to local conditions. The African Union’s CAADP process now recognises farmers’ seed systems and indigenous seed systems as essential to Africa’s agricultural future, and regional strategies must align with this shift by recognising farmers as the legitimate custodians of our seed diversity.”

Civil society organisations have also criticised current proposals to simplify certification systems, which risk treating farmers’ varieties as inferior. Instead, they advocate for regulatory systems based on equal recognition, but with rules adapted to the nature and diversity of farmers’ seed systems.

CSOs and POs remain very vigilant about the threat posed by UPOV to the seed system in African countries, whose governments are under constant pressure from agribusiness lobbies. This requirement is non-negotiable, as Jean-Paul Sikeli of COPAGEN put it: “We cannot allow the UPOV regime to destroy Africa’s genetic heritage. Our seed systems must protect diversity and farmers’ rights, not impose industrial uniformity.”

AFSA and its partner organisations call on CORAF, FAO and regional institutions to ensure that future processes fully include farmers’ organisations and civil society, to align strategies with the African Union’s new policy directions, and to strengthen peasant seed systems as the foundation of resilient African food systems.

“The future of seeds in Africa cannot be decided in rooms where farmers are absent,” added Mr Ndiaye. “If we want resilient food systems, farmers must be at the centre of policy and investment decisions.”

AFSA and allied organisations remain ready to engage constructively with regional institutions to develop inclusive, farmer-centred seed policies across Africa.

###

 See AFSA’s Position Statement here.

Media contacts:

Famara Diedhiou, Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) famara.diedhiou@afsafrica.org, WhatsApp +221 77 539 89 28

Jean Paul Sikeli, Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage (COPAGEN) sikelijeanpaul3@gmail.com, WhatsApp +225 05 92 50 06

We, the over 80 delegates from Kenya, Uganda and Malawi, including educators, school administrators, entrepreneurs, researchers, civil society organisations, development partners, and policy actors, convened in Lilongwe, Malawi, on 22nd January 2026, to deliberate on ‘Agroecology-based School and College Food Procurement Systems in East and Southern Africa’

WE THANK the Government and People of Malawi for the warm welcome and support we have received during this event. We also appreciate the International Development Research centre of the Canadian government and their partners for making this event possible, and urge them to continue supporting the development of agroecology-based school meal programmes in Africa.

We RECOGNIZE that school meal programmes across our three countries play a critical role in advancing nutrition, education, gender equality, social protection and local economic development, particularly for children from marginalized and food-insecure households. We further acknowledge that these programmes operate within complex and evolving contexts, shaped by climate change, rising food prices, environmental degradation, policy gaps, and structural inequalities.

We note that:

1. Malawi is implementing multi stakeholder school meals system, while confronting constraints related to agricultural productivity, procurement systems, and institutional coherence
2. Uganda relies largely on community- and parent-led school feeding arrangements, in the absence of a comprehensive national policy, resulting in uneven access, nutritional disparities, and heavy burdens on households.
3. Kenya has articulated strong policy ambitions through its National School Meals and Nutrition Strategy and emerging agroecology frameworks, yet continues to face challenges related to funding stability, climate shocks, and farmer–school coordination.

Across all three countries, we recognize that women, youth, and other marginalized groups remain central to food production and preparation, yet continue to be underrepresented in decision-making and benefit-sharing within school food systems.

Guided by the principles of agroecology, food sovereignty, participatory action research (PAR), and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), we affirm that school meal programmes are strategic leverage points for transforming local food systems, strengthening resilience, and advancing social justice across Africa.

OUR SHARED REGIONAL VISION

We collectively envision school and college meal systems in Malawi, Uganda and Kenya that are:

1. Agroecology-based, environmentally sustainable, and climate-resilient
2. Home-grown and territorially embedded, prioritizing local producers and local markets
3. Inclusive and gender-transformative, ensuring equitable participation and benefits
4. Educationally integrated, linking food, learning, culture, and livelihoods
5. Institutionally supported, through coherent policies, adequate financing, and accountable governance

COMMITMENT

1. We affirm agroecology as a scientific, practical, cultural, and political approach that supports biodiversity, nutrition, climate adaptation, and community agency. We commit to:

• Advancing agroecological production as a preferred foundation for school and college food supply
• Promoting diversified, indigenous, and culturally appropriate foods across menus
• Integrating school gardens, food forests, and Integrated Land Use Design (ILUD) as learning and food production spaces in all three countries

2. We recognize that sustainable school feeding depends on short, transparent, equitable, sustainable and inclusive supply chains. We therefore commit to:

• Strengthening direct linkages between schools, smallholder farmers, cooperatives, aggregators, and territorial markets in Kenya, Uganda and Malawi
• Supporting procurement mechanisms that are flexible enough to accommodate small-scale, seasonal, and agroecological production
• Reducing over-reliance on imported or conventionally produced foods while safeguarding food quality, safety, and reliability.

3. We acknowledge that unequal power relations continue to shape access, participation, and benefits within school feeding value chains. We commit to:

• Ensuring women’s leadership and decision-making power in procurement committees, producer organisations, and school governance structures
• Creating meaningful opportunities for youth employment, entrepreneurship, and skills development across the value chain
• Applying an intersectional GESI lens that recognizes how gender, age, disability, poverty, and geography interact to shape exclusion

4. We recognize the role of producers, entrepreneurs, processors, traders, caterers, and service providers in making school feeding systems viable. We commit to:

• Supporting agroecology-aligned enterprises
• Promoting appropriate technologies for storage, processing, clean cooking, and post-harvest loss reduction

5. We reaffirm the value of participatory, action-oriented research in generating locally relevant solutions. We commit to:

• Co-producing knowledge with schools, farmers, communities, and policymakers across the three countries
• Using evidence to refine models, inform policy dialogue, and guide scaling strategies
• Ensuring that research outputs are accessible, context-sensitive, and usable by all stakeholders.

6. We recognize that agroecology-based school feeding requires enabling policy and institutional environments. We commit to:

• Advocating for integration of agroecology into school feeding programmes in Malawi, Uganda & Kenya
• Strengthening coordination among the actors involved in school feeding programmes
• Promoting transparent, accountable, and participatory governance of school feeding systems.

CALL TO ACTION

We call upon:

1. Governments of Kenya, Uganda and Malawi to provide sustained political, policy, institutions and financial support for agroecology-based home-grown school feeding
2. Farmers and producer organisations to organize collectively and engage proactively with schools
3. Civil society organisations to facilitate inclusion, capacity building, and policy advocacy
4. Researchers to facilitate the generation of data that support evidence based design of agroecology-based school feeding models
5. Development partners to support long-term, locally grounded, and gender-transformative food system transition.

Done on 22nd January 2026, Lilongwe, Malawi

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) invites applications from qualified and experienced facilitators to support the delivery of a Training of Trainers (ToT) on Integrating Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems into African Territorial Markets, scheduled for 18th–20th February 2026 in Entebbe, Uganda.

This Training of Trainers is part of AFSA’s African Agroecological Entrepreneurship (AAE) initiative and aims to strengthen the capacity of national partners and territorial market actors to advance agroecology-driven, inclusive, and resilient territorial market systems across Africa.

AFSA is seeking facilitators with strong experience in agroecology, sustainable food systems, territorial markets, participatory training, and adult learning methodologies. Applicants may apply to facilitate one or more sessions and must clearly indicate the specific session(s) of interest by title, demonstrating relevant prior experience aligned to those sessions.

Application Requirements

Interested applicants should submit:

• A signed cover letter indicating the session(s) of interest;
• A brief technical proposal (maximum 2 pages) outlining relevant experience and proposed facilitation approach;
• A Curriculum Vitae (CV);
• Two samples of relevant facilitation or training work (where applicable);
• A financial proposal indicating facilitation fees (USD), inclusive of all costs.

Submission Details

Applications should be submitted by email to afsa@afsafrica.org  no later than 6th February 2026 (5:00 pm EAT).

Email subject line:
Facilitator Application – Training of Trainers (ToT) on Integrating Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems into African Territorial Markets

For detailed information on the scope of work, session descriptions, and qualifications, applicants are encouraged to consult the full Terms of Reference.

Download Terms of Reference Here 

Ahead of COP30, climate scientists called out governments for  retreating on emissions reduction measures in the face of a deepening climate emergency – and, with the 2025 budget, Canada’s government signalled its intent to do the same.

In a pre-COP30 brief, Canada’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin announced her government’s intent to “to advance international efforts to address climate change” on the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. Yet, the same government has expressed ambivalence towards the Paris Agreement’s targets, with Mark Carney previously stating that he is more interested in “results rather than targets and investments rather than bans.” 

Given these inconsistent positions, how serious is the Canadian government really about addressing the climate crisis? What direction is the Carney government heading?

One of the biggest challenges of finding clarity in Canada’s climate policy is cutting through the technical minutiae that often obscures politics and policy. Behind the targets, agreements, policy papers, press conferences and, apparently, COP30 branded cruise ships, it is difficult for anyone to see what has actually been accomplished.

Under the Paris Agreement, Canada committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to a maximum of 440 megatonnes by 2030. The 2024 emissions data shows that Canada remains stalled at 694 megatonnes and is not on track to meet its target. This kind of failure appears to present two options for the Carney government: perform better or promise less. 

The new budget’s Climate Competitiveness Strategy cancels climate rules and initiatives, while cutting billions of dollars in planned program spending in favor of tax credits and corporate subsidies. What counts for climate competitiveness in this budget are tax credits for liquified natural gas (LNG) facilities and carbon capture schemes, totalling $325 million over the next five years.

Programs that were intended to either monitor pollution or store emissions to meet Canada’s Paris Agreement targets are all facing cuts as part of Carney’s austerity and investment plan.  Environment and Climate Change Canada is expected to take a $1.3 billion cut in annual program spending by 2030. The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and the Canada Water Agency – federal regulators meant to safeguard the environment – are also facing cuts. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s $3 billion plan to plant two billion trees, a legacy program meant to build a potential carbon sink to help reduce future emissions, has also been scrapped by Carney’s budget. 

Carney has signalled that the levies polluters pay as part of the industrial carbon price, where the average industry pays the comparatively-low price of $8.40 per tonne of emissions, may not increase despite the commitment needed to meet Paris Agreement targets. Somehow, the federal government is also confident that the planned oil and gas emissions cap will “no longer be required” even though data from the Parliamentary Budget Officer stated clearly that, in the absence of the cap, “upstream oil and gas emissions will exceed the legal upper bound” by 2030.

Capping upstream emissions from production activities, i.e from the extraction of fossil fuels, without capping the actual volume of oil and gas going to market was always questionable. But now Carney’s budget is combining talk of real climate action with commitments to “maximise carbon value for money” and “protect the competitiveness of oil and gas.” Even if one understands this charitably, it would seem to preclude any plan to seriously reduce total emissions any further. One can have the cleanest oil extraction process in the world, but if the actual volume of fossil fuels getting burned remains constant or increases, say, in the interest of maximizing carbon value for money, it’s a rather moot point. Total emissions will still rise, the climate crisis will intensify and the poorest in the world will bear the brunt of the costs.

When Carney promised a budget of “sacrifice” he clearly did not mean a sacrifice for energy company owners. What this does mean, however, is sacrifice for Canadians in the form of cuts to programs, cuts to public sector jobs, and climate inaction.

This page exists to bring together progressive policy organizations’ responses to the 2025 federal budget. Keep an eye on this page, as it will continue to be updated in the coming days.

Commentary and analysis 

Post-election budget could plunge Canada into another federal election by Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives

Oil and gas trumps climate action in brutal federal budget by Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood (National Observer)

Organizational responses

Basic Income Canada Network 

Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness

Canadian Arts Coalition

Canadian Housing and Renewal Association

Canadian Labour Congress | Congrès du travail du Canada

Canadian Mental Health Association

Canadian for Tax Fairness

Centre for Future Work

Child Care Now

Cooperation Canada | Coopération Canada

Generation Squeeze

Institut de recherche et d’informations socioéconomiques

Migrant Rights Network

National Union of Public and General Employees

National Right to Housing Network

Nature Canada

Public Service Alliance of Canada | L’Alliance de la Fonction publique du Canada

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada | L’Institut professionnel de la fonction publique du Canada

Right To Food

Unifor | Unifor (Français)

Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives Senior Researcher and GEN board member Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood was on CPAC, this week.

He discussed the failures of Canada’s existing EV subsidy scheme and the path to building up Canada’s green industrial capacity.

See the video, below.

WELCOME TO COMMUNITY REPORTS BY CCC’S RESEARCH JUSTICE INSTITUTE! WE’VE LAUNCHED THIS NEW SERIES TO PROVIDE A CLOSER LOOK AT OUR RESEARCH EFFORTS AND HELP DEMYSTIFY THE WORLD OF DATA. in this edition, our summer Intern Meilin Beloney unpacks key terms and topics at the heart of research justice.  Research justice 101: Key terms and readings to know

“Research justice” can sound like a big concept, but at its core it’s about valuing the lived experiences and desires of marginalized community members as essential pieces of evidence and data. Incorporating it into your research practices means ensuring meaningful community participation in every step of the research process. Furthermore, research justice centers the desires of communities as key to understanding their circumstances, rather than relying on narratives that present communities as broken or as problems (i.e., deficit narratives). 

To gain a deeper understanding of what research justice is, the Research Justice Institute looks to the work of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) scholars and researchers. Read on to unpack four key terms, along with some suggested readings, that are integral to understanding research justice.

1.Research oppression

To understand research justice, it is important to start by unpacking what research justice is not. As pointed out by DataCenter in their 2015 report “Introduction to Research Justice,” there is a power imbalance within research practices, wherein dominant institutions control the production of knowledge, resulting in marginalized communities being unable to control or access information produced about them. Research oppression occurs when community members are viewed solely as subjects of research, rather than as active participants in the research process (DataCenter 2015). Social science research has long been used as a tool of oppression. In his book Thicker than Blood: How Racial Statistics Lie, Tufuku Zuberi points to the role that white supremacy plays in our understanding of society. White logic grants objectivity to white scholars while devaluing BIPOC experience and expertise, often framing it as too subjective or anecdotal. Community members’ lived experiences are dismissed as invalid to the research process, leading to dominant institutions controlling the data and the stories that are told about marginalized communities, without the community’s input (Zuberi 2001). When we refuse to use white supremacist logics and tools in our research practices, we envision an alternative to research oppression: research justice. Research justice places community experiences and desires at the forefront of the research process, uplifting community members as integral to every step. Research justice is a process and platform that affirms that marginalized communities are the experts in their own lives.

2.Dominant data vs community data

It is important to understand the distinction between dominant data and community data, and how each may be utilized to advance the aims of research justice. Dominant data is gathered by dominant institutions such as governments and universities, and is often gathered in service of the dominant institution. These data are typically gathered using large population-level surveys like the Census or through the collection of information an individual provides in exchange for a service (i.e., administrative data). Dominant data, which are often quantitative, can highlight trends within populations, but often perpetuates deficit narratives. Numbers and statistics do not always capture the social, political, economic, and historical contexts of the data, often leading to conclusions that lack nuance and place the blame on marginalized communities for their own marginalizations. For example, without the context of institutional racism, a statistic proving the high amount of police violence in Black neighborhoods might imply that Black neighborhoods are inherently dangerous, or that Black people themselves are violent, rather than acknowledging the many social and political factors that lead to over-policing of Black communities (Lanius 2015). 

On the other hand, a key aspect of community data is that it is contextual. At CCC, we define community data as evidence generated by communities about their everyday lives, realities, and desires. Examples of evidence can include numbers, words, art, music, maps, and stories. Community data is collected, interpreted, and used on the terms of the community. By working with communities to understand their everyday experiences, we can gain a true sense of community needs and desires.

3.Community-led research

Community control is a key tenet of research justice. Research justice uplifts and values  marginalized communities as experts of their own lived experiences and, therefore, as leading experts in how to improve their everyday realities and overall well-being. When conducting research with marginalized communities, it is important to not only include community members, but to treat them as authorities in the research process. Trust and collaboration between researchers and community members are paramount, as demonstrated through the work of anthropologist Mariana Mora. Mora worked with a Zapatista community in Chiapas, Mexico to shape her research on Zapatista politics, autonomy, and self-determination. In her article “The Production of Knowledge on the Terrain of Autonomy: Research as a Topic of Political Debate”, Mora takes readers through her research process, describing the ways in which community members helped to shape and evaluate her research at every step, from research design to reviewing drafts of her 2017 book, Kuxlejal Politics: Indigenous Autonomy, Race, and Decolonizing Research in Zapatista Communities. Mora’s experience highlights the importance of community-led research, and provides a key example of how research can be designed and conducted in collaboration with community members.

4.Damage- vs desire-centered research

In an open letter to communities, researchers, and educators, Eve Tuck, Unangax̂ scholar, calls for a moratorium on damage-centered research – research that documents pain and oppression in an attempt to leverage change for marginalized communities. Tuck argues that damage-centered research frames marginalized communities as depleted and broken, perpetuating deficit narratives and defining communities solely by their marginalization. Tuck instead proposes a desire-based framework for research, in which lived realities are acknowledged alongside hopes and visions for the future (Tuck 2009). Research justice should employ a desire-based framework in order to avoid framing marginalized communities solely by what they lack, and to acknowledge the full spectrum of inequality, oppression, wisdom, hope, and the potential for change that exists within all communities.

Check out RJI’s reading library to dig deeper into these concepts and more:

These concepts and readings provide an overview of the key components of research justice, and it is only the tip of the iceberg. To continue exploring these ideas and access a wider range of resources, we encourage you to visit our growing RJI Zotero library. 

A powerful night of community, strength & supporting racial justice

State Sen. Khanh Pham sharing meaningful remarks as our featured speaker. Watch the full speech on our YouTube!

“Building community is what gets us through these times,” shared State Senator Khanh Pham to a packed room at this year’s Summer Soirée on June 13.

“It’s being in relationship with people who share our vision and our values – that is what helps us move out of fear and into collective action.”

At the Coalition of Communities of Color, this belief is at the heart of our mission. Our theme Rooted in Resilience was an important reminder that our strength is most powerful when shared, and grows when we’re together – even in the hard times, like the one we’re facing now.

We are so grateful to everyone who joined and supported our 2025 fundraising gala. We filled the night with a festive and meaningful atmosphere, with tunes by DJ Just Jeff, and folks enjoyed bites from our diverse selection of vendors that were both culturally rich and delicious.

A special thank you to our featured speaker, State Senator Khanh Pham, and our guest speakers, Mayor of Portland Keith Wilson and Oregon Community Foundation’s (OCF) Michael McIntosh, for their powerful and inspiring remarks.

Watch State Sen. Pham’s full speech at CCC’s Summer Soirée here!

View Full Album A Successful Summer SoirÉe

We extend a heartfelt thank you to OCF for being our presenting sponsor and for their support in helping make this night a success.

Together, with the power of community, we raised over $270,000 to sustain our work of transforming systems so that every Oregonian – across race, gender, or zip code – can thrive. At a time when our values are being attacked, your support means more than ever. Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who joined our CCC team at the Summer Soirée!

Because of these generous donations, we will be able to continue our efforts to provide research grounded in lived experience, solutions shaped by community voices, and policies that build a more just and resilient environment for those facing the first and worst of the climate crisis. See our work in action: watch our MADE for Health Justice video.

Didn’t have a chance to donate but want to support? Click here to make a donation today. Every donation makes a difference.

We hope you will join us next year as we celebrate our 25th anniversary! Details will be shared as they become available. Subscribe to our email list to stay in the loop.

Take a look at our event details:

Our special night took place at the OHSU Robertson Life Sciences Building. We are so grateful to OHSU for being our venue sponsor and for generously supporting our event.

A special shoutout to our host and vendors:

• Poison Waters as our Emcee and Auctioneer

• Devil’s Food Catering

• Plant Based Papi

• Annam VL

• DJ Just Jeff

And a special thank you to those who donated items for our raffle prizes and auction packages!

Thank you to our Summer Soirée sponsors!




Support CCC

The Green Economy Network (GEN) is a coalition of labour, environmental, and social justice organizations working to build a green economy in Canada. We are hiring a National Convenor to work with the GEN Management Committee and the GEN Members’ Council to convene GEN members for collaborative advancement of our organizational goals.  

Compensation: $27/hour part-time (average of 20 hours/week) with the possibility of increasing hours over time. 

Location: remote first with preference for Ottawa or Toronto based candidates 

Duties

+ Maintain regular contact with members in between scheduled meetings to ensure consensus and progress on GEN priorities. 

+ Organize and facilitate GEN meetings, symposia, and public-facing events. 

+ Build and execute a communication and media strategy to promote GEN’s policies as a consensus of labour unions and environmental and social justice organizations. 

+ Maintain GEN’s website and social media presence. 

+ Synthesize communications products from research and engagement developed by member organizations. 

+ Develop fundraising among stakeholders and non-member organizations. 

+ Other duties as required, such as coordinating lobby meetings with Members of Parliament and writing briefs, backgrounders, or popular education materials for members and the public. 

Qualifications and Experience 

+ Solid understanding and experience with climate change issues and policy, and the Canadian climate and labour movements. 

+ Experience with internal and external communications. 

+ Experience working with either labour unions and/or environmental groups and/or Indigenous communities will be an asset. 

+ Organizing experience is an asset. 

+ Strong written and verbal communication skills. Demonstrable skill in both official languages will be a further asset. 

+ Proficiency with WordPress, or similar CMS, and social media. 

+ Fundraising experience. 

Please send expressions of interest (resume and cover letter) to convenor@greeneconomynet.ca by August 21, 2025 at 3pm ET/12pm PT.

GEN is committed to employment equity and encourages members of equity-seeking groups to apply. 

**This opening is now closed. We are not accepting any further applications at this time. Thank you.

Applications due by August 27. Click here to view a full description of the job post.

JOIN OUR TEAM: The Coalition of Communities of Color (CCC) is excited to announce a new role within our Research Justice Institute! We’re looking to hire a dedicated and experienced Data Systems Administrator to lead the development and management of a robust, community-led, environmental justice data system. This role requires someone with technical expertise in developing data systems with a strong focus on equity.

Position Overview

As the Data Systems Administrator, you will lead the development, management, security, and accessibility of our community-led environmental justice data system. This is a first-of-its-kind opportunity to ensure that qualitative and quantitative data collected by community-based organizations is stored and made available in a way that supports equitable policy decision-making while respecting community ownership.  

We are seeking a data platform engineer and community-minded leader that understands both data systems and the ethical considerations of handling dominant institution quantitative and community-generated qualitative data, and shares our values and commitments to research and data justice. 

The Data Systems Administrator will play an integral role in advancing CCC’s Modernizing Anti-Racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) local level data ecosystem that will advance regional responses and approaches to extreme weather and climate justice needs. They will lead the development, implementation, and management of CCC’s environmental justice data systems, including selection and oversight of technical vendor(s) and building the back end of our data platform. They will also play a key support role in the Research Justice Institute’s quantitative research and data projects and reports.  

For complete details about responsibilities, qualifications and compensation, view the full job posting here.

About the Coalition of Communities of Color

Formed in 2001, the Coalition of Communities of Color is an alliance of culturally specific, community-based organizations engaged in collective action for racial justice. We work to improve outcomes for communities of color through advocacy, environmental justice, and research. Learn more about the Coalition of Communities of Color, its member organizations, and our Research Justice Institute.

TO APPLY

Please send a cover letter (max one page) and resume (max two pages) in one PDF file to HR@coalitioncommunitiescolor.org, with the subject line and file name “[Your name] — Data Systems Administrator.” 

Applications are due Wednesday, August 27.

View Full Job Post

Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy is a new podcast series from Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network that chats with the policy experts and front line trades workers about how climate action can create good jobs, make life more affordable, and debunk the myth that workers and the environment are at odds.

Hosted by Nick Pearce, National Convenor at the Green Economy Network, Class & Climate features conversations about the challenges of green industrial policy, and how workers can lead the way to fight inflation and climate catastrophe.

The series is being released over the course of the federal election. Subscribe to the Perspectives Journal podcast to get notified when the next episode is released. Here’s what you may have missed:

Episode 1: Green Industrial Policy with Jim Stanford and Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood

Economist Jim Stanford and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood define what green industrial policy is and explain why it’s having a renaissance in the middle of the Trump trade war. In this episode, Class & Climate argues that green industrial strategy can make life more affordable in the long-term, and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels while charting an independent economic course for Canada.

Episode 2: Building a Green Workforce with Lindsay Amundsen

Lindsay Amundsen of Canada’s Building Trades Unions explains what a just transition really means for workers—and how union-led training programs are preparing the workforce for the green economy. Amundsen makes the case for public investments in training, and for putting workers—especially those in carbon-intensive industries—at the centre of climate planning.

Listen to the Perspectives Journal podcast, available to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, and all other major podcast platforms.

The federal clean electricity regulations introduced today are a win for Canadians and lower emissions, but any change to the country’s grids must do more to support workers.

If done correctly, these regulations can help create hundreds of thousands of decent jobs in communities across Canada, lower energy bills and avoid hundreds of millions of tonnes of pollution that contribute to the droughts, floods and wildfires that wreak havoc across the country.

That will only be possible with workers at the table, substantial investments in skills and training, and a total commitment to creating good unionized jobs. 

These changes are a key part of the Green Economy Network’s Common Platform. Our Platform urges:

• Canadian electricity to be net-zero by 2035.
• $40 billion for transmission, renewables, upgrades and Indigenous and community power.

 

That’s why the regulations are welcome, but also why more must be done to complement them with a robust green industrial strategy described in the Common Platform that puts Canada on competitive footing with the European Union and the United States. 

To maximize its potential, Indigenous and community ownership and benefits must also be included to lock-in the support new energy projects need.

Further: the weakening of some of these regulations will mean more gas plants are slated to be built and that some fossil fuel plants will continue polluting to 2045 or later.

The fight to win jobs and an affordable, reliable, 100 percent clean electricity will continue, and we will keep fighting for affordable, secure, clean power for all with support for the workforce behind it.

It’s up to the provinces now to plan and implement electricity plans that go further than these federal regulations, and deliver for the workers and communities that produce and use clean energy.

The Green Economy Network (GEN) is mourning the loss of its founder Tony Clarke, 80,  a renowned advocate for social and environmental justice who leaves a foundational legacy in the Canadian climate movement.

 

In the years after the financial crisis of 2008, Clark united a broad coalition of those who saw the need to face the looming climate crisis with a plan that would address the ecological, economic, and equity challenges of our time. 

 

The result was GEN, an organization that continues to bring together diverse voices to support a just transition for Canadians.

 

In the early days of the organization, Tony did much of the spadework of coalition-building — producing GEN’s first documents and research and ensuring the network met its goals without a dedicated staff.

 

Clarke, a prolific writer and organizer who also led the Polaris Institute, acted as a mentor to many who went on to take on leadership roles among GEN’s membership. His profound impact bringing together diverse causes and movements continues to inspire GEN’s work.

 

Matt Firth, senior officer at CUPE National and a member of the GEN management committee, remembers that Clarke’s passion and commitment were always balanced with personal warmth and good humour. 

 

“Tony’s real strength was finding common bonds between people and the organizations that they represented,” Firth said. “I certainly miss him.”

 

GEN is committed to honouring Clarke’s memory by continuing to forge these ties between movements dedicated to a socially, economically and environmentally just Canada.

“Earth Day to May Day” Marcha Campesina, Skagit County, WA.  Photo credit: David Bacon

Happy Earth Day!

Started in 1970, the original Earth Day is often credited to Wisconsin Governor/Senator Gaylord Nelson, but there is actually a lot more grassroots action behind this story.  Spurred by the warnings of Silent Spring and 1969 catastrophes such as the Santa Barbara offshore oil spill and the Cuyahoga River catching fire, the young environmental movement organized a national day of campus teach-ins, mass demonstrations, and public school activities such as tree planting and beach cleanup.  An estimated 20 million people participated.  Given the tenor of the counterculture and anti-war movement at that time, a protest that focused on affirmative, solution-oriented actions was widely embraced by all – a little known fact is that the United Auto Workers (UAW) were the single largest financial supporter of the first Earth Day.

Earth Day actions led to the creation of the EPA, Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.  Over 50 years the idea has spread to nearly every country in the world.  But now, it has mostly lost the fierce and urgent edge that it once had.  If you attended Earth Day events over the weekend, you likely saw a pavilion with Exxon plastered on it or a stage sponsored by Chevron.  Every channel shows ads implying that “BP” stands for “Beyond Petroleum” (to that we say: “BS”).  Corporate co-optation and disinformation have neutered and ruined Earth Day, to the point where many in the environmental justice movement ignore it.

But EJ needs to reclaim Earth Day, to make it once again a day of protest, to exceed its inoffensive image by engaging in direct action and demanding the necessary policy changes and redistribution of resources to the grassroots communities and local economies that are fighting to protect their lived environments while also building real solutions from the bottom up.

Next week we will celebrate another holiday that is very important to our movements.  May Day has a much longer history, and over the centuries it has become complex and multi-faceted.  Originally a fertility ritual rooted in pre-Christian European cultures, May Day was a signal of the beginning of the planting season, and therefore it is inherently “green.”  In the 1880’s it gained its “red” aspect after May 1st was declared an international day of demonstration for all workers to demand respect and dignity, and it became firmly entrenched in the early labor movement as a commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs.  Ironically, International Workers’ Day has been pretty effectively suppressed in the United States where it originated, but it is a cherished reprieve from work and a vibrant day of action in many other countries.  Beginning in 2006, May Day became also “brown” after immigrant workers, mostly Latino and many undocumented, organized marches all over the US declaring that they were unafraid and demanding the human rights they deserved. To this day, our comrades at Familias Unidas por la Justicia organize an annual Marcha Campesina to call attention to farmworkers’ rights.

This “green/red/brown” vision of May Day is so important to us at the Just Transition Alliance.  It vibes perfectly with our history and our perspective.  We seek to bring together Labor and EJ movements, to center the voices of those on the frontlines and fencelines of production, and to build grassroots power as we restore health to the workers and families who keep our economies running, repair relationships with our neighbors and comrades in struggle, and regenerate thriving ecosystems in the places we call home.

Let’s make “Earth Day to May Day” a continuous ten-day festival.  A festival of action and organizing to make a better world possible.  A festival of resistance where we raise our voices, not allowing anyone to go on complacently accepting business as usual, where we demonstrate our visions by celebrating our grassroots solutions, and where we recognize our strength by joining together from many perspectives to become unified in our shared need to transcend beyond colonization, extractivism, and oppression.

Content Earth Day to May Day 2024 appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

JTA’s José Bravo with trainers Edgar Franks of Familias Unidas por la Justicia and Elizabeth Martinez of Comunidades Aliadas Tomando Acción.  Photo credit: José Bravo

We are so pleased to celebrate our first two trainings of 2024, using our newly updated and expanded program Tools for Systemic Change Toward a People’s Economy.  Our talented new cadre of popular education trainers are working together fabulously and raising the bar for engaging participant-driven education.

In February, Familias Unidas por la Justicia hosted a training in Mt. Vernon, WA.  And just last week Inland Communities for Immigrant Justice held one in San Bernadino, CA.  We have lots more trainings planned throughout the year, so stay tuned for updates!

Scenes from the training with Familias Unidas por la Justicia.  Photo credits: José Bravo

Scenes from the training with Inland Communities for Immigrant Justice.  Photo credits: José Bravo and Elizabeth Martinez

Content Successful Trainings with JTA Partners appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

Mar 15, 2020 – Canada is an empire of feelings w/ Audra Simpson

Reconciliation is dead. But how and why did it start in Canada? Kahnawake Mohawk scholar Audra Simpson argues reconciliation between settlers and Indigenous was meant only to heal the settler and to forever suspend the question of Indigenous revolution.

Listen to The Red Nation Podcast on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Apple Podcasts. Listen and download for free on Libsyn. 

The Red Nation Podcast is produced by Red Media and is sustained by comrades and supporters like you, power our work here: www.patreon.com/redmediapr

@therednationpodcast #Throwback ♬ original sound – The Red Nation Podcast

The post The Red Nation Podcast #Throwback appeared first on The Red Nation.