The pandemic has confirmed to us the importance of building and nurturing connections. When development finance institutions, governments, corporations and other elites fail us, we have to come together under the leadership of indigenous peoples, front line communities, social movements and grassroots groups. We have to join forces to resist, to confront power imbalance and structural discrimination, to protect human and environmental rights, and to ensure development can be truly community-led. But how can we maximise our efforts, weave stronger connections and learn from each other?
In 2018, a group of activists and organizations working around development and human rights issues came together and started imagining a new system to facilitate linkages among communities and groups that provide support to community-led struggles. They had a question in mind: what if we could spread our branches and roots, as a global civil society community, to be better connected to each other?
To ensure this system would truly meet the needs of local communities, around 400 people from grassroots groups, indigenous peoples, and civil society organizations working from the local to the global were consulted through online surveys, focus groups, interviews, and consultative webinars. Together, we co-created and shaped what we now call the Community Resource Exchange (CRE).
What is the Community Resource Exchange?
The CRE is a system to facilitate collaborations and co-develop strategies with and among communities defending their rights in the context of international investments and development projects. It works at the direction of communities and their partners, to coordinate:
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Linkages with potential allies and collaborators
Exchange of information and resources
Sustained collaborations
Cross-learning among communities leading similar struggles
Access to small grants through regular calls
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