2020 Annual Report - Global Land Alliance

Pathway to Prosperity: Building Back Better for People and Places

Dear Friends,

We’re pleased to share the Global Land Alliance (GLA) Annual Report for 2020 with you, detailing highlights from our seventh year of operation.

2020 was unlike any other in any of our lifetimes. We faced the Covid-19 pandemic, the movement for Black lives protests in the US, social, racial and pro-democratic movements around the globe, unprecedented climactic events in every corner of our Earth including drought, fires and floods, and intensified migration flows from climate and conflict-affected regions.  At the same time, global mega-trends including rising inequality, population growth and technological change continued to put new pressures on land and land management systems.

The events of 2020 affected us all deeply. We have been shocked out of any complacency we may have had about the urgency of the challenges we face as a global community, and the critical role that land rights must play in addressing these challenges. GLA envisions secure and equitable land rights for all. Land rights managed for the sustainable prosperity of people and places is fundamental for building a more equitable tomorrow and ensuring a habitable planet.  But, 2020 has also exposed that both the scale of the challenges remains enormous and the already slow pace of change has been disrupted. We have learned from the experience of the past year that we must use our role as a small, catalytic organization to the best effect possible through global, local and hyperlocal partnerships that scale, through media and learning as well as through thought-leadership directed at donor organization and governments at all levels.

We deeply believe in the power and ability of local communities to construct durable, socially and environmentally beneficial land systems and seek to support these systems in partnership with resources mobilized from all possible sources - own assets, governments, donors, philanthropy and private sector investment. Going forward we will continue to work with you all to intensify and expand our commitments to our mission and build the world we envision, from the streets of Washington DC to the favelas of Brazil to the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Thanks so much for your support and partnership in securing land rights for all and Building Back Better for People and Places.

Sincerely,

Malcolm Childress, Executive Director; Kevin Barthel, Director of Programs