Last year was brutal for the cause of human rights that we hold dear, but together with our community and civil society partners around the world, we were still able to deliver some of the most meaningful impacts in our organization’s history.

These wins included:

• Helping displaced Cambodian communities secure a groundbreaking financial settlement from Asia’s largest sugar supplier.
• Supporting Guinean communities to negotiate crucial water access and protection agreements with one of the world’s largest bauxite mines, which has wreaked havoc on their rivers and streams. 
• Training dozens of advocates in Africa and Latin America on our Follow the Money research and advocacy methods. 
• Launching and gaining momentum behind our policy proposal for a new, rights-based approach to community participation in decision-making about mining and other large-scale investment projects that impact their land and lives.  

… and so much more.  

Read the full report online here. 

The post Against All Odds: Our 2025 Impact Report appeared first on Inclusive Development International.

Tenacity and persistence have always been at the core of Inclusive Development International’s approach: We accompany communities through innovative advocacy strategies and hard-nosed negotiations and we refuse to let companies off the hook until justice is delivered. The last two years were no exception.  

In our 2023-2024 Impact Report, we are proud to share our team’s many achievements—from helping displaced communities secure a historic remedial agreement with one of the world’s largest gold mining companies, to building a global “Follow the Money” community of practice.     

We are immensely grateful for all our supporters and our partners on the frontlines of the fight for a just and inclusive global economy, without whom none of these achievements would have been possible. 

Download the full report or read it online here.   

The post The Power of Persistence: Our 2023-2024 Impact Report  appeared first on Inclusive Development International.

Seema also worked for the United Nations based in Bangkok, where she implemented a regional environmental governance program, and practiced as a lawyer in Canada. She holds a master’s in international law, bachelor of laws (JD equivalent), and bachelor of arts, as well as various board and advisory level positions.

Seema’s insight will be vital to us as we scale up our efforts to advance a just and community-centered energy transition. We are so grateful that she is serving as our newest Board member.

The post Seema Joshi joins Inclusive Development International’s Board appeared first on Inclusive Development International.

George served as our Senior Attorney in the Southeast Asia region since 2016, working on land rights and forced eviction cases. Before that he was an informal advisor to Inclusive Development International since our inception in Cambodia in 2012 and a mentor and inspiration to our founders, who he had advised on land rights issues in Cambodia years before the organization was founded. His advice and support on the cases we’ve worked on in Cambodia helped stop forced evictions and secure the land tenure of hundreds of families.

But George had been doing this kind of work long before that, starting when he was a law student at the University of Hawaii in the early 1970s and became involved with Indigenous communities resisting forced eviction for resort developments in the Kalama Valley of Oahu. It was a turning point in George’s life, which put him on a course of supporting Indigenous land struggles throughout Oahu and Kauai and co-writing one of the most influential books in Hawaii history, “Land and Power in Hawaii: The Democratic Years.” Eventually he moved to Cambodia, where he spent most of the last 25 years working to secure the land and housing rights of Indigenous, rural and urban poor communities threatened with mass eviction.

George touched so many people throughout his life with his endless kindness and generosity. He was a man of immense integrity, which endeared him to everyone he worked with inside and outside of government and made him so effective at getting results for the people he helped.

We will miss George dearly, but his memory and his legacy will powerfully remain at Inclusive Development International as we carry on his life-work fighting for justice for people on the margins of the global economy.

The post In Memoriam: George William Cooper appeared first on Inclusive Development International.

– Gene Knudsen Hoffman, Compassionate Listening founder, international peacemaker

As we grieve for all who are affected by the terrible violence taking place in the Middle East and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, Inclusive Development International joins the demand for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages and arbitrarily detained persons. We call for concerted global action to bring about a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians that is predicated on respect for the shared humanity of both peoples.  

Both the Jewish and the Palestinian peoples have deep, unhealed wounds that have been violently ripped open once again. 

The horrific Hamas massacre on Oct 7–the worst mass-slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust–and rising antisemitism around the world, have deeply shaken the Jewish community in Israel and the diaspora, reopening the inter-generational trauma of centuries of persecution. 

The unspeakable devastation and humanitarian disaster that has been wrought in Gaza by the Israeli military’s indiscriminate bombardment and forced deprivation of the civilian population– where UN humanitarian agencies have reported that a child is being killed every 10 minutes and 1.7 million people have been displaced from their homes since the bombing began–adds a horrifying new chapter to the Palestinian people’s history of displacement, dispossession and dehumanization. Meanwhile, Palestinians living abroad have had to contend with a surge of Islamophobia and violent expressions of hate since this war began.

The one thing that the past 75 years should have taught us is that there is no military solution to this conflict. The cycle of violence will continue until the Palestinian people enjoy freedom, dignity, security and self-determination in their homeland and Israelis feel secure within their borders from atrocities like October 7th.

We echo the demands of United Nations human rights experts for: 

• A ceasefire agreement that brings an immediate end to the indiscriminate bombardment and siege of Gaza and the prompt delivery of humanitarian assistance, food, water, electricity and medical care to the civilian population of Gaza; 
• The immediate and unconditional release of all hostages taken by Hamas; 
• The release of Palestinians arbitrarily detained by the State of Israel;  
• The International Criminal Court to urgently expedite its ongoing investigation examining Rome Statute crimes committed by all parties since June 2014, including the escalation of hostilities since the attacks of October 7, 2023.  
  
  

As a US-based human rights organization that was founded to combat land-grabbing and forced displacement and advance just and inclusive development around the world, we stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle for human rights and liberation from illegal occupation. 

We demand an end to arms shipments by the United States to Israel that facilitate its grave breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law.  

We call upon the US government to instead use its influence to finally help forge a just and lasting peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians that guarantees equal rights, dignity and security to all people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

The post Statement on the Ongoing Violence in Israel / Palestine appeared first on Inclusive Development International.

Tity is an Afro-feminist and her many impressive achievements include authoring numerous articles and a co-written chapter in “Doing Peace the Rights Way,” a collection of Essays in International Law and Relations in Honour of Louise Arbour.

Tity’s wisdom and expertise will be invaluable to our team as we deepen our work supporting community-led development on the African continent. We extend a very warm welcome to Tity and are honored that she has agreed to serve as a member of the board.

The post Tity Agbahey joins Inclusive Development International’s Board appeared first on Inclusive Development International.

Our new, forward-looking strategy entails:
➡ Advancing a just and rapid clean energy transition through our case work and policy advocacy.
➡ Scaling our impact by building and training a global “Follow the Money” community of practice.
➡ Developing new public access data tools to bring radical transparency to global finance and trade.
➡ Exposing greenwashing and ESG washing wherever we see them, and promoting real human rights and climate solutions in their place.

As we continue to grow and confront the most pressing issues of today, we are overwhelmed with gratitude for all who have supported and continue to support us as we meet this moment together.

Read the report online or download the PDF.

The post Meeting the Moment: Our 2022 Annual Report appeared first on Inclusive Development International.

It’s been 10 amazing years since Inclusive Development International was founded. In that time, we’ve grown from two people working from a basement office to a team of 22 researchers, advocates and organizers collaborating across geographies and time zones. 

This organization was born out of a desire to shift power back to communities to defend their rights and resources in the face of harmful corporate and “development” projects. Preparing our 2021 Annual Report has given us an opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come. 

Thanks to our supporters and donors—many who have been with us since day one—we’ve been able to work with hundreds of communities around the world, preventing harms in a dozen  projects, and securing over $10M in material remedies for communities in cases where harm had already occurred.  

We hope you enjoy reading about this work and the tens of thousands of families impacted. 

The post Shifting Power: Our 2021 Annual Report appeared first on Inclusive Development International.

We’re hoping you can support our mid-year fundraising appeal to help make this vision a reality.

Inclusive Development International works with community partners around the world to hold some of the wealthiest and most powerful corporations accountable. Right now, we are working to hold Rio Tinto, Alcoa, Total, HeidelbergCement, AngloGold Ashanti, Coca-Cola and China Nonferrous Metals (to name just a few) to their human rights and environmental responsibilities in cases of egregious corporate abuse in Africa and Asia.

As you can imagine, it’s not easy going up against multinationals that have small armies of corporate lawyers on their payroll and larger market caps than the GDPs of many of the countries where they are causing harm.

But there’s something these corporate giants don’t have going for them – ordinary people like you and me willing to take a stand in solidarity with communities around the world who dare to push back, who dare to take on the “impossible” fights and who dare to win.

The Achilles heel of these corporations is the tenacity of organized and unified communities who take great risks to defend their rights and resources and demand a seat at the table. 

Using the financial data and advice that Inclusive Development International provides through our ‘follow the money’ investigations, and bolstered by our advocacy alongside transnational coalition partners, we have seen how communities in remote parts of the world can win their struggles against corporate Goliaths.  

We’ve set a target to raise $25,000 during our mid-year appeal to boost our efforts.
Can you make a donation today to help us reach our target?

Funds raised from our mid-year appeal will help cover the costs of evidence collection, negotiation training and litigation to bolster community-led struggles for corporate accountability and inclusive development in Guinea, Liberia, Uganda, Indonesia and Cambodia.  

If you’re in a position to help, please make a donation today.  And even if you can’t donate at this time, could you help us reach our target by sharing this message with your friends who may be interested in supporting this important work?

Together we can build a just and sustainable global economy.

Thank you so much for your support.

David Pred
Executive Director

Contributions to Inclusive Development International are tax deductible in the United States to the fullest extent of the law. Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 1-888-830-4989 within (within North Carolina) or (919) 807-2214 (outside North Carolina).

Tax deductible contributions can be made to Inclusive Development International in Australia through Partners for Equity. If you wish to make a donation in Australia, please email Linda Fox at linda@partnersforequity.org for details.

The post Mid-year fundraising appeal appeared first on Inclusive Development International.

When Inclusive Development International takes on a new case supporting communities to defend their rights against a harmful corporate project, we commit for the long haul. 

We’re really pleased to share our 2020 Annual Report because it highlights several significant victories that have been many years in the making.

The companies our community partners are up against are amongst the biggest and most powerful in the world – Rio Tinto, Alcoa, Total, China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group, AngloGold Ashanti, Coca-Cola, Mitr Phol, HAGL, ANZ Bank, to name just a few.  

Our ability to leave no stone unturned in supporting community struggles for justice against these corporate Goliaths is only possible thanks to supporters and donors like you who have enabled us to stick with our community partners for as long as it takes. 

We hope you enjoy reading about the impact we achieved together in a very challenging year.

The post Lighting the path to justice: Our 2020 Annual Report appeared first on Inclusive Development International.