The CIDSE secretariat is pleased to share its 2024 Annual Report, which reflects on the challenges and hopes that have shaped this past year’s collective journey. Rather than merely documenting activities, the report invites readers to look beyond the struggles to the resilience, courage and solidarity that continue to inspire the work of CIDSE.
Below is a message from the CIDSE Secretary General offering a personal reflection on the past year and the vision that will guide us into the future.
As we look back at 2024, we may need to remind ourselves that human beings are hard wired to see the negative first, such as identifing risks, danger, failure and weaknesses. We struggle and must practice to be intentional about noticing the good actions, the encouraging news, and celebrating the wins. This is perhaps even more deeply embedded in our sector of international solidarity, where we focus a great deal on all the injustice and pain in the world that we would wish to address, redress, and heal. This past year has been no exception to the rule, it would be tempting to recall the many challenges we are facing in the world, and the abundance of very distressing developments at a political and ecological level, globally, and in several of the national contexts we work in. We are becoming accustomed to hearing and seeing so much violence and indifference that we are at risk of becoming desensitised and disillusioned.
And although the challenges are also being felt directly by aid and solidarity organisations, as well as among activists for social and ecological justice we see communities holding strong and organising. The pressure on their ability to continue their activities, weakening of international agreements and the rule of law, as well as a deprioritisation of solidarity, advocacy and justice work in the face of increased attention to security and defense could have made them give up. But it hasn’t. Their courage and resolve only grows.
Because, this is not the whole story. When we pay close attention, when we truly listen with our whole hearts and minds, we notice something brewing, organisations, communities continuing to fight injustice, one powerful and humble step at a time, fuelled by a hope and solidarity that are not blind, but fierce. We see people connecting, supporting each other, creating space to think, to reflect, to challenge, and to keep asking the right questions, and holding up the truth for all to see. We witness the courage of people everywhere, telling their story, in their words, not being imposed a narrative about their life and their future, and defending our collective dignity and humanity.
At CIDSE, we are proud to know these people, these communities, and to learn from them. We will continue to celebrate every small win in favour of greater justice and contribute however we can to building and nourishing just relationships within our human family. Please read our annual report through these eyes and help us notice together and lift up every whisper of story where life and justice shine their light.
Thank you for being on this journey with us and holding the line.
Josianne Gauthier
CIDSE Secretary General
CIDSE contact: Giorgio Gotra, Operations & Communication manager, (gotra(at)cidse.org)
Cover photo: Justice is Everybody’s Business – Commemoration of Rana Plaza in Strasbourg, 2024. © Abdesslam Mirdass, Friends of the Earth Europe.