Well Grounded

Well Grounded works across the Congo Basin for civil society organisations (CSOs) to provide organisation and strategy development support so that organisations can have real and sustainable impacts on forest governance and community rights. It connects organisations in the region to build a strong civil society voice.

CSOs in the Congo Basin are underfunded and overstretched and they often struggle to develop strategies and systems to improve their effectiveness. The international funder and NGO community can contribute to this situation as they don’t typically invest in core support for organisations and often expect immediate results over short-term project cycles. They also often support ineffective and top down ‘capacity building’ which doesn’t always address organisational needs.

Synchronicity Earth has worked with Well Grounded in a non-funding capacity since 2012 and staff have been a great source of advice as we developed our Congo Basin programme and identified partners. Since 2016, Synchronicity Earth has funded Well Grounded to work for several of our partners on areas such as strategy development and leadership. We have also funded Well Grounded’s leadership programme to develop strong (often female) conservation leaders in the region.