Groundswell International is a global network of NGOs spanning 11 countries across West Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Our mission is to build healthy food and farming systems from the ground up. We promote sustainable local food systems, and our work is anchored in agroecology—as a science, a practice, and a social movement. 

Groundswell International is seeking comprehensive, competitive proposals from qualified consultants or consulting firms to facilitate the co-creation of our next Strategic Framework for 2028 - 2032. A summary of our previous framework can be found here: Strategic Framework (2023-2027). 

Our current guiding questions for this process include: 

1. What goals from our previous framework do we want to retain, adjust, expand, or release? What do we prioritize, and what do we leave behind? 
2. Where have we grown in the past four years, and where do we want to grow for the next four? 
3. How do we intend to measure impacts? 
4. How do we account for a complex, changing environment? 

Requirements 

We are a network organization, where partners and a coordinating body work together; cocreation of knowledge, peer-to-peer learning, and participatory approaches are at the heart of our methodology. Our strategic planning process must mirror these principles. We would like to work with a consultant who not only can distill strategy for the next 5-year plan, but who also specializes in highly participatory and decentralized strategy processes across network organizations. 

The ideal consultant will possess the following: 

• Demonstrated experience developing strategies and strategic frameworks at an organizational level. 
• Fluency in current trends related to agroecology, sustainable local food systems, women and youth, climate resilience, access to markets, and territorial scaling. 
• Expertise in network-level and systems-related strategic planning. Experience formatting strategies for decentralized networks rather than top-down structures. 
• Deep experience with participatory methodologies. Proven expertise leading bottom-up, co-creative strategic planning for international networks and NGOs operating across multiple countries. 
• Cross-Cultural and Multilingual Capability: Proficient execution of multi-lingual processes. The individual or team must be capable of working across English, French, and Spanish to include our West African and Latin American partners.