Our Theory of Change (MT) is designed to transform leadership practices and address power imbalances. We’ve been building a foundation for this by hosting activities like pods and forums that highlight the leadership principles in our manifesto and foster a sense of belonging and collective support among participants.
To create a deeper impact, we move to the next stage of our MT with the Capacity Sharing activities, which directly address the collective agency node of our MT.
We define collective agency as the power a group holds to act together with a common purpose, allowing them to leverage collective capacity and overcome challenges. It is grounded in shared goals and collaborative decision-making, fostering a sense of unity and commitment. This collaborative approach creates spaces in which actions can be planned, organized, and strategized.
The aim of the Capacity Sharing activities is to partner with existing collectives, organizations, and initiatives that are already working toward, or are willing to work toward, change in food and nutrition and systems.
Through these partnerships, we want to support leadership capacities and build collective agency. This will help mobilize coalitions and drive collective action—the next big steps in our ToC—to truly tackle power imbalances in food systems.
We adopt a co-production approach for our capacity-sharing activities, which means we don’t just offer solutions; we work together with our partners to identify their specific needs and co-design activities that help them achieve their goals.
We’ve successfully piloted our capacity-sharing activities with two amazing partners: Colansa and the Community Kitchens Network in Lebanon. You can learn more about these partnerships below.
Due to the September 2024 war in Lebanon and the rapid large-scale displacement, communities mobilized to assist the displaced, filling gaps left by formal humanitarian efforts. Through makeshift community kitchens sourcing food locally, Lebanon saw collective action emerge to support food systems during crises. These solidarity initiatives remain examples of collective support and agency—especially in critical times.
As part of the NGLC project, we recognized this as a pivotal moment to help guide Lebanon’s food system toward healthier, more resilient, and sustainable models in times of crisis. With this rationale, we have been implementing a pilot initiative to understand power imbalances faced by solidarity movements running community kitchens, support their collective action, and document their processes.
We connected with five community kitchen focal points to collect data through qualitative methods and identify challenges they faced. Findings were validated with the focal points, who, with the project team, identified two key activities to address their needs:
A) Technical Guidance Booklet – A comprehensive resource outlining best practices for setting up and operating community kitchens, covering essential themes.
B) Three-Day Training Workshop – A program focused on developing soft skills, including management, organization, leadership, psychological first aid, trauma-informed approaches, negotiation, conflict management, resolution, and communication.
The training workshops have been carried out. Currently, the team, in collaboration with the focal points, is finalizing and designing the technical guidance booklet in both English and Arabic. This initiative helped create a network for the community kitchen focal points to be used in current areas in Lebanon still in danger and in need, as well as future emergencies.
A partner of NGLC, Latin American and Caribbean Nutrition and Health Community of Practice (Colansa) is a network of organizations and professionals that work collaboratively to contribute with the development of healthy, sustainable and equitable food systems in Latin America and the Caribbean, as its name suggests.
After having Colansa in our Partnership Lap in Berlin, in 2025, and holding consultation meetings with them, NGLC helped identify one of the Community needs: the Hub for Gender and Intersectionality.
To create this hub, Colansa listed three requirements:
To co-design the conceptual framework and the governance plan, NGLC held a comprehensive workshop with Colansa members in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in June 2025. We also delivered a training on our eight leadership practices and how they can be integrated into Colansa’s governance strategy. The conceptual framework and governance plan are currently under development with Colansa.