Mission

Village Earth empowers communities to sustainably access and manage the resources needed to achieve their vision for the future by working directly with communities as allies, distributing appropriate technology information, as well as providing training, consultation and networking services to individuals, communities and organizations around the globe.

Background

Village Earth was born in 1993 at an International Conference on Sustainable Village-Based Development in Fort Collins, Colorado, where more than 300 participants from 30 nations created the Consortium for Sustainable Village-Based Development (CSVBD) and gave it the mandate to implement and train others in the strategies discussed during the conference. Since its inception Village Earth has trained and consulted with hundreds of individuals and organizations in countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Bosnia, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mexico, Columbia, and elsewhere.

Values

• We believe that communities must be empowered to access and manage the resources they need to be self-sufficient and sustainable.
• We trust and value the ability of local communities to shape and create their own vision for the future, as well as the path to move toward it.
• We believe that transparency and participatory decision-making is central to the goal of social justice and sustainability.
• We believe that working toward ecological sustainability must be a priority for all societies to ensure peace and prosperity for all peoples.
• We appreciate and respect the diversity and differences among our constituents and our collaborators.

Activities

Village Earth achieves its mission through a number of activities, including:

• Training individuals and organizations in the Village Earth approach to sustainable community-based development.
• Consulting with individuals and organizations to help promote more equitable and community-based approaches.
• Providing external and participatory evaluations of development programs and projects.
• Networking organizations around the world to ensure greater cooperation and communication.
• Making appropriate technology resources and information available to community-based projects through our 1050 volume Appropriate Technology Library.
• Initiating sustainable community-based development projects

Affiliations

Village Earth has a direct affiliation with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) at Colorado State University (CSU). IISD and Village Earth partner to make accessible the people and resources of CSU to community development projects around the world.