Defending the movements driving change: what the next chapter demands of our sector
By outgoing Peace Brigades International (PBI) UK Director, Ben Leather
After four and a half years leading PBI's UK Office, I'm stepping back from the Director role. Before I go, I want to say something about where I think we are - and where we need to go.
The human rights and environmental sectors are operating in conditions that would have seemed extreme even a decade ago. Civic space is shrinking on every continent. Governments that once at least said they committed to international norms are now openly hostile to the institutions that uphold them. And the people doing the most consequential work - community organisers, Indigenous leaders, journalists and lawyers - face complex threats, with fewer resources and less attention than the scale of the crisis demands.
None of this is new to those of us working in this space. But the pace of deterioration is accelerating, and I think we need to be honest about what it means for how we work.
On Localisation
A lot of things have to come together to make lasting change, but both the seeds that spark successful campaigns - and the momentum that drives them - tend to be local. Complex investigations and transnational litigation are often required to expose and prosecute the powers behind the worst abuses. Invariably, however, it was a local community, victim or whistleblower who gathered the evidence to start the process. Protest movements, advocacy groups and electoral campaigns then mobilise to convert global headlines and accountability mechanisms into ground-level transformation.
These grassroots movements face extreme risks for their vital role in the ecosystem. There is a real danger that governments, donors and international organisations - stretched and under strain themselves - overlook them. Instead, any strategy, portfolio or campaign should tackle head-on the difficult questions of how to ensure that local groups have the funds, the information, the power and the protection they need to be effective over the long term.
On KNOWLEDGE
Under pressure, organisations tend to withdraw into silos; without the space to innovate or the capacity to connect. Convention and dogma can stifle the creativity and risk-taking that has always been inherent to effective activism. Meanwhile, perpetrators are harnessing wealth, connections and technology to escalate abuses. The imbalance is growing.
We need to grow and pool our collective knowledge. We need to understand our adversaries and our potential allies: how they take decisions, and why they might take a different one; what messages resonate with them, and who might carry those messages most effectively.
Some of PBI's richest analysis comes when we cross locally gathered intelligence with sectoral and insider expertise. But significant analysis - within and beyond the sector - remains untapped and out of reach. We must find secure ways to harness technology and democratise access to the data and insight that can make change and save lives.
On FUNDING
The funding environment for human rights and protection work has shifted profoundly. Governments have cut aid budgets dramatically. Philanthropic capital is available but concentrated, and often structured in ways that reward visibility over effectiveness. Smaller, decentralised organisations - and the local movements they support - bear a disproportionate share of the resulting instability.
I've spent much of my time at PBI thinking about how an organisation like ours builds financial resilience without compromising independence or diluting focus. There are no easy answers. But I've come to believe that organisations in our space need to invest seriously (and collectively) in diversified income strategies, effective donor stewardship, and making the case for reliable, long-term funding of both the innovative and the proven. Not just to survive, but to do the work effectively and sustainably in a rapidly evolving world.
On What comes next
I leave the role even more committed to this work than when I arrived, and convinced that the sector's capacity to respond to the current moment depends on strengthening the organisations within it: their strategies, their governance, their income models, their access to tools and information, and their relationships - both with the people they exist to support, and with one another.
I'm moving into a new chapter: consulting part-time, while also supporting PBI's International Secretariat with strategy and development. I'll be working with human rights, environmental and philanthropic organisations on strategic development, fundraising, communications, investigations and campaigning. If you're working in the sector and navigating any of the pressures I've described here, I'd love to hear from you.
It has been a pleasure to watch PBI evolve and adapt to support and protect some of the world's most at-risk human rights defenders. It is their victories that make me most proud. PBI is an organisation with solidarity at its core, and I am deeply grateful to everyone who volunteered their time, gave generously, contributed expertise or campaigned alongside us for change. I am proud to have played a small part in it, and delighted to remain involved in the broader organisation's next phase.
Ben Leather was PBI’s UK Director from April 2022 to June 2026. He now works as an independent consultant. You can contact him at hello@benleatherconsulting.com.
