CEO's letter: People and DEI report 2022

A warm hello from One Acre Fund. This year I am sharing our second annual People and DEI Report, which reports on our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Through this report, we share our progress on our goals for our people as openly as we share our progress in our work for farmers.

Go to the full report >>

Our ability to make farmers more prosperous depends on our team. Over the last year, we’ve grown to almost 10,000 talented staff. We believe in honoring each staff member as the unique individual they are and supporting them to develop into who they can become.

In 2020-21, we shared the urgency of building a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive One Acre Fund. In 2021-22, we moved from vision to action. In particular, we made significant improvements to equity in staff pay, benefits and performance management, advancing two of our core commitments to staff. We defined policies we can explain clearly and uphold proudly for every staff member, at every level.

Hundreds of people championed these changes. Thank you to everyone who shaped our vision for the future, and did the complex work of bringing that vision to life in every corner of the organization. 

At the same time, we are still falling short in some areas. We’re learning to balance doing something fast and doing it well. We’re also learning that a tight focus is necessary to make progress, but an emphasis on one area can lead to trade-offs in another. For example, we have made big gains on representation of nationality, but need to put more emphasis on gender, and to consider the intersections between the two. 

In 2023, we will maintain our focus on our core commitments to staff. We’re also growing from launching DEI initiatives to embedding DEI into how we operate. DEI used to be owned by a few staff groups; now, it’s part of how we define leadership in our organization.

This work is ongoing and will take years to become a permanent muscle at One Acre Fund. At the same time, it’s also important to take stock of our progress. We now know where we are going and are confident that we are headed in the right direction. We look forward to sharing our progress—and lessons learned—with you again next year. 

Andrew Youn, CEO