Local Innovations Drive Inclusive Change
For smallholder farmers and community organisations, the ability to access finance and markets requires more than capital alone. It depends on information availability, effective organisation, and trust building between producers, buyers, and institutions within shared landscapes. Across Mozambique and Tanzania, SUSTAIN is strengthening these foundations step by step: improving market transparency, building financially capable cooperatives, and nurturing local institutions that can attract and manage investment. Together, these locally led innovations show how investment becomes possible when people are connected, organised, and equipped to engage with markets on their own terms.
Scroll down to discover the photographs and the stories behind each of them
A farmer in a maize field (Sumbawanga landscape)
Information as the first investment
In Mozambique, many smallholder farmers have traditionally faced fragmented markets and limited access to information on buyers, prices and demand. Kugulissa, a web-based and SMS platform, aims to tackle the gap by connecting farmers with village-based advisors, input suppliers and buyers in real time, even in contexts with low-connectivity.
The SUSTAIN initiative in collaboration with local governments and partners such as ADEM helped producers from Vanduzi and Báruè register to the platform, supporting linkages with 11 potential maize buyers who were interested in sourcing their crops.
Farmers in Sumbawanga landscape
For smallholders, this connectivity has been transformative, enabling them to respond to fluctuating market conditions and make more resilient business decisions. Through accessing up-to-date market information, farmers have been able to better understand buyer interest, compare options and make more informed business choices. Increased transparency has strengthened trust across the value chain, while real-time data has helped farmers plan ahead with more confidence.
By turning market information into a shared public good, Kugulissa lays the foundation for more investable, transparent, and inclusive value chains.
“Kugulissa sends an SMS to every registered farmer, off-taker or aggregator, telling them who is buying what crop, at which price and where. With that information in hand, farmers decide when and where to sell or even post their own offers for buyers to see. It cuts price speculation and makes the whole market more transparent.” — Manuel Queiroz, ADEM Executive Director, SUSTAIN Pro implementing partner.
Building market-ready cooperatives
Information alone is not enough. To translate market opportunities into better incomes, farmers need organisations that can aggregate supply, manage finances, and negotiate collectively. Across Ihemi and Kilombero, My.COOP, a capacity-building programme, has focused on strengthening Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies (AMCOS). The tailored training programme covers governance and leadership, financial health and capital formation.
Through this process, AMCOS were enabled to gain practical tools and guidance to become reliable service providers and value chain actors. Their members have already been able to access more competitive and lucrative markets for their produce. By strengthening governance, financial literacy and collective action, MY.COOP helps transform farmer groups into market-ready partners reducing risk for buyers and improving bargaining power for producers.
“Before the MY.COOP training, farmers sold individually and were often cheated by middlemen. Today, through AMCOS, we aggregate produce, use reliable weighing, plan production together, and access better and more stable markets.” — Mtimbira and Magulilwa AMCOS members, Tanzania
MY.COOP training conducted to four Cooperatives under the SUSTAIN Pro Initiative | Iringa, April 2024. Photo: Agriterra
MY.COOP training participants | Iringa, April 2024. Photo: Agriterra
Creating trusted local institutions networks
While access to markets is critical, long-term sustainability is also determined by community leadership and trusted networks. In Tanzania’s Kilombero Valley, the Kilombero Network of Conservation Champions (KNCC) unites 40 local institutions committed to community-led conservation.
The network provides a platform for collaboration, learning and action across sectors. Through targeted training, KNCC members have strengthened their governance, financial management and project design capacities enabling them to develop initiatives that respond to local priorities while meeting external funding requirements. The impact is already visible. Four KNCC community-based organisations secured competitive seed grants rolled out in early 2025 including funding for the Mazingira ni Uhai Foundation to expand community beekeeping initiatives in Vidunda.
Alongside this, the KNCC has helped spark conversations around financial sustainability, exploring long-term, revenue-generating activities that can support both conservation goals and local livelihoods over the long-term.
“Through the Kilombero Network of Conservation Champions, we strengthened our governance, financial management, and partnerships. This helped us access new funding, build trust with buyers, and support farmers to plan production more sustainably.” — Mazingira Ni Uhai Foundation (grantee), Kilombero
Official opening & establishment of the KNCC Platforms | Photo: AWF
A beekeeper on the way to the apiary for a routine inspection
Taken together, these initiatives reveal how innovation does not have to be high-tech to be effective. By making markets visible, strengthening collective organisations, and building credible local institutions, SUSTAIN is helping communities step onto the investment pathway with confidence. Whether through digital platforms, cooperatives or local networks, connection becomes capital and communities gain the agency to shape resilient, inclusive value chains rooted in their landscapes. Through being connected, communities give each other the power to create lasting and resilient change.
This article is a part of the SUSTAIN Stories campaign, which is celebrating the ongoing successes of SUSTAIN across its three pathways and the individuals and communities that make it possible. The SUSTAIN initiative is supported through the generous contributions of Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
