“I am working on a plan that I love.”

Transform Trade/Nashon Otieno

In Kenya, we’re piloting a new approach that is becoming more and more central to the whole of our work. Rather than bringing top-down solutions, we’re asking farmers who are experiencing injustice in trade to create solutions with us.

Edith, a farmer in Meru County, recently explained to us what difference this approach makes…

“It was my first time ever to write a business plan and it was very hard but I’m proud I came up with it. I believe in what we put together.

Doing it has helped us understand the business better. I sat for three hours before I even started writing to think about what I wanted to put down so the business can be profitable. It’s a plan that will take a long time.

Previously people brought things to me and I wasn’t involved in the thinking process. The things they brought could be easily mis-used. I’m now spending my time using my mind to come up with a plan I love.

This way of doing things costs me something, I got no money or gifts for the time I spent working on it but I prefer to work this way. They’re my ideas and I want them to work.”

You can see that working in partnership with communities from the very start leads to a better tailored solution. But crucially, it grows local leadership and builds local skills.

Together we can carve out a path to truly sustainable change.