Community Agribusiness Partners launches in Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania
A new network of independent, community-based entities, CAP will build on the work of the Clinton Development Initiative.
Community Agribusiness Partners (CAP) has launched as a network of independent, community-based entities dedicated to promoting economic growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa. CAP will be focused on strengthening the capacity of smallholder farmers and their communities across Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania, with an emphasis on localization – making decisions, setting priorities, and vesting power in local leaders.
The CAP network is made up of community-based organizations that have worked for nearly two decades as the Clinton Development Initiative (CDI), a former initiative of the Clinton Foundation. With the launch of CAP, these organizations will now operate independently of the Clinton Foundation and be led and driven at the local level.
President Clinton announced the creation of CDI in 2006, as a commitment to Action through the Clinton Global Initiative. For nearly two decades CDI partnered with more than 200,000 farmers through more than 134 farming cooperatives to create new supply chains, markets, production techniques, and financial services that support improved incomes, greater access to goods and services locally, better nutrition, and stronger communities. That work will transition to a more locally-focused network, as the Community Agribusiness Partners.
“We started our work in 2006 with the belief that farmers could better support themselves, their families, and their communities if they had the right information, tools, and connections,” said President Bill Clinton. “That simple idea grew to a program that supported 200,000 farmers over nearly 20 years. Now as an independent, community-led network, I look forward to seeing Community Agribusiness Partners carry the work forward and continue to help build better tomorrows.”
Each CAP entity will have its own leadership and boards at the national and regional levels. CAP is currently onboarding local farmer cooperatives and creating this localized leadership structure, with farmer voices playing a key role within each entity and directing strategy. These entities will coordinate at a global level to capitalize on cross-border opportunities for partnership and business.
“This move to an independent, locally-focused entity will strengthen our network’s commitment to these farmers working together,” said Ariana Constant, Director, Community Agribusiness Partners. “Farmers across Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania – and beyond – are working to sustain more predictable and lucrative agri-centered businesses. CAP’s job is to help unlock access to new partners and services, while respecting and maintaining the unique local focus and authority of each cooperative.”
The CAP Approach
CAP expects to operate in communities with farmers to help them achieve long-term sustainability. CAP takes a multi-pronged approach in each community where it works:
Mobilizing smallholder farmers into productive farmer groups: Farmers join semi-formal farming groups to share knowledge, produce together, increase market bargaining power, reduce risk, and lower administrative costs, and save and transact to improve group financial security.
Supporting farmer groups to address internal knowledge and capacity gaps: Farmer groups and cooperatives undertake internal needs and capacity assessments and collectively address supply, aggregation, logistics, governance, marketing, financial management, and business development gaps. These cooperatives and farmer groups help farmers be better equipped to engage in agribusiness and access supply and output markets.
Facilitating introductions and relationships between farmer groups and critical business partners: CAP helps develop relationships between farmer groups and cooperatives, and critical business partners, including financiers, suppliers, market off-takers, and governance support. These connections help farmer groups and cooperatives access productive resources and consistently sell quality products at competitive prices.
A Record of Impact
Since 2006, the organization (as CDI) established a strong record of achievements and impact, including:
More than 200,000 smallholder farmers in Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania have benefited from climate-smart agronomic training, higher crop yields, and increased market access since CDI began. Within this group, CDI has helped form and strengthen 134 cooperatives with more than 65,000 members across the three countries.
In 2023, women represented 52 percent of farmers who worked in partnership with CDI.
CDI has worked with, and supported farmers in the formation of, more than 5,603 farmer groups —smaller, localized groups that come together to form cooperatives.
$1,200,000 in loans has been made available to farming communities, with 82% of the loans from the 2021-2022 season provided by five banks across three countries facilitated by CDI.
$6 million in revenue has been generated by farmers and farming communities in Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania through the sale of nearly 48 million pounds of high-quality maize, soybeans, sunflower, and beans since 2018.
In Malawi and Tanzania, CDI has supported farmers in the planting of more than 4.6 million trees to diversify their incomes and build climate resiliency through forest garden and agroforestry systems.
