We Effect has been active in Mozambique since 2003, with the aim to improve the livelihood of people living in poverty, particularly those that are from rural areas and especially women.
There are currently two offices in Mozambique; the Country Office in the capital Maputo and a Programme Office in Lichinga, the provincial capital of Niassa. We Effect changed its name to We Effect from Centro Cooperativo Sueco in 2013.
We Effect’s main work includes the mobilisation of resources and organisational capacity building of our partners, to enable them to effectively meet the member driven services of their membership in a sustainable manner – and to ensure members claim their rights.
In Mozambique, We Effect supports farmers’ organisations and organisations working with natural resources and the right to land. The support is about strengthening civil society and informing people living in poverty about their rights and about local democracy, so that they can increase their influence over power-makers. We Effect also works with rural development and gender equality issues.
In Southern Africa, study circles are an important tool for improving the living conditions for women and men living in poverty in rural areas. The study circle is a small learning group of 5-15 people that have voluntarily come together to learn about a particular subject of mutual interest. This self-governing group holds regular meetings which are collectively scheduled to carry out the study plan. Study circles aim at developing capacity and competence through interactive exchange of scientific and indigenous knowledge within the study group and during field and look & learn visits. This ultimately leads to increased resilience and improved productivity/production, group savings and loans and local business development. The study circles currently have over 400,000 members regionally and the regional study circle resource centre is based in Zambia.
Smallholder farmers have challenges accessing affordable loan products and other forms of credit from formal financial institutions, for financing and developing their businesses. Therefore We Effect – through our partner organisations – also support the right holders to involve in financial services where saving and loan groups, financial literacy and linkages to formal financial services are key concepts and approaches.
