It is estimated that 70 billion dollars in transfers are needed to eliminate the poverty gap. The aid sector currently spends 135 billion dollars every year, much of it on interventions lacking evidence.

The findings of Kamilisha experts, who have worked in most intervention areas in the DRC for nearly 20 years, reveal that despite numerous interventions, communities have not developed the ability to capitalize on and promote local resources. The reality is simple: despite abundant resources and human potential, many communities continue to face major economic and social challenges. Therefore, in 2020, nearly 30 experts and humanitarian practitioners decided to reflect on simple and adapted ways to encourage communities to embrace this approach. Faced with the limits of traditional approaches, we chose to help build an organization capable of providing concrete and sustainable solutions.

Through a network of traders and incubators, we seek to build partnerships with buyers along production and processing chains in order to facilitate market access for beneficiaries' products. We want to experiment with a model that enables communities to earn a living from what they can produce themselves.

Thanks to partner incubators, adapted project models are implemented on the ground, such as the production of bread, flour, biscuits and juices. We want to change the paradigm that local products are ineffective by making them high quality and competitive. Through this vision, products will become available in the DRC and across Africa, generating income and improving communities' lives.

This partnership now facilitates the development of complementary initiatives. It supports agrifood processing through the production of bread, biscuits and juices made from local resources. Livestock activities are also developed, including goat, cattle and poultry farming, to strengthen community livelihoods. These efforts are supported by agricultural activities such as pineapple, fruit and vegetable production, ensuring both food security and economic opportunities.

At the heart of this approach is a strong conviction: community development depends on communities' ability to leverage their own resources. Through its interventions, Kamilisha works to build a model where people can live with dignity from their own production by relying on their skills, their environment and their capacity for innovation.