Fairtrade Africa’s new 2026–2028 strategy focuses on strengthening farmers’ market access, resilience, and voice in a rapidly changing global trade environment. Leaders say success is built on deeper partnerships, stronger producer capacity, and turning compliance pressure into real opportunity.
Strategy has a way of sounding like it belongs in a boardroom, far removed from the places it is supposed to touch. But for Fairtrade Africa’s leadership, the 2026–2028 strategy is not an abstract document. It is a recalibration of what it will take for farmers and workers to stay in business, earn a decent living, and still have a say in how global trade treats them.
This new three-year cycle brings together three senior voices shaping that direction: Chris Oluoch, programmes director at Fairtrade Africa, Madeline Muga, strategy and impact director, and Paul Colditz, commercial director.
Each sees the same shift from a different angle, but the direction is unmistakable. The organisation is tightening its focus, sharpening its tools, and working in a world that is becoming more regulated, more volatile, and less forgiving.
A strategy built around people, not theory
For Muga, the starting point of the new strategy is simple. It is about people.
“At the heart of the strategy is farmers and workers earning a decent living, building resilience, and having a voice,” she says.
But the reason for the reset is just as important. Fairtrade Africa has moved from one strategic cycle into another, and the world around it has not stayed still. Regulations are tightening. Markets are shifting. Climate pressures are intensifying.
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“We needed to look at what is driving the system, what challenges we are facing, and what we have done well,” Muga explains. “Then set priorities for the next three years.”
That reflection has influenced a more direct response to one of the biggest changes in global trade: regulation. From EU deforestation rules to corporate due diligence requirements, producers are now expected to prove not just that they comply, but that they can trace, verify, and defend every part of their supply chains.
For Fairtrade Africa, that means the strategy cannot just support farmers in principle. It must actively help them survive in a compliance-heavy world.
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From supporting producers to positioning them
If Muga frames the “why”, Paul Colditz focuses on the “how”.
He does not hesitate with the tone of the new strategy. “Ambitious,” he says. “We are striving to ensure farmers and workers can enjoy a decent livelihood.”
But ambition, in his view, is not about scale for its own sake. It is about repositioning producers in the market.
“This is a shift from just supporting producers on commercial matters,” Colditz explains, “to positioning them to compete and thrive.”
That shift matters. It changes Fairtrade Africa’s role from facilitator to something closer to a catalyst. The focus is now on connecting producers directly to market opportunities, improving how their products are presented, and ensuring they are visible in the places where purchasing decisions are made.
Colditz is also clear about what is driving urgency: climate shocks, price volatility, and inflation.
“On cocoa and coffee especially, climate impacts have created volatility,” he says. “We need to build resilience so producers can meet the market.”
But he returns again and again to one idea. Producers already understand their business better than anyone else.
“Our farmers and workers are the best sellers of their products,” he says. “Our job is to position them so they can take advantage of the market.”
Programmes under pressure to deliver more
For Oluoch, the strategy question is operational. What actually changes on the ground?
The answer, he suggests, is focus.
“The operating context has really changed,” Oluoch says. “We need to reposition and refocus our ambitions to deliver impact and value for producer organisations.”
A major emphasis in the new strategy is compliance. Not compliance as paperwork, but as survival infrastructure. Producers must now meet Fairtrade Standards while also navigating a growing web of external regulations.
That means helping organisations strengthen internal systems, governance structures, and risk management capacity. It also means making sure they are ready for both EU and other global market requirements.
But Oluoch is careful not to reduce the strategy to compliance alone. There is a wider agenda at play.
“We are also deepening impact,” he says. “Not just compliance, but ensuring producers are better positioned to engage with markets and manage risks in their environment.”
That includes innovation, cost management, and sustainable production practices that can stand up to scrutiny from both regulators and buyers.
Partnerships are no longer optional
If there is one word that runs through all three perspectives, it is partnerships.
For Muga, partnerships are essential for advocacy and resource mobilisation. Fairtrade Africa works with civil society organisations, research partners, and governments to ensure that farmer and worker voices are not lost in policy debates happening at the national, regional, and global levels.
There is also a financing dimension. The strategy leans heavily on blended finance, climate funding, and impact investment to support capacity building and compliance.
“This is not something we can deliver alone,” she says.
Coldits echoes that thinking from a commercial angle, but with a sharper market lens. He describes a shift among global retailers and brands who are increasingly realising they cannot manage sustainability risks on their own.
“In the past, companies saw sustainability as a competitive advantage over each other,” he says. “Now they are recognising they need to work together.”
That shift opens the door for Fairtrade Africa to act as a connector between companies, sometimes even forming consortia that pool effort rather than duplicate it.
Oluoch adds another layer. With limited resources and a short three-year window, delivery will depend on co-financing and joint implementation. “Producers, donors, governments, NGOs,” he says. “All of them are part of the delivery model now.”
Making the strategy real, not theoretical
Madeline Muga is most concerned with one thing: that the strategy actually lands. “It is not business as usual,” she says. “We need to be very focused.”
That focus includes tracking results more tightly, digitising systems, and making sure staff are aligned across all pillars of the organisation. Internal clarity, she argues, is what will determine external impact.
Oluoch takes it further into organisational capacity. The strategy includes a deliberate push to strengthen internal skills, governance systems, and efficiency.
“If we do not build internal capacity, we will not deliver,” he says plainly.
That includes not just Fairtrade Africa staff, but also producer organisations themselves, many of which still need support in governance and internal controls.
What success actually looks like
By the time the conversation ends, one thing is clear – although Madeline Muga, Paul Colditz and Chris Oluoch each speak from very different portfolios, they are ultimately describing the same destination.
For Muga, the focus is on impact: higher incomes, stronger livelihoods, greater producer voices, and more resilient communities.
For Colditz, the focus is on markets: more producers selling more products under Fairtrade terms, with stronger and more reliable access to buyers.
For Oluoch, the focus is on programmes and preparedness: producers who can meet changing requirements, manage risk and remain competitive in a changing world.
Together, these priorities form the heart of the 2026–2028 strategy. This is not a strategy designed for comfort or ideal conditions. It is built for the world producers are living in.
A world of changing regulations, a changing climate and volatile markets. A world where millions of farmers and workers still do not earn enough from the systems they depend on.
The strategy does not pretend to solve all of that. But it does offer something grounded and practical: stronger support, greater resilience, improved market access and a more powerful producer voice.
At its heart sits a simple but important idea: that producers should not have to face that future alone.
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