Our story began in 2011 with a question: why did so many communities remain vulnerable once donor-funded projects ended? After 25 years working alongside communities in Karamoja, West Nile, Acholi, Bunyoro and beyond, our co-founder Leonard Okello saw a different pattern take hold wherever the cooperative business model was used — people pooling resources, sharing responsibility and building businesses around common needs. Cooperatives proved their resilience even through the 2008 global financial crisis.

The Uhuru Institute for Social Development was established to help rebuild that model for Africa — combining capital with skills, technology, research and supportive policy, so that wealth creation can be inclusive, and locally led.