Lasting economic change rarely comes from outside intervention. Across the social impact sector, evidence increasingly shows that community-owned and locally led economic models deliver stronger, more durable results; particularly in post-conflict and underserved regions. Small and medium enterprises account for the vast majority of jobs globally, in many emerging economies, MSMEs contribute up to 70% of GDP, proving they are the primary drivers of value circulation. When this value remains local, it strengthens income, trust and long-term resilience. 

This principle was central to the Power of Local Challenge: identifying entrepreneurs who remove barriers to opportunity by building shared ownership, strengthening local networks, and keeping economic value within communities. Globally, investment in inclusive and community-driven economic models has grown rapidly in recent years, reflecting rising confidence in locally owned solutions.

For Francis Kumakech, Founder of Resilience from Within and Ashoka Changemakers Power of Local Challenge winner, he saw that when communities co-invest in shared assets, participation deepens and resilience grows. In a six-month pilot, that approach led to 20–40% income increases for 68% of participants, with zero dropout; demonstrating the power of community-rooted, shared ownership models at work.

In this conversation, he reflects on the role of local ownership and the systemic change that occurs when communities own their own economic future. 

Question: what was the moment that made you realize your idea could transform your community, and why does this approach work where others haven’t? 

The transformation began the moment we introduced a shared, co-invested asset. We could see in real-time the dynamic shifting from passive waiting (through traditional giving models) to active agency. The group began collaborating, engaging more deeply, and holding one another accountable; responsibility became collective rather than individual. When others in the community started asking to join, it was clear we hadn’t just launched a project, we had built a system. 

Our approach succeeds because it focuses on a circular economic system, so value is reinvested instead of leaving the community. This model creates a continuous engine for stability and growth, fueling personal savings for household needs, an internal bank for small business loans and profit-sharing from collective enterprise. In this system, money doesn’t just arrive, it circulates, multiples, and remains. 

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Q: What achievements are you most proud of, and how has it impacted the communities you serve? 

What I am most proud of is resisting the pressure to provide individual handouts. By trusting the community to manage a collective asset instead of distributing one-off cash, we transformed recipients into a board of directors. For example, in one group, members chose to reinvest profits from their milling enterprise into an internal bank and fund new household startups. Today, that core business is scaling into catering services. 

The impact goes beyond economics. We have seen dependency decrease, household costs drop and access to services improve through sheet community discipline. We have also seen growing confidence, discipline, and long-term cooperation.

Q: As a winner of an Ashoka Changemakers Challenge, how has this helped advance your work and achieve tangible impact?

Winning the Ashoka Changemakers Challenge gave us credibility and momentum at a pivotal stage. It enabled us to expand beyond our pilot and launch initiatives with three additional community groups. The support helped us acquire our first field motorcycle, hire data collectors, and strengthen our financial management. It also attracted a new donor, encouraged by Ashoka’s endorsement. Most importantly, it allowed us to move from experimentation to intentional scaling of the Closed-Loop Economic System. 

Q: How do communities themselves drive and shape this work, and what have you learned about local leadership in creating lasting change?

Communities drive the work through what we call sweat equity: before any asset is deployed, groups contribute their time, immediately shifting ownership and power to the collective. We learned this is essential after seeing shared assets taken over by individuals, which eroded trust. 

In our model, assets belong to the group, and decisions are made collectively, guided by mindfulness practices that manage conflict and build trust. True local leadership emerges when communities are involved from the start. When people define their own priorities and solutions, they protect and sustain them.

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Q: What has been the most surprising lesson you’ve learned about what works (or doesn’t) in building resilient communities?

Not necessarily surprising, but the most important lesson is that communities never needed to be ‘spoon-fed’. They already understand the challenges and opportunities better than most. Our role is not to lead from above, but to participate alongside them, listen deeply, and help structure systems that let their wisdom guide the work. When we act as community members rather than external experts, resilience emerges naturally.

Q: Looking ahead, what’s the bold change you hope to achieve in the next five years?

In the next five years, we aim to reach 1,500 households across five districts in Northern Uganda, impacting roughly 9,000 people. We want to empower youth to start enterprises that create jobs and strengthen local economies.

Beyond direct impact, we are building systems for sustainability: developing Datalizer Pro, an automated monitoring tool to lower M&E costs for small organizations, and digitizing learning content so communities can access training independently. By combining earned income with community enterprise profits, we aim to reduce dependency on grants. Our goal is not growth for its own sake, but to create economic, digital, and institutional systems that endure long after external support ends.

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