The signing took place during an online ceremony and was framed by the United Nations theme for the day: “Cooperatives for peace and a sustainable world.”
Under the banner “Connect with a Coop”, the partnership brings together FORUS-Grow’s cooperative digital and economic operating infrastructure, UAMMCL’s proven grassroots cooperative movement in India, and The Dream’s long-term impact and scale vision. The MoU establishes FORUS-Grow and UAMMCL as the principal implementation partners for the immediate phase, with The Dream participating as a future impact and farmer-support layer subject to field trials and separate implementation protocols.
The partnership is designed to support cooperative-led finance, wallet-enabled services, merchant and supplier onboarding, controlled value allocation, settlement evidence, reconciliation, working-capital rotation, finance-readiness and funder reporting. Its first implementation focus is the Unati Behen and cooperative supply-chain model, including farmers, PACS, self-help groups, women entrepreneurs, Sevak hubs, local processors, merchants and community-based supply chains.
It is your community, your rules. The technology follows the field.Mary Brennan, CEO, FORUS
FORUS is itself a cooperative, and its role in the partnership is to provide the economic and digital operating layer needed to support member-owned growth. This includes wallet-enabled journeys, purpose-bound value allocation, merchant and supplier participation, settlement trails, dashboards and finance-readiness evidence.
For UAMMCL, the partnership builds on a grassroots cooperative movement that began in 2003 and has placed women, local trust and practical livelihoods at the centre of its work. The Unati Behen model connects women entrepreneurs, farmers, self-help groups, processors and community hubs to markets, helping build local economic participation from the ground up.
Our true success will not be measured by the agreement we signed today, but by the lives we improve.Dr Jyoti Saroop, Founder and Director, UAMMCL
The collaboration has ambitions beyond a single country or sector. The parties see potential for the model to extend across the Global South, with agriculture, women-led commerce, rural finance, cooperative merchant networks and community-owned digital infrastructure as natural starting points.
This is more than a partnership between organisations. It is the beginning of a cooperative bridge between Africa and India. If we can connect a coop, we can connect the farmer, the entrepreneur, the merchant, the funder and the community, and we can build an economic system where the value stays with the people.Sonny Fisher, Founder, FORUS
About UAMMCL / Unati
The Unati Agri Allied and Marketing Multistate Cooperative Society Ltd. is an Indian cooperative implementation and field ecosystem partner. Its model connects farmers, women entrepreneurs, PACS, self-help groups, Sevak hubs, processors, cooperative channels and consumer demand through grassroots cooperative structures and community trust.