07/04/2026
👏 Congratulations to Tontho Uganja, an alumna of the GIZ-EYA! programme, implemented by SYNERGY Labs with support from GIZ Malawi.
Here is to continued growth and success - truly proud of you!
Restoration is not only about the land. It’s about livelihoods. 🌱
Tonthoza Uganja is working on that.
In Malawi, land degradation shows up in the most practical places: yields, income, and whether a household can stay afloat through a tough season. Her work connects environmental restoration to what rural livelihoods actually require to keep going.
As the founder of Sustainable farming solutions (SFS), she leads a Malawian team of foresters, agronomists, technologists, and community organizers who work with local leaders and public agencies to restore land and to strengthen how it’s cared for over time.
What stands out is the measurement. They track survival and ongoing care, plot by plot, using GPS data, fixed photo points, and seasonal notes, and then verify it through field agents and satellite data. Farmers are paid for sustained stewardship, not for a one-time planting count.
Smart-Tree, the digital monitoring and traceability system they co-developed, links field data to transparent payouts, helping farmers access more reliable, equitable nature-based finance.
For Tontho, this work is also personal. SFS grew out of lived experience, including what it means to move between town and village life, to watch stability change quickly, and to see how much of the burden lands on women without real financial control.
That perspective still shapes the work: restore land, and make farming households more secure, more resilient, and better supported. That's why we are proud to welcome Tontho Uganja as a 2026 African Visionary Fellow 💚
If her work resonates with you, follow her and her team and drop her a note in the comments below. ✨
