How a producer organization manages its resources, plans investments, and makes decisions collectively can influence how its business develops. These are everyday matters for the communities we work with.

At CODESPA, we have spent years working alongside small-scale producers in different countries to strengthen their skills and support their productive activities. This experience allows us to learn from people, understand the challenges they face, and identify the tools that can help expand their opportunities.

With this in mind, in 2024 we began a research project in collaboration with Universidad Panamericana de México.

The work has now reached an important milestone for our organization: the publication of our first international scientific research paper, drawing on experiences from Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia.

The paper was published on August 12, 2026, in Agricultural and Food Economics,

an international peer-reviewed journal specializing in agricultural economics and food systems. It is open access, meaning researchers, universities, organizations, and development professionals around the world can read it free of charge.

What the research explores and how it was conducted

The study examines how financial education can help strengthen the internal governance of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs), where products reach consumers through a limited number of intermediaries. More specifically, it explores how financial education relates to producers’ and their organizations’ ability to coordinate activities, manage resources, and take part in decisions that affect their work.

Financial education involves much more than managing money. It includes understanding production costs, planning expenses and investments, preparing budgets, and using credit responsibly. These skills can help producers make better-informed financial decisions and manage their businesses more effectively.

To explore this relationship, the research team used a qualitative approach based on 23 in-depth interviews with producers in three regions: cocoa producers in Esmeraldas, Ecuador; producers of plantain-based products in Condorcanqui, Peru; and blackberry producers in Cauca, Colombia.

Key insights from the research

The interviews show how financial knowledge can help producers plan expenses, assess investment opportunities, and manage their organizations’ resources. They also point to greater capacity to negotiate and make decisions based on a clearer understanding of costs and the needs of their businesses.

The study also highlights the importance of organization and collaboration with other stakeholders in improving production processes and creating new market opportunities. In Peru, for example, working with universities enabled producers to find new uses for parts of the plantain that would otherwise have gone to waste, turning them into products such as dried plantain and textiles made from plantain fiber.

The interviews also capture experiences related to women’s and young people’s participation, leadership, and the development of new business initiatives. These accounts help illustrate the different kinds of change taking place in these communities, although not all can be attributed solely to financial education.

The research also points out that these skills alone cannot overcome challenges such as limited infrastructure, regulatory barriers, or inequalities in market access. Strengthening producers’ skills is important, but they also need the right conditions to put those skills into practice and grow their businesses.

By focusing on three specific case studies, the research offers insights grounded in these local contexts. These findings can inform further research and deepen understanding of the role financial education can play in strengthening producer organizations.

A collaborative effort between CODESPA and Universidad Panamericana

The research was conducted by Sara Elvira Galbán Lozano and Marisol Velázquez Salazar, academics at Universidad Panamericana, together with Elena Martínez García, CODESPA’s Deputy General Manager, and Ximena Peñuela Díaz, Head of Consulting and Knowledge Management at CODESPA.

The involvement of CODESPA’s teams in Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia was essential in bringing their knowledge of the local contexts to the research and supporting the data collection process. We would especially like to thank Ferrán Gelis Escala, CODESPA’s Country Representative in Ecuador; Luis Larry Cáceres Merma, CODESPA’s Country Manager in Peru; and Juan Fernando Jaramillo García, CODESPA’s Technical Coordinator in Colombia.

We would also like to recognize the generosity of all the producers who shared their experiences and made this study possible.

In september, Sara Elvira Galbán Lozano and Marisol Velázquez Salazar presented the research at the XI International Conference on Localized Agri-Food Systems, held at The James Hutton Institute in Scotland. This was another opportunity to share the findings with the international research community.

For CODESPA, this publication recognizes the knowledge built through our day-to-day work alongside communities and gives us an opportunity to share it beyond the projects themselves. It also strengthens our collaboration with the academic community and our commitment to learning and continuously improving development initiatives.

Read the full research paper

Financial education and internal governance on short food supply chains: evidence from vulnerable rural communities in Latin America, published in Agricultural and Food Economics.