In July 2010 Oxfam and the international consumer goods company Unilever signed up to work together for five years on learning how to do business with women and men smallholders in a way that improves their livelihoods and that informs Unilever's business model and Oxfam's development model. Together we collaborated on research to look at Unilever's and other companies' business models for engaging with smallholder farmers.

Our aim was to inform how sustainable smallholder-based supply chains that are both commercially viable and effective at reducing poverty for marginalised women and men smallholders can be improved and taken to a greater scale. Both Oxfam and Unilever continue to share learning from the project to influence other companies to invest in business models that reduce poverty for some of the world's poorest farmers and their families.