New Harvard Business School Case Study Highlights Major Haiti Mango Project
Study explores success factors of business approach in post-earthquake development through public-private partnership that benefited over 25,000 farmers
Washington, D.C. (January 21, 2016) — The Harvard Business School has published a new case study about innovations in the Haiti Hope Project, a partnership between The Coca-Cola Company, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development — implemented by TechnoServe, a nonprofit specializing in business solutions to poverty.
Project partners announced the case study’s release Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Haiti Hope Project was launched after the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake and was designed to boost Haiti’s promising mango industry, improving the incomes of thousands of farmers. The project helped mango farmers establish their own producer groups, improve the quality and quantity of their mangoes, and connect to lucrative markets, such as Whole Foods supermarket in the United States. Since 2011, participating farmers have sold an estimated $7.49 million for export (FOB). These farmers have received a total of more than $3.25 million in financing to invest on their farms and small businesses and have planted 63,214 new mango trees. The volume of Fair Trade and Organic sales through the project grew by 315% over the life of the initiative, from 148 MT in 2010 to 614 MT in 2015.
Selected by Harvard Business School for its prestigious business case study series, the case provides insight into how partnerships can make a business approach succeed in an environment largely dominated by international aid. Haiti Hope: Innovating the Mango Value Chain was authored by Dr. Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, and research associate Jean-Francois Harvey. It shows how the partners analyzed and adapted the initiative’s approach in order to overcome challenges in the mango sector, as well as how they prepared a sustainable exit strategy that would see the project’s work carried on by local, private sector actors.
“The success of the Haiti Hope project is an extraordinary testament to the resilience and resourcefulness of Haiti’s mango farmers,” said William Warshauer, President and CEO of TechnoServe. “They were able to transform the agronomic training, business support and market connections provided by the project into lasting change for Haiti’s mango industry, and a brighter outlook for themselves and their families.”
About TechnoServe
TechnoServe is a nonprofit organization that develops business solutions to poverty. It works with enterprising men and women in 29 developing countries to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. By linking people to information, capital and markets, it helps them create lasting prosperity for their families and communities. With millions of people positively impacted by its work since 1968, TechnoServe believes in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.
For 10 straight years, TechnoServe has earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, placing it in the top 1 percent of all its rated nonprofits.
For more information, please contact:
Rebecca Regan-Sachs
Tel: 202.650.5713; email: rebeccars@tns.org
