Creating Layers of Impact
As you read these words, a young Indian woman who grew up in a slum is working at a high-paying corporate job in Mumbai. She is one of the roughly 11 million young people who enter the country’s job market each year—but unlike nearly a quarter of her peers, she secured steady employment that provides a better living standard for her whole family.
At the same time, farmers in a hillside village in Zimbabwe are picking ripe coffee from trees that now pay for school fees, housing, medicine, and food. While nearly 80% of the world’s 12.5 million coffee-farming families live in poverty, these farmers have doubled the prices they receive for their beans.
And in vocational schools across east Africa, teachers are training thousands of young people on a proven entrepreneurship curriculum that has raised incomes by an average of 84%. With Africa’s 140 million unemployed youth facing far too few available jobs, these students are getting the skills and confidence to build their own job opportunities—and even employ others.
All of this impact is rooted in work by TechnoServe. Partnering with industrious people around the world to create self-sustaining business solutions, TechnoServe not only transforms individual lives—but also markets, sectors, and communities. These “layers of impact” are the focus of this year’s 2019 Annual Impact Report.
2019 was a particularly exciting year for impact: TechnoServe handed off a groundbreaking youth entrepreneurship program to local organizations; helped farmers from dormant coffee industries re-introduce their beans to the world; and launched an effort to scale up such progress through technology partnerships: TechnoServe Labs.
This commitment to impact was recognized in 2019 by the independent charity ratings agency ImpactMatters, which named TechnoServe the #1 nonprofit fighting poverty.
In the following sections, you will see how we measure program impact—and many other indicators—through rigorous analysis that helps us identify what works, learn from our failures, and set even higher bars for progress.
Because this impact is not enough. And as long as there are people in the world who never get the chance to achieve their potential, it will not be enough.
This means we must find better ways to unlock the power of women, everywhere we work. It means scaling up climate-smart approaches to help our clients withstand an increasingly erratic environment. And it means combining world-class technology with local understanding in a way that transforms opportunities for millions.
Thank you for walking with us, and the hardworking people we serve, on the journey to create ever more layers of impact.
-
William WarshauerPresident and CEO
-
Michal BushManaging Member, BIV Investments
-
Rachel HinesFormer Managing Director, J.P. Morgan
Our Impact in 2019
Impact by Region
Impact by Country
Click or tap a country to see its 2019 impact data.
Impact by Sector
Click or tap below to see sub-sector impact.
Agriculture
|
Financial Benefits
|
Beneficiaries
|
Women
|
Finance Mobilized
|
Total | $114,337,326 | 234,677 | 33% | $24,378,521 |
Coffee
|
$49,855,249 |
85,290 |
33% |
$21,195,450 |
Other High-Value Agriculture
|
$55,009,205 |
118,291 |
27% |
$2,379,819 |
Other Agriculture
|
$9,472,872 |
31,096 |
59% |
$803,252 |
Entrepreneurship
|
Financial Benefits
|
Beneficiaries
|
Women
|
Finance Mobilized
|
Total | $86,242,226 | 82,816 | 51% | $2,943,475 |
Micro/Small/Growing Businesses
|
$65,463,302 |
37,741 |
51% |
$2,388,260 |
Micro-Retail
|
$1,745,297 |
7,344 |
92% |
$348,078 |
Food Processing
|
$12,938,260 |
33,166 |
41% |
$207,137 |
Other Enterprise Development
|
$6,095,367 |
4,565 |
66% |
$0 |
Layers of Impact
TechnoServe’s work doesn’t just transform individual lives—it changes entire communities and market systems, helping progress continue far into the future. Click to view each story below.
TechnoServe works across sectors to design policies, foster collaboration, and pilot new business models that drive lasting, transformational change across entire industries to benefit millions of people.
Transforming Lives
Transforming Communities
Transforming Markets
Highlights of 2019
Financials*
TechnoServe strives for maximum accountability, transparency, and efficiency. See our consolidated financial report at TechnoServe.org/Financials.*