Blog

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the livelihoods of millions of entrepreneurs last year, digitalization offered small businesses around the world a promising solution. In this Q&A, TechnoServe’s Global Entrepreneurship Director, Juan Carlos Thomas, speaks with the Executive Director of the Argidius Foundation, Nicholas Colloff, and Dalberg Advisors’ Global Knowledge Lead, Kusi Hornberger, about the future of digital technology for supporting entrepreneurs.

In East Africa, formal employment opportunities are often scarce, and entrepreneurship presents a path toward economic independence for many young women and men. TechnoServe is helping small shop owners in Kenya, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire become more profitable by connecting them with the knowledge, training, and tools they need to become successful retailers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created enormous economic challenges across Latin America, Africa, and South Asia. TechnoServe’s new report tracks the changes to the livelihoods of farmers and entrepreneurs over the past year and highlights the private sector’s role in helping them navigate the crisis.

Smallholder mango farmers in India rely on income from their fruit trees to support their families. But low productivity, limited access to markets, and water scarcity create obstacles to growth. A TechnoServe program is now helping these farmers access the knowledge and connections they need to sustainably increase their incomes.

In March 2021, Imoni Akpofure joined TechnoServe’s Board of Directors. In this Q&A, she talks about her background, her career focused on business and development in Africa, and what she sees as the most promising opportunities to reduce poverty at scale.

In northern Mozambique, climate change, regional insecurity, and COVID-19 have combined to create immense challenges for farmers like Jacinta Fernando. A TechnoServe program is teaching these farmers how to grow soybean for the first time — a profitable cash crop that can help them improve their financial security and food security during times of crisis.

TechnoServe helps young people in the developing world access the information, capital, and markets they need to overcome tremendous obstacles and create their own economic opportunities. Today we are sharing the story of Mary Wacera, a 30-year-old entrepreneur from central Kenya who created her own successful agribusiness after participating in a TechnoServe program.

Ariana Day Yuen is a former TechnoServe Fellow who served in Ethiopia in 2015. After her time as a Fellow, she stayed on with the TechnoServe Ethiopia team for nearly three years. Today, she is the founder of an agroforestry enterprise that partners with smallholder farmers – starting in Ethiopia – to sustainably grow, process, and market premium forest-based products.

TechnoServe’s COVID-19 Impact Report examines how the pandemic disrupted key sectors of emerging economies and the livelihoods of those who work in them. Our third feature in our blog series on the report highlights the challenges small businesses faced last year and the opportunities to move toward business survival and recovery in 2021 and beyond.

TechnoServe’s COVID-19 Impact Report examines how the pandemic disrupted key sectors of emerging economies and the livelihoods of those who work in them. Our second feature in our blog series on the report highlights the challenges food processors faced last year and the promising solutions that could help them maintain their key role in the value chain.