These womeTechnoServe's business solutions to poverty help enterprising people worldwide, like these women seen carrying cocoa in Cote D'Ivoire

Our Work

TechnoServe harnesses the power of the private sector to benefit the world’s poor. We help people in developing countries improve the value of what they produce and strengthen their role in larger markets—because when people have the skills and connections to improve their own incomes, the benefits last a lifetime. 

TechnoServe achieves this through strong local expertise; world-class market analysis; and commitment to rigorous impact measurement to enable enterprising people to lift themselves out of poverty.

Help struggling farmers and small business owners lift themselves out of poverty.

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solutions to poverty

Our Approach

Explore how TechnoServe’s business solutions to poverty work to improve incomes and lives around the world.

How Our Business Solutions to Poverty Work

For over 50 years, TechnoServe has worked with enterprising people across the developing world to help them improve their incomes, lives, and communities. Explore our projects.

Our TechnoServe program at work in the field.

Empower small-scale farmers and businesspeople with the skills and knowledge they need to earn more money.

  • Train farmers how to improve the quality and yields of their crops and earn higher prices
  • Train and mentor small-scale entrepreneurs in the skills to grow their business and create jobs
  • Help small-scale producers organize into business groups, improving their knowledge, credit access, and negotiating power

Connect these emerging businesses and farms to better markets, suppliers, and financing.

  • Work with large companies to incorporate small-scale suppliers into their business models
  • Help local companies like food processors and exporters improve their capacity to buy from small-scale producers
  • Advise finance providers on how to expand services to underserved farmers and entrepreneurs

Sustain progress by improving the business environment for small-scale producers.

  • Fix market gaps by training local service providers to support emerging farms and businesses
  • Advise on local and national policies that will improve business opportunities for small-scale producers
  • Leverage technology to improve connections and transparency within a market and to scale up effective solutions

What We Do

Solutions to Poverty through Agriculture

TechnoServe helps smallholder farmers and promotes sustainable agriculture.

Nearly two-thirds of the world’s poor rely on agriculture for their incomes, making this sector two to four times more effective at raising incomes in developing countries than other sectors. TechnoServe helps smallholder farmers improve the quality and quantity of high-value crops with particular potential for improving incomes.

Learn more about our work in high-value agriculture.

Explore key focus areas of our agriculture work:

Business Solutions to Poverty

We help entrepreneurs and promote inclusive growth.

Small and growing businesses are important engines of developing economies, creating jobs and providing essential goods and services, often to underserved communities.

TechnoServe delivers world-class training and support to local entrepreneurs to help them achieve their full potential, driving economic development that can lift entire communities.

Learn more about how we support entrepreneurs.

Explore key focus areas of our entrepreneurship work:

We leverage key drivers of development impact.

Poverty is a complex, but not impossible challenge. TechnoServe develops “whole market” solutions that address important cross-cutting issues, in order to create long-lasting change on a broad scale.

See the Results – TechnoServe’s Business Solutions to Poverty Work

In 2022 TechnoServe’s work helped transform the lives of millions of people in almost 30 countries by targeting improvements in farms, businesses, and industries. Learn more in our Annual Impact Report and the results portal.

$5

Average income gain per $1 of program cost

How technoserve provides solutions for poverty - Our business solutions for poverty give clients the financial benefits they need to improve their incomes

$366m Financial Benefits

beneficiaries of technoserve's business solutions for poverty include smallholder farmers icon

1.3m People/Enterprises with Increased Revenue

women beneficiaries are a key focus in our business solutions for poverty icon

39% Women Beneficiaries