Our Impact

All Regions

Ending global poverty depends on creating a sustainable impact. We rigorously collect and analyze data from our projects to continually improve our approach and scale up progress. Below is TechnoServe’s topline impact from the past year.

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

$250m

Financial Benefits

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

407k

Beneficiaries

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

41%

Women Beneficiaries

ROI icon

$3.91

Average Return On Investment

TechnoServe was rated the #1 nonprofit at reducing poverty by ImpactMatters

Donate Now

Our Measurement Approach

TechnoServe rigorously tracks the revenues of the people and businesses we support–along with many other indicators–to ensure the effectiveness of our programming. We then analyze these data to identify successful project models and learn how to improve future approaches.

As one of the premier organizations helping fight global poverty, transparency is the cornerstone of TechnoServe’s measurement approach. We share data on the impact all our projects create, regardless of whether it looks good or bad. We believe this transparency can inform greater and more effective programs aimed at reducing poverty, both within TechnoServe and in the broader development community.

View 2021 Impact Data

Measurement Blogs

See more measurement blogs

Cost-Effective Impact

Just as investors seek the maximum financial return for their clients, TechnoServe works to turn every program dollar into the greatest possible income gains for our own clients: the people we work with in the developing world. We analyze the cost-effectiveness of all our work, applying lessons to programs across our portfolio.

$3.91

Average income gain for every $1 in program cost.

Spotlight: Big Impact for the Money

YEP program participants in India

TechnoServe’s Youth Employability Program built on the success of an earlier program, which developed a model for helping young people in Mumbai’s marginalized communities enter the white-collar workforce. After that program closed in 2016, this follow-on initiative scaled that model and closed in 2018 with an ROI of more than 20.

$22.80

Average income gain for every $1 in program cost.

External Evaluations

Whenever possible, TechnoServe leverages external evaluators to conduct independent assessments and evaluate our implementation model. Learn more about external evaluations of our work.

 

2021 Measurement Changes

In 2021, TechnoServe updated the calculation of our “Beneficiaries” and “Financial Benefits” metrics in ways that will improve the rigor of many of our assessments and better support our ongoing learning agenda. 

For beneficiaries, we now include people or businesses not directly involved in TechnoServe programs who have experienced measurable revenue increases that can be reasonably attributed to our work. These include people who gained jobs from the small enterprises whose profits we helped to increase, or farmers in the same community as those in our programs, who benefit from higher market prices as a result of TechnoServe’s work.

For financial benefits, we no longer require that results be compared to a rigid counterfactual on an annual basis, but that the best available methods of determining attribution be applied within the project’s Measurement & Evaluation (M&E) requirements. We also now allow projects to focus their measurement efforts on the most effective midline and endline evaluations possible, rather than conduct annual assessments where not otherwise required.

Donate Now

Resources

The Lasting Impact of TechnoServe’s Work with Coffee Farmers

Triple Line was contracted by TechnoServe to evaluate the impact of the East Africa Coffee Initiative (2008-11) in Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia with the objective of helping smallholder farmers to improve productivity and increase incomes.

English PDF

Accelerating Impact from Entrepreneurs

Lessons learned from TechnoServe’s work with SGBs in Central America, based on research conducted by Emory University and the Impulsa Tu Empresa program.

English PDF