Catalyzing Economic Growth in Mining Communities

TechnoServe is implementing two programs in Brazil with the global mining company Anglo American, taking a market systems approach to creating prosperity through enterprise development.

In 2014, TechnoServe partnered with Anglo American to implement the Avançar program, an initiative to bolster economic growth around Anglo American’s Niobium, Phosphates, and Nickel operations in Barro Alto, Goiás State. By 2016, this program supported more than 150 participants from three different groups within the community: local businesses supplying to Anglo American, other rural and urban businesses, and young adults looking to launch their careers or their own enterprises. Through targeted training in key business skills, participants – more than half of whom were women – were able to increase their revenues by an average of 16 percent in spite of a nation-wide economic downturn. Over the next three years, these burgeoning businesses are projected to further produce approximately $5 million, further strengthening their local economies.