The Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs in South African Metros (AWESAM) program aims to increase the economic participation of urban women and youth in the South African economy by converting subsistence-based businesses into high-growth and competitive ventures.
In 2012, TechnoServe and Massmart Walmart launched a direct farm program which aims to put locally produced small-scale farmers’ produce on the shelves of Massmart. TechnoServe’s role involves training, mentoring, technical assistance and establishing links to both finance and retail markets for the farmers.
In 2013, TechnoServe launched a program to improve the scalability and sustainability of our existing agricultural value chain programs in South Africa.
TechnoServe serves as the manager of the Technical Assistance Facility (TAF), which supports the African Agriculture Fund, a private equity fund, to address food security challenges across Africa. TAF provided technical assistance to small and growing businesses (SGBs) invested in by the African Agriculture Fund, and improved linkages between enterprises and smallholder outgrowers.
While working in an office job in Pretoria, South Africa, Sindi Mbambo recognized an opportunity to help her community live a healthier lifestyle. Sindi noticed her colleagues were too busy or too sick to prepare nutritious food, and were settling instead for quick, insalubrious meals. So she started peeling…
Standing in a chicken shed in a remote part of South Africa, with a makeshift whiteboard and a local resident serving as a translator, Ryan Drake-Lee considered his challenge: to persuade the members of Masana Poultry Farm to reinvest some of their slim earnings into their cooperative. Drawing on…
