Even in the poorest of countries, business opportunities exist. People have demand for goods and services, and they have the potential to supply them. All too often, though, markets in these countries fail.
In the winter of 2012, I joined TechnoServe directly from a management consulting position in San Francisco. Four months and more than 100 stakeholder interviews later, what was once a side note on a scope of work now has great impact on how TechnoServe looks at dairy interventions.
Believe it or not, it has been more than two months since I arrived in Maputo. Having made new friends, nailed the key Portuguese phrases, figured out what price to pay for food at the market and acclimatized myself to the train of children running with (or after?) me in the mornings – Mozambique is starting to feel more like home.
TechnoServe, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, has helped farmers in Tanzania to improve their production, form business groups and sell their produce in bulk. As a result, they are earning a higher price for their tomatoes.
In the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, three organizations are uniting to implement an economic development project that is generating benefits for 60 farmers who live on settlements created after agrarian reform.
I will never forget my first night in Kalawa village. As I sat down to a dimly lit meal of goat stew, a thousand thoughts raced through my head...
In honor of International Women’s Day, we share a story about an inspiring woman in Nicaragua who has found independence and self-sufficiency through farming.
Henry Gaga is a Food Technology Specialist with TechnoServe in Malawi. In that role, Henry works with the African Alliance for Improved Food Processing, a program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development that TechnoServe is implementing in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia in partnership with Partners in Food Solutions (a nonprofit created by General Mills, with core members Cargill and DSM).
The great Peter Drucker once said, “Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.” The story of Liset and Ximena Contreras embodies this quote and much more.
A TechnoServe staffer writes about her experience at a TechnoServe training workshop for cotton farmers in Swaziland.
