NicaraguaAlthough Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, its geography and natural resources are favorable for accessing both regional and international markets. The country’s growing economy is based largely in agriculture and tourism, with the financial industry starting to take root.
Since 1976, TechnoServe has been helping smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs in Nicaragua access formal markets, improve product quality, manage businesses, boost profits and become competitive. TechnoServe also works with entrepreneurs across various industries, providing business training, advice and support through several entrepreneurship development programs.
The MOCCA Program is a five-year initiative, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food for Progress Program, aimed at helping more than 100,000 farmers to overcome the barriers limiting their capacity to effectively rehabilitate and renovate their coffee and cacao plants.
TechnoServe is working to increase revenues for 5,000 fresh produce smallholder farmers in Guatemala and Nicaragua by integrating the farmers into a more inclusive and profitable market system.
Ganadería Empresarial (GANE) aimed to improve the livelihoods of smallholder livestock producers in Nicaragua. With support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, TechnoServe helped 5,500 farmers increase productivity, strengthen producer organizations and connect to higher-value markets.
The Better Coffee Harvest (Cosechemos Mas Cafe) project is a four-year initiative funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the J.M. Smucker Company and the PIMCO Foundation to reduce poverty and increase farm sales for coffee farmers in El Salvador and Nicaragua.
ITE 2.0 will assist 825 businesses in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The three year program is expected to increase sales by more than 30%, equivalent to $41 million, and create more than 800 new jobs in different economic sectors.
Impulsa Tu Empresa aims to help small and growing businesses boost their growth through mentoring and business training. Since its launch in 2012, the program has increased the sales of over 1,500 businesses and helped create 1,600 new jobs in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Burkina Faso.
TechnoServe implemented a two-year initiative that targeted women in women’s business groups (WBGs) who were working in value addition or commercialization.
Read the 2021 TechnoServe Annual Report in English, French, or Spanish in the PDFs on this page. You can find Portuguese here.
Lessons learned from TechnoServe’s work with SGBs in Central America, based on research conducted by Emory University and the Impulsa Tu Empresa program.
How the Ganaderia Empresarial (GANE) project transformed Nicaragua’s livestock sector and worked with smallholder farmers to increase their productivity, quality and market access.
In 2017, TechnoServe engaged ImpactMatters, an impact audit firm founded with support from Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), to review several projects within our portfolio. This impact audit reviews the Impulsa Tu Empresa program implemented in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua from 2013 to 2017.
