Africa

For women and girls in the developing world, COVID-19 is exacerbating existing inequities and creating new challenges. In Benin, women cashew farmers like Elisabeth Atchade must juggle many responsibilities, including earning money for the household while also taking on the majority of child care responsibilities. Learn how a TechnoServe program is helping women address these challenges and emerge from the crisis even stronger.

TechnoServe is helping farming families in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia restore their income, boost food security, and build resilience to future threats. Learn a few of the ways smallholder farmers have been impacted by COVID-19 and what they are doing to adapt.

Since 2019, TechnoServe and Nespresso have been helping smallholder coffee farmers like Byaleo Felicite improve incomes by registering with their washing stations and cooperatives as suppliers of certified organic coffee. This month, Nespresso is launching Kahawa ya Congo, an exciting new coffee in the Reviving Origins range, sourced from farmers in South Kivu.

TechnoServe and the Mastercard Foundation are partnering on a new program to support entrepreneurs in Kenya as they navigate the COVID-19 crisis and ultimately move toward economic recovery.

Mom and pop shops are the economic – and often social – backbone of Nairobi, especially in the city’s informal settlements. Store owners like Cosmas are learning simple business fixes that can help their stores, and the communities they serve, to thrive.