Southern Africa

A farm can change lives at a household level. A business can improve a community. But having a real impact on the lives of significant numbers of families requires change at the industry level.

Smallholder farmers in the developing world face considerable challenges that keep many of them locked in poverty. Mobile technologies have the potential to transform the rural economy facing impoverished small farmers.

CEO of Yalelo Ltd and former volunteer consultant Bryan McCoy shares with us about his time in Swaziland and Tanzania.

Former volunteer consultant Sara Andrews chats with us about her time in Zimbabwe and the company it inspired, Bumbleroot.

Believe it or not, it has been more than two months since I arrived in Maputo.

How can we stimulate entrepreneurship in the developing world? For TechnoServe, this is more than just a theoretical question.

TechnoServe often works to measure its social impact. In our case, TechnoServe’s impact is something that will last the rest of our lives.

In a hand-built barn in northern Mozambique, Domingos Alfredo Torres tends to his flock of 1,500 chickens. The farmer fills watering and feed stations, ensuring that his chickens grow healthy and plump. They will be in his care for barely five weeks, but these animals represent an opportunity for Domingos…

Baby corn, beans, zucchini and sugar snap peas sprout on a farm in the mountains of Swaziland. But there’s much more than produce growing here. Sdemane Farming’s contract to supply a major South African supermarket chain is sowing hope for a brighter future in this impoverished community. When Themba Dlamini…

For 17-year-old Percy Shongwe and his two younger siblings, honey is a ticket to an education. They supply Swaziland’s Eswatini Kitchen with honey from their more than 50 beehives. Beekeeping and harvesting require only about 60 hours of work per year but give Percy and his siblings the opportunity…