COVID-19

TechnoServe’s Angelica Cubas Pérez visits a farmer in Nicaragua. This is the story that unfolded over lunch.

The last year has been a whirlwind of uncontrollable events for Peruvians. We talked to Sergio López Zapata, project director of the Alianza CAFE project, about how TechnoServe is helping coffee farmers take control of their own futures.

COVID-19 was just the latest challenge for small-scale farmers in central Mexico. With limited technical knowledge and market connections, many have struggled for years to improve their incomes. José García Martínez was one of those farmers when he joined a TechnoServe program a year ago. Today, he is earning enough to provide security and better opportunities for his family—“a life-changing experience.”

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a sudden halt to a career program for low-income college students in India. Quick thinking by the TechnoServe team took the program digital when students needed it most. The results? More than 1,000 students have found new jobs despite the ongoing crisis in India.

With world hunger reaching its highest peak since 2006, solutions addressing each link in the food system are essential. Drawing from TechnoServe's work across value chains with a range of public and private partners, we are highlighting the latest challenges, insights, and promising approaches in the current effort to prevent widespread food insecurity and build greater long-term resilience.

The Sustainable Guar Initiative won a prestigious award from the American Chemistry Council for its work on the ground with guar farmers in India. But it's just the beginning.

In this Q&A, TechnoServe’s India country director, Punit Gupta, shares how the farmers TechnoServe works with every day have been affected by two recent cyclones and a devastating surge of COVID-19 cases.

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the livelihoods of millions of entrepreneurs last year, digitalization offered small businesses around the world a promising solution. In this Q&A, TechnoServe’s Global Entrepreneurship Director, Juan Carlos Thomas, speaks with the Executive Director of the Argidius Foundation, Nicholas Colloff, and Dalberg Advisors’ Global Knowledge Lead, Kusi Hornberger, about the future of digital technology for supporting entrepreneurs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created enormous economic challenges across Latin America, Africa, and South Asia. TechnoServe’s new report tracks the changes to the livelihoods of farmers and entrepreneurs over the past year and highlights the private sector’s role in helping them navigate the crisis.

In northern Mozambique, climate change, regional insecurity, and COVID-19 have combined to create immense challenges for farmers like Jacinta Fernando. A TechnoServe program is teaching these farmers how to grow soybean for the first time — a profitable cash crop that can help them improve their financial security and food security during times of crisis.