Entrepreneurship

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.

In this series, we check back with TechnoServe program participants who were previously featured on our blog, documenting how their lives have changed and progressed.

In East Africa, formal employment opportunities are often scarce, and entrepreneurship presents a path toward economic independence for many young women and men. TechnoServe is helping small shop owners in Kenya, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire become more profitable by connecting them with the knowledge, training, and tools they need to become successful retailers.

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.

TechnoServe helps young people in the developing world access the information, capital, and markets they need to overcome tremendous obstacles and create their own economic opportunities. Today we are sharing the story of Mary Wacera, a 30-year-old entrepreneur from central Kenya who created her own successful agribusiness after participating in a TechnoServe program.

TechnoServe’s COVID-19 Impact Report examines how the pandemic disrupted key sectors of emerging economies and the livelihoods of those who work in them. Our third feature in our blog series on the report highlights the challenges small businesses faced last year and the opportunities to move toward business survival and recovery in 2021 and beyond.