For over 50 years, TechnoServe has helped hardworking women and men in the developing world gain the skills, connections, and confidence to create self-sustaining businesses and build a path out of poverty. In part two of this series, we ask a few of these farmers and entrepreneurs to share how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their lives and how they are coping with its effects.
In Tanzania, shopkeepers like Emanuel Barosha Ndiwene often lack the business and financial management skills they need to run profitable businesses. A TechnoServe program connects young entrepreneurs with the knowledge, training, and tools they need to become successful retailers.
In the Indian tradition and culture, it is common for parents to be highly involved in their children’s decision-making processes, particularly regarding career choices. However, parental involvement can also sometimes be a barrier to youth employment. TechnoServe is engaging both youth and their parents to ensure that young people can pursue formal sector jobs with their parents’ support.
In Palma, a rural town in northern Mozambique, young people often struggle to earn a living outside of basic fishing and farming. Entrepreneurship offers a promising solution. After participating in the Catalisa Youth program and business plan competition, Folai Andeni and Fazira Nassoro each began testing their own business ideas and have already begun reaping the rewards.
As a single parent, Justine once struggled to make ends meet. Her work mainly consisted of washing clothes for her neighbors, which barely provided enough money for necessities. After joining a TechnoServe program working to reduce youth unemployment in her area, she gained the skills she needed to start her own tailoring business.
Young people in Brazil often struggle to find employment opportunities, particularly in rural areas. TechnoServe, Anglo American, and the Inter-American Development Bank are helping people like Mariana dos Santos Pinho gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence they need to find meaningful employment and take charge of their lives.
We can learn a lot about solving youth unemployment by paying attention to young entrepreneurs. Changemakers like Violeta Martinez are eager to share lessons that are both context specific and universally relevant.
With millions of projected layoffs and fewer job openings, India’s graduates are facing heightened challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s how we can prepare graduates for a post-coronavirus economy.
In a world with significant poverty but limited resources, how can we ensure that each development dollar achieves as much impact as possible? The question of cost-effectiveness is one of the central challenges of international development, and part of the reason that TechnoServe measures and publishes the income gains its clients achieve, per every program dollar spent. In this series, we highlight the lessons gained from TechnoServe’s most cost-effective programs around the world and examine how even programs with lower returns on investment can yield important insights in the quest to reduce global poverty.
Unable to find employment in his community, Francis Kihara ended up in prison. Watch our video to see how the STRYDE program helped him learn the confidence and skills he needed to start a new business and rebuild his life.
