Situated just off of a bustling street in Nampula, Mozambique, lies a small bakery. Outside, the warm air is filled with the sound of motorbikes and the excited chatter of people selling goods. Inside, away from all the commotion, 35-year-old Lúcia Sigauque deftly swirls layers of white icing onto a vanilla cake.  A New Beginning as a Woman Entrepreneur For Lúcia, starting a bakery in 2020 represented a new beginning. After being let go from another job, she needed to find a new source of income but didn’t know what to do next. So, when a local organization offered her the opportunity to ..read more

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Felistus Issangya, a forward-thinking entrepreneur, noticed a troubling trend in Tanzanian cities. Obesity rates across the country were rising due to limited healthy snack options. Inspired by the World Health Organization’s data, she saw a business opportunity that would also empower local communities and smallholder farmers, especially women. In 2016, Felistus started Feda Foods, a company with a mission to revolutionize the snack industry in Tanzania. Today, Feda Foods provides nutritious snacks made from locally sourced nuts like cashews, peanuts, and almonds. The company’s business model ..read more

In an era when the clarion call for environmental preservation resonates louder than ever, the words of Rachel Carson, a pioneering American biologist whose seminal work, ‘Silent Spring,’ awakened the world to the dangers of environmental pollution, echo profoundly. Carson’s assertion that “man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself” has never been more relevant. It underscores the intricate bond between humanity and the natural world. This perspective resonates in the words of Barack Obama, who poignantly remarked, “We are the first generation to f ..read more

 A Reality TV Show with a Purpose Last year, an estimated 100,000 viewers across Mozambique tuned into a new type of reality TV show each Sunday afternoon. Instead of watching participants bake cakes, find love, or race around the world, viewers followed a competition with a deeper impact.  Titled “Elas no Negócio” or “Women in Business,” each 30-minute episode was featured inside a longer show called “Mais Mulher,” or “More Woman.” It followed 10 female micro-entrepreneurs as they completed weekly challenges to improve their businesses. The show aimed to equip entrepreneurs with ess ..read more

TechnoServe’s photo of the month for March 2024 pays homage to International Women’s Day’s theme of “Invest in women: accelerate progress.”  We believe empowering women to achieve their full potential is one of the most powerful ways to fight poverty.  Photo of the Month: March 2024 Women are often overlooked and underserved as entrepreneurs, farmers, and employees.  We are working to change that. TechnoServe promotes greater access to resources, opportunities, skills, and technology for women. We also work to reduce gender discrimination in the market to achieve social and econ ..read more

The TechnoServe Fellows Program is a highly competitive fellowship where business professionals contribute their skills to help change the lives of those living in poverty. Since 1996, TechnoServe has engaged over 1,000 Fellows on three- to 12-month projects throughout Africa, India, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Supporting TechnoServe’s Coffee Work in Burundi Naila worked for Nestlé Nespresso for over a decade prior to becoming a Fellow and working on TechnoServe’s Burundi Better Coffee Initiative. Naila observed that Burundi’s stakeholders worked from opportunity to opportunity, based ..read more

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A Family Legacy of Coffee Production I’m a fifth-generation coffee producer. I consider it a blessing to have been born into a coffee-growing family in El Salvador. My father always worked in businesses dedicated to the coffee industry, so since I was a child, coffee has been a significant part of my life. I have many beautiful memories of visiting a coffee mill with my siblings and friends. We would play on the coffee drying patios and in the warehouses, climbing the mountains of coffee sacks. One of our favorite activities was to drive the little tractors (“pacas”) used to move and pick the ..read more

Claudia stands in front of her waste collection center, “La Vaquerita.” (TechnoServe / Julieta Ocampo). In the heart of Apopa, El Salvador, Claudia “La Vaquerita” Alvarado is transforming the landscape of job creation and environmental sustainability. Her recycling business, La Vaquerita, showcases the circular economy’s power to revitalize communities and protect our planet. El Salvador faces a big waste problem. Around 25% of its trash ends up on streets, in rivers, or elsewhere in nature. The remaining waste is transported over long distances across the country and distributed between the c ..read more