Grants and Contributions

In Kenya’s lake and coastal zones, this project will support women and youth entrepreneurs in the horticulture, poultry, and blue economy (fisheries) sectors. Specifically, it will support access to a mix of financing options, deliver gender-informed business development training, and subsidize environmentally sustainable business technologies for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The project will also work with community and government organizations to address harmful social norms and improve the business environment for women and youth. Altogether, these interventions will generate more lucrative and resilient livelihoods for women and youth; creating community spinoff benefits and contributing to a more inclusive COVID19 recovery in Kenya.

Project activities include: (1) supporting entrepreneurs and businesses to add value to their production in aggregation, storage, processing and logistics; (2) developing, administering and awarding matching grants; (3) assessing, identifying, and facilitating third party investors to provide targeted, mixed loans to the small businesses whose investment readiness has been de-risked by receiving project grants; (4) administering smart incentive schemes to help entrepreneurs acquire climate-smart technologies;(5) facilitating new or improved financial services and products for entrepreneurs; (6) developing, promoting, and administering financial education to entrepreneurs; and (7) engaging policy stakeholders and community leaders in dialogues to promote women’s empowerment and prevent sexual and gender-based violence.

The project expects to directly reach 250 small and medium sized enterprises (50% women-led and 40% youth-led at minimum); 30,000 entrepreneurs (60% women and 50% youth at minimum); and 100 local organizations.

This project aims to reach an estimated 40,000 women smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs in the poorest regions of northern Ghana, most at risk of COVID-19 pandemic-related rise in food insecurity. This project supports women working in three crop value-chains through activities that include: (1) offering agricultural and financial capacity-building; (2) broadening women’s access to labour-saving, innovative technologies through existing commercial outlets; (3) engaging male gender advocates; (4) working with traditional leaders; and (5) working directly with individual households to raise awareness of the respective contributions of all members. This project helps to shift social norms around the distribution of domestic work and facilitate women’s continued success and empowerment in the future, by raising awareness within communities of the importance and overall benefits of women’s economic participation. This project also boosts women farmers’ resilience to climate change by promoting diversification of crops and ecologically sound agricultural, food sustainability and organic waste management practices.

The project aims to advance economic growth in the agriculture sector by supporting the development of businesses and increasing income generating opportunities for women and youth in Bauchi State.

The project seeks to engage government and private sector stakeholders to provide reliable services that support entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises. By improving economic conditions for women and youth aged 18 to 35, the project also aims to reduce the economic causes of child, early marriage.

Project activities include: (1) designing and deploying more accessible and adapted financial services for small scale businesses and entrepreneurs, with a particular focus on women and youth; (2) providing support to small scale businesses to address shared value chain productivity constraints; and (3) developing culturally appropriate awareness campaigns to address early marriage.

The project is expected to directly benefit 1,000 small scale businesses and 15,000 entrepreneurs with a focus on rice and sesame value chains for their high growth potential.

The project aims to improve the socio-economic well-being and resilience of farming households, especially women and youth, in the Sédhiou and Tambacounda regions of Senegal, through climate friendly agricultural and irrigation practices. Among other things, the project stands out for its approach of adopting innovative and affordable technologies and using smart practices in agriculture by women and youth. The project focuses on creating public-private partnerships with financial institutions, among others, to ensure access to financing, and partnerships with private companies for the purchase of agricultural products. Project activities include: (1) developing customized training programs for women and youth in topics such as financial management, business planning, climate change; (2) administering and disseminating market research on the needs of farming households, especially of women and youth, to agricultural input and irrigation service providers; and (3) developing multi-stakeholder platforms for women and youth for a common dialogue on water resources management.

The Technolinks+ Project aims to improve the livelihoods of women and men living in impoverished, rural areas of northern Nicaragua. The project facilitates the access, promotion and adoption of environmentally-sustainable agricultural technologies with the objective of increasing agricultural productivity, quality, and profitability for approximately 35,000 smallholder farmers and 85 agribusinesses, cooperatives and producers associations, and creating 850 jobs in the agri-food sector. The project has a special focus on supporting women smallholder farmers, women cooperatives and women producer associations.

This project aims to increase sustainable employment and generate income by supporting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Amhara region focussing on the rice, vegetable and gemstone markets. Activities include: 1) strengthening knowledge and skills of producers and business owners, particularly women, to understand business and market opportunities; 2) facilitating access to innovative techniques, inputs and equipment to help producers and business owners increase productivity, develop new products and reach new markets; 3) working with financial institutions to support producers, suppliers and technology manufacturers to access finance to support increased productivity and business growth; and 4) contributing to an enabling, gender-sensitive business and policy environment to facilitate growth in these sectors.