Announcing New Case Study: Tziscao Coffee Cooperative

Member of Tziscao, a coffee cooperative in southern Mexico In 2012 and 2013, Root Capital conducted a mobile data management project with Tziscao (pseudonym to protect the confidentiality of our client), a coffee cooperative client in southern Mexico. While not designed as an impact study, the engagement with Tziscao provided us with data pointing to the cooperative’s likely impacts on…

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Topics: Advisory Services | Environment | Mexico and Central America |

New SSIR Blog Post Highlights Our Vision for Shared Metrics

Earlier in the week, the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (known as ANDE) hosted its annual metrics conference in Washington, DC. At the event, Root Capital was proud to join ANDE and Dalberg Global Development Advisors in introducing a vision for the next phase of impact measurement in the small and growing business (SGB) sector. 

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Topics: Advisory Services | News and Announcements | Our Community |

Coffee: The Canary in the Coalmine for Climate Change

Nicolas Pineda, a coffee farmer and member of the 190-member cooperative Montaña Verde in Honduras. Note: This piece originally appeared on The Skoll World Forum website as part of a series on entrepreneurial solutions to climate change.  “It feels like a scourge from God,” said Nicolas Pineda as we surveyed row upon row of diseased coffee trees on his farm in Santa Barbara, Honduras. Nicolas showed me how coffee leaf rust, a fungus known as la roya in Spanish, was destroying his 18-year-old farm, turning verdant, productive coffee plants into spindly heaps of leafless sticks. Amid the surrounding lush green hills, the juxtaposition felt cruelly ironic.

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Topics: Advisory Services | Environment | Mexico and Central America |

Trust and Credit: Critical Ingredients in the Mutually Beneficial Cycle

Ervin Miranda, Nicaragua coffee cooperative COOMPROCOM’s general manager. This is the third in a series that goes deeper on that social and environmental due diligence, addressing questions such as: What do we look for in the business we lend to, and why? How do we go about it? And how do small-scale producers and agricultural businesses in Africa and…

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Topics: Advisory Services | Stories of Impact |

The Mutually Beneficial Cycle

The mutually beneficial relationship between agricultural business, smallholder, and natural environment. Note: In February, Root Capital published our inaugural Issue Brief on the emerging business case for financial institutions to conduct due diligence on the social and environmental practices of their borrowers and investees. This is the second in a series that goes deeper on that social and environmental due diligence, addressing questions such as: What do we look for in the business we lend to, and why? How do we go about it? And how do smallholder producers and agricultural businesses in Africa and Latin America benefit, as well as upstream exporters, processors, retailers, and consumers worldwide?

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Topics: Advisory Services | Livelihoods |

Measurement in Action: Making use of social and environmental performance data

This post by Genevieve Edens, impact assessment manager at the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), originally appeared on Business Fights Poverty. Last month, ANDE welcomed the 200th member to our network of organizations that support small and growing businesses (SGBs) in emerging markets. Our members provide direct investment, capacity development services, and a host of related ecosystem-building services that support the growth of small businesses. This was an important milestone for ANDE, and we think it reflects the growth of the sector as a whole.

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Topics: Advisory Services | Our Community |

Providing Knowledge through Training in West Africa

Working out of Root Capital's hub in Dakar, Senegal, Mireille William oversees our Financial Advisory Services (FAS) program throughout West Africa. Earlier this week, we had a chance to catch up with her about the experiences that brought her to Root Capital and her vision for FAS in West Africa.

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Topics: Advisory Services | Staff Profiles | West Africa |

The Power of Financial Literacy: A Conversation with Cecilia Yáñez

Cecilia (center) with Root Capital CEO Willy Foote (right) and a member of APBOSMAM banana association in Piura, Peru We sat down with Cecilia Yáñez, a senior investment analyst at Root Capital’s Lima-based partner organization ACCDER, to get the inside scoop on her work in northern Peru. Lately, Cecilia has been working with our Financial Advisory Services team to…

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Topics: Advisory Services | South America | Staff Profiles | Stories of Impact |

View from the Field: New Cluster Study Measures Our Impact on Guatemala Coffee Clients

Q&A WITH ASYA TROYCHANSKY, ROOT'S IMPACT ASSESSMENT OFFICER. Asya Troychansky, Root Capital’s Impact Assessment Officer, recently returned from Guatemala where she has been overseeing Root Capital’s Cluster Study. 

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Topics: Advisory Services | Mexico and Central America | Stories of Impact |

Root Capital Launches $7 Million, Multi-Year Initiative to Combat La Roya and Build Farmer Resilience

Last summer, Maria Eufemia Madonado Ocaño (pictured above) watched helplessly as almost all of her coffee trees died. The 52-year-old Peruvian farmer and member of Root Capital client Unicafec was unable to stop the devastating spread of coffee leaf rust, called la roya in Spanish. The fungus has been sweeping through coffee-growing regions in Central America and Peru since late 2012.

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Topics: Advisory Services | Environment | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | News and Announcements | South America |