Posted by Root Capital  |  March 21, 2023

Most people in Western Uganda are farmers, dependent on the land and predictable weather patterns for their livelihoods. But climate change has led to unpredictable weather and increased natural disasters. Intense floods have caused mudslides that devastate farmland, while extreme droughts have dried out coffee berries, affecting crop yields, coffee quality, and, ultimately, the income of farming families.  “At…

Topics: East Africa | Environment | Stories of Impact | Women in Agriculture |

Posted by Root Capital  |  February 9, 2023

As the youth population explodes worldwide, Root Capital is turning a demographic challenge into an opportunity for impact. Jobs in rural communities are often low paying and sporadic, with little opportunity for advancement-prompting many young people to migrate. Root Capital’s Talent Partnerships program places young graduates into internships at local agricultural enterprises, creating a win/win situation: jobs for the next…

Topics: East Africa | Youth |

Posted by Rob Hefferon  |  September 30, 2021

High in Rwanda’s southern mountains, farmers grow some of the highest-quality coffee on Earth. The volcanic soil gives beans a rich flavor that commands a premium price on the international market. But this specialty coffee is at risk-as are the livelihoods of the 400,000 smallholder farmers in the country who depend on it.  According to Jean Baptiste Munezero, the agronomic…

Topics: Advisory Services | Digital Business Intelligence | East Africa | Environment | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Will McAneny  |  June 11, 2019

Eighty kilometers outside of Nairobi, the Patel family’s macadamia factory buzzes with activity. In 2016, Mehul and Chirag Patel founded macadamia processing business Rainsun Nuts; every year since, they’ve doubled their sales. Between their office in Nairobi and their factory in the rural town of Sagana, they’ve created jobs for dozens of people—the majority of whom are women, and many of whom are under 35.

Topics: Advisory Services | East Africa | Partnerships | Youth |

Posted by Abigail Bok  |  April 26, 2019

The saw makes a grinding sound as Albert, a young Ugandan agronomist, maneuvers it back and forth slowly, cutting through the trunk of the coffee tree. His colleague Ambrose stands next to him, bracing the tree and readying himself to carefully lower it to the ground once the trunk is severed. They repeat the process, one, two, three times for a single tree, cutting away three small trunks almost to the stump—until there’s just a single spindly-looking branch remaining.

Topics: East Africa | Environment | Partnerships | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Root Capital  |  January 16, 2019

Photo: USAID/Siegfried Modola Root Capital and the IKEA Foundation are announcing a new partnership, worth €4.8 million, to help 260,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda increase their income and adapt to climate change. The grant builds on the success of a previous partnership, through which Root Capital supported dozens of Kenyan agricultural businesses, helping them break the cycle of poverty in rural communities.

Topics: East Africa | Environment | Livelihoods | News and Announcements |

Posted by Shelley Martin, Value for Women, and Asya Troychansky, Root Capital  |  March 7, 2018

Driving along the winding dirt roads of Kenya’s central highlands, it doesn’t take long to spot scores of women farming in the mist. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that women perform 75 to 89 percent of the country’s agricultural labor. Yet all too often, this labor goes unrecognized.

Topics: East Africa | Women in Agriculture |

Posted by Will McAneny  |  October 26, 2017

No woman should have to choose between caring for her children and pursuing a fulfilling career. In this Kenyan village, working mothers found a way to do both.

Topics: East Africa | Partnerships | Stories of Impact | Women in Agriculture |

Posted by Benjamin Schmerler  |  July 20, 2017

On a warm, breezy day in the sleepy Congolese city of Bukavu, I find myself on the back of a boda-boda motorcycle taxi, puttering down the unpaved city streets on my way to the National Office of Coffee. Down every alleyway I catch glimpses of the morning sun glimmering off of the calm waters of Lake Kivu. It’s the first day of “Saveur du Kivu,” a celebration of the reemergence of specialty coffee in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the country’s premier coffee event. I’m here representing Root Capital, which happens to be the largest coffee lender in the region.

Topics: East Africa | Peace | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Nora Taylor  |  July 7, 2017

  On a summer evening in Cambridge, MA, author, educator, and former ambassador Swanee Hunt sat down with activist Chantal Kayitesi and Root Capital founder and CEO Willy Foote to discuss the important role that women have played in Rwanda’s recovery from conflict. Hunt is the author of Rwandan Women Rising, a book she wrote to celebrate the visionary women who are paving the road to Rwanda’s recovery and reconciliation in the wake of the 1994 genocide.

Topics: East Africa | Our Community | Peace |