Posted by Asya Troychansky  |  October 2, 2015

A Root Capital financial management workshop in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. A few years ago, Esperanza Dionisio, the general manager of Pangoa, a coffee cooperative in Peru, told us a story about a meeting she’d recently attended. “There wasn’t a single woman there,” she said. “More than a hundred men, all of them stunned, looking at me like some kind of rare insect. But I had the chance to raise my hand and say something, and they were all shocked. It was just me and all those men, but I had the background and the knowledge, and so in the end they were satisfied, and they appreciated my work.”

Topics: Advisory Services | Gender Equity |

Posted by Lauren Baum  |  September 25, 2015

Plenary panel at the 2015 Global Women's Network. Photo credit: ExxonMobil Foundation. Earlier this week, Iliana Martinez, the general manager of Cooperativa Esquipulas, a smallholder coffee farmer cooperative and Root Capital client in the highlands of Guatemala, and Root Capital’s SVP Catherine Gill joined First Ladies, private and public sector leaders, and the next generation of innovators in Dallas at the George W. Bush Presidential Center’s two-day Global Women’s Network summit.

Topics: Gender Equity | Mexico and Central America |

Posted by Catherine Gill  |  July 23, 2015

Stella Kimemia of Classic Foods | photo credit: Partners in Food Solutions. It’s an inspiring thing to see a woman-led business increasing livelihoods for women farmers and employees in parts of the world that markets struggle to reach. It’s even more powerful when that business does so while having a positive impact on the physical environment. At Root Capital, investing in those kinds of businesses – high-impact, gender-inclusive, focused on agriculture – is our sweet spot. We provide loans and capacity-building services to these enterprises in Africa, Asia and Latin America, giving them the critical capital they need, but all too often cannot access, to grow their business and scale their impact.

Topics: Africa | Climate Action | Gender Equity |

Posted by Lauren Baum  |  July 20, 2015

Over the last year or so, our Advisory Services team has been experimenting with different ways in which we can continue to increase the participation of women in our various financial management and technical assistance workshops around the world. Recently, we had the chance to sit down with Charles Maina, our financial advisory coordinator for East Africa, to hear about the innovative approach he and his team have been piloting among our Advisory clients in Uganda and Rwanda.

Topics: Advisory Services | Africa | Gender Equity | News and Announcements |

Posted by Willy Foote  |  July 9, 2015

The baobab trees of West Africa, gigantic in size and majestic in stature, are providers: They store water and food for animals in times of drought; they provide homes for birds (owls, parakeets and hawks) throughout the year; and, for many local families, the mighty baobab produces fruit, seeds and leaves that provide a critical source of income. Just starting a Root Capital due diligence trip in northern Senegal, beside the mighty baobab tree.

Topics: Africa | Gender Equity |

Posted by Lauren Baum  |  July 6, 2015

Inversión con un enfoque en la igualdad de género. Half the Sky.  HeForShe. Lean In. Durante los últimos años el empoderamiento económico de las mujeres se ha convertido en un tema predominante entre periodistas, profesionales del desarrollo internacional, inversionistas y empresas internacionales por igual. A pesar de que el interés en estos temas de la igualdad de género ha ido creciendo significativamente, David Lozano, quien trabaja en México como Coordinador de servicios de asesoría financiera para Root Capital, ya había iniciado a dedicar su trabajo a esta problemática desde hace 20 años, analizando el impacto que las desigualdades de género tienen en las personas, en las familias y en las comunidades en general.

Topics: Advisory Services | Gender Equity | Mexico and Central America | News and Announcements |

Posted by Lauren Baum  |  July 2, 2015

Half the Sky. Gender-lens investing. HeforShe. Lean In. Over the last several years, women’s economic empowerment has become a prevalent theme among journalists, international development practitioners, investors, and global companies alike. While mainstream interest in these issues has only recently piqued, Chiapas-based David Lozano, Root Capital’s Financial Advisory Services Coordinator for Mexico, has spent the last 20 years exploring gender inequality and its impact on individuals, families, and communities throughout the country.

Topics: Advisory Services | Gender Equity | Mexico and Central America | News and Announcements |

Posted by Lauren Baum  |  May 7, 2015

Serendipalm employees in Asuom, Ghana. Photo credit: Dr. Bronner's. One hundred miles northwest of Accra, Ghana, sits Asuom, a village of surprising and beautiful contrasts and contradictions. The vermilion clay earth and rust-tin roofs in Asuom pop in contrast to the verdant greens of forests nearby. But it’s within these forests that an even more unexpected paradox exists: large, splayed trees producing sustainable palm oil. Four thousand acres of trees are cultivated by the 670 farmer members of Root Capital client Serendipalm – the world’s first, and largest, fair trade and organic certified palm oil company.

Topics: Africa | Client Spotlight | Climate Action | Gender Equity |

Posted by Estuardo Fuentes Gutiérrez  |  April 17, 2015

Last week, Root Capital impact officer Asya Troychansky wrote about the transformative impact that Root Capital’s financial management training has had on ACMUV, an all-women microcredit and handcraft association in Guatemala. This week, Estuardo Fuentes Gutiérrez, our Guatemala-based impact liaison, shares a recent conversation with Margarita Chojolán, regional training coordinator in Central America, about how we adapted our typical training to better serve women– and what we learned in the process.

Topics: Advisory Services | Client Spotlight | Gender Equity | Mexico and Central America |

Posted by Asya Troychansky  |  April 8, 2015

Juana Hu Mateo, general coordinator at ACMUV. “In my home, my father and my mother always valued my sister and me less than my brothers,” says Juana Hu Mateo, a 41-year-old from Guatemala’s indigenous Maya Ixil community. Despite her parents’ lack of support and community norms against women’s participation outside the home, Juana persevered to study, eventually finding work as a seasonal coffee sorter at Asociación Chajulense, a coffee cooperative and Root Capital client in the western highlands of Guatemala.

Topics: Advisory Services | Client Spotlight | Gender Equity | Mexico and Central America |