Root Capital Client Shines at Bush Center’s 2015 Global Women’s Network

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.

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Topics: Mexico and Central America | Women in Agriculture |

Con un poco de ayuda estas familias de agricultores orgánicos transitan el camino del éxito

En las tierras altas de Marcala, en Honduras, donde las calles no tienen nombre, para poder ir desde la iglesia - el punto principal de referencia que se utiliza en el pueblo– hasta la Cooperativa RAOS (la primera cooperativa de café 100% orgánica del país), es necesario contar con una de estas tres cosas: un mapa muy detallado, una guía local o una buena dosis de suerte.

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Topics: Advisory Services | En Español | Environment | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | Stories of Impact |

With A Little Help, These Organic Farming Families are Navigating the Road to Success

Root Capital CEO Willy Foote visting Cooperativa RAOS in 2013. In the sleepy, highland town of Marcala, Honduras, there are no street names. To get from Marcala’s church – the town’s main point of reference – to Cooperativa RAOS, the country’s first 100 percent organic coffee cooperative just outside of town, you’d better have one of three things: a detailed map, a local guide, or a healthy dose of luck.

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

Así es como David Lozano de Root Capital trabaja para redefinir el ‘machismo’ en México

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.

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Topics: Advisory Services | En Español | Mexico and Central America | Staff Profiles | Women in Agriculture |

How Root Capital’s David Lozano is Redefining ‘Machismo’ in Mexico

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.

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Topics: Advisory Services | Mexico and Central America | Staff Profiles | Women in Agriculture |

Learning from a Women’s Cooperative in Guatemala

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.

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

Seizing the Opportunity to Train a Women’s Cooperative in Guatemala

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.

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

Shade-Grown Coffee: What’s the Big Deal?

If you bought a cup of certified coffee recently, chances are high it might have been brewed using "shade-grown" beans. But what is shade-grown coffee exactly, and why is it important?

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Topics: Environment | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | South America |

A View from the Kitchen

In past trips to visit Root Capital coffee clients in the “field,” I generally went to the actual field – that is, the coffee farm, where I was overseeing one impact study or another. When we’d get to a farmer’s home, we’d greet the woman of the house, and sometimes her daughter by her side, and off we’d go, usually with men, to visit the coffee plot and learn about the current production.

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Topics: Mexico and Central America | Women in Agriculture |

From Guatemala: Three Ideas for Improved Agricultural Training

Last month, we shared one of the findings from our recent multi-client impact study: that cooperative membership was associated with more widespread use of sustainable agricultural practices by farmers. Despite these signs of improvement, however, we also found that the overall use of sustainable agricultural practices remained limited. Most cooperative members reported using only a handful of the 10 sustainable agricultural practices examined in the study. When they did use these practices, members were often implementing them incorrectly or inconsistently from year to year, due to financial constraints or limited agronomic knowledge. 

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