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Measuring Our Impact

By measuring our impact, we unlock critical data that drives real decision making about where and how we deploy limited resources.

Impact measurement and management is at the heart of Root Capital’s work to transform rural communities. We have a responsibility to ensure our work improves peoples’ livelihoods and doesn’t cause unintended harm. Impact measurement findings help us analyze our results and fine-tune our programs to better serve farming families. To contribute evidence to the broader sector, we regularly share what we’ve learned. Read our latest findings.

How We Measure Impact

Our impact measurement and management efforts focus on two areas:

Predicting Social and Environmental Impact Through Due Diligence

Measuring Actual Impact Through Rigorous Evaluations of our Work

We employ best-in-class standards from the impact investing sector and also situate our metrics within the broader global development agenda. We employ rigorous evaluation methodologies; most recently, conducting our first set of quasi-experimental evaluations to measure our impact on farmer incomes. Learn more about this study.

We balance our commitment to rigor with usability—measuring impact in ways that are relevant to our work, budget-conscious, and suitable for remote, rural contexts. This ensures that the results are useful both to us and to our clients. In all cases, we make sure that the community directly benefits from our studies, through an approach we call "client-centric evaluation." As we measure impact, we also generate information that is useful to farmers and enterprises and deliver that data back to them.

Reports and Impact Studies

Carbon, Climate, and Coffee: Organic Agroforestry Coffee as a Natural Climate Solution

This report shows the potential of environmental payments to reward farmers for their use of carbon-friendly, agroforestry practices. It is the result of three years of collaboration with our partners the CAC Pangoa, CENFROCAFE, Cool Farm Alliance, Cooperative Coffees, COMSA, Manos Campesinas, Norandino, Sol y Café, Sustainable Food Lab, and The Chain Collaborative, with generous funding from the EcoMicro program of the Inter-American Development Bank.

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2021-2022 Biennial Report: Renewed Resilience Amidst a Post-Pandemic Recovery

Our biennial report covers two years of progress, highlighting our impact pathways, two client stories, financials from the years, and more. View Report

Closing the Gender Gap in Agricultural Investments

This case study showcases how three CSAF members turned their gender intentions into action, each focusing on the entry point and gender lens investing (GLI) actions most aligned with their business and impact priorities. It was created in partnership with Root Capital, Value for Women, and CSAF.

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Climate Resilience Roadmap 2022 Annual Report

Climate change is an existential crisis for smallholder farmers across the world. But with the right support, these rural communities can be powerful champions of climate action. In 2020, Root Capital launched our Climate Resilience Roadmap, a six-year strategy to support urgent climate action in rural communities by building the resilience of agricultural enterprises serving smallholder farmers. Halfway through our strategy, we have made significant progress against our goals and generated valuable insights about how best to support small and growing agricultural enterprises to ramp up climate action. Descargar reporte (Español)

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Inclusion Pays: The Returns On Investing In Women In Agriculture

The business case for women’s leadership is clear. But little data exists on small and growing enterprises, especially in emerging economies. Even less data is available on the agricultural industry—a sector that 2.5 billion people globally depend on for their livelihoods, and one in which women receive only 7% of total investment. Through an analysis of 10 years of Root Capital’s global data, Inclusion Pays: The Returns on Investing in Women in Agriculture sheds new light on the benefits—to women, businesses, and investors—of investing in women in agriculture. Descargar reporte (Español)

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Women in Agriculture Initiative: 2021 Annual Report

Over the past 10 years, Root Capital's Women in Agriculture Initiative has helped expand gender equity in hundreds of rural communities around the world. In 2021, we reached new heights alongside women farmers, agricultural employees, and entrepreneurs.

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