Gender Equity Marcelline Budza, founder of Rebuild Women’s Hope in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, poses with her new Root Capital t-shirt during the Women’s Council launch in 2023. Credit: Root Capital
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the aftermath of the 1998 civil war is still deeply present. Although the war officially ended over 20 years ago, violence and ethnic conflict have continued in the Eastern DRC, resulting in approximately six million deaths since 1996.
But Marcelline Budza never lost hope for a better future. In 2013, she founded the coffee cooperative, Rebuild Women’s Hope (RWH) on the large remote island of Idjwi in Lake Kivu. Through RWH, Marcelline sought to offer women – many of whom were left widowed from the war – the tools and resources necessary for financial independence. Today, RHW proudly counts more than 3,050 members, benefiting around 18,000 individuals.
The Challenge
Prior to RWH’s founding, local farmers struggled in the conflict-prone zone of Idjwi. They had no way of processing their coffee and their only customers were smugglers who ferried it across Lake Kivu to neighboring Rwanda.
Women farmers faced an even bigger challenge: the pervasive male-dominance of DRC’s agricultural sector. As of 2020, only 3% of women farmers owned agricultural land, with men retaining custodianship of the land under traditional law. Until recently, women in the DRC were also forbidden from signing a contract or working outside the home without their husband’s consent.
In this challenging context, Marcelline and her team were committed to actively promoting women’s rights and challenging societal norms that limit their opportunities. By founding a uniquely women-led coffee cooperative, she created a pathway for women not only to prosper financially, but to create solutions that would transform their communities.
Marcelline Budza meets with other founders of the Women’s Council to discuss gender equity in agriculture. Credit: Root Capital
Our Collaboration
Seemingly insurmountable barriers didn’t stop Marcelline from working diligently to secure financing for her fledgling coffee cooperative. Financing, especially for small women-led businesses, can be difficult to secure, as most commercial sources are reluctant to finance “risky” ventures or provide loans below a certain size. However, Root Capital’s focus on serving the “missing middle” – agricultural enterprises that are too big for microcredit and too small for conventional financing – made us the perfect partner for RWH. In 2019, the business received its first Root Capital loan of $150,000.
RWH has also benefited from Root Capital’s comprehensive advisory services. In 2023, RWH began receiving Root Capital’s business management and agronomic training that have streamlined processes and improved efficiencies. We have also been responsive to RWH’s emergent needs; in 2021, the cooperative received a resilience grant to reconstruct a coffee washing station destroyed by a storm. To date, we have loaned more than $1 million to RWH.
With Root Capital’s support and Marcelline’s leadership, RWH has successfully established an affordable maternity center for women from the community – demonstrating how women-led agricultural businesses can create lasting, far-reaching impacts.
The Impact
Since its founding, RWH has grown into a thriving business, addressing a critical gap for rural coffee farmers and women in the DRC. The cooperative has helped improve the quality of coffee in Idjwi and provided new markets for export, working directly with buyers in the US, Europe and Asia. A key principle of their approach is ensuring that when coffee is sold, the money flows directly to the farmers – enhancing transparency and allowing farmers to reap the rewards of their hard work.
Under Marcelline’s leadership, women now oversee the whole coffee value chain, from planting to processing. They also have access to wrap-around support, such as reproductive and maternal health care and daycare services. Marcelline now aspires to become a top coffee producer farmer in her region and to ensure that women farmers receive the respect and compensation they deserve as impactful and successful leaders.