Publications
This study confirms that affiliation with Root Capital services, meaning being a member of a cooperative that is client of Root Capital or selling coffee to a business that is client of Root Capital, increased the average income of coffee-farming households in Chiapas, Mexico by $6,188 MXN ($335 USD) per harvest.
The Women in Agriculture Initiative (WAI), now in its 11th year, expands access to finance to more women-led and gender-inclusive businesses across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
The WAI was launched in 2012 to promote gender equity and inclusion for women in agriculture. The initiative has already transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of women in developing economies by unlocking the potential of investing in businesses committed to gender equity.
Since 2012, Root Capital has invested $621 million in gender-inclusive and women-led enterprises, reaching more than half a million women employees and farmers.
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Our biennial report covers two years of progress, highlighting our impact pathways, two client stories, financials from the years, and more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Over two years, the Social Impact Incentives (SIINC) project used impact-linked financing to extend $12M in credit to previously underbanked agricultural enterprises across Latin America. Learn more about the project's success and the implications this has for future impact-linked financing projects.
