Features

Learn how we help smallholders in developing countries to treat their farms as the businesses that they are.

Learn how we join with the private sector to empower people and businesses worldwide.

Have an eye for photos? We need your help! Vote for your favorite photos from our 2012 Photo Contest's finalists to help decide the winner.

Upper Egypt holds untapped agricultural potential, which could help jumpstart local rural economies.

Interested in climate-smart approaches? Read our new World Report to learn practical ways to help communities adapt and thrive.

Big changes are taking place in the Philippines's cocoa industry.

The USAID Community Action Program worked with diverse Iraqi communities to respond to local needs. Learn about the impact Iraqis achieved with its support.

Learn how Ethiopian farmers transformed the country's coffee sector by coming together into effective, business-minded cooperatives.

With SMS access to market prices via Esoko, Sara Maunda was able to compare prices before selling her groundnut harvest. The result? She sold her crop for a price 5 times higher than before.

Working hand-in-hand with communities to build or improve local, small-scale infrastructure—roads, school and hospital buildings, water and sanitation systems, and more—is intrinsic to ACDI/VOCA’s social and economic development activities.

Our 2011 annual report highlights our impact from last year and ongoing holistic efforts to build capacity from the local level on up to empower people to succeed in the global economy.

Agriculture fuels development in Kenya, and farmers’ co-ops are vital for growth. Until recently, however, many co-ops did not operate as businesses. With new skills, that's changed for the Kiirua Dairy Co-op.

Provincial partnership conferences serve as a new, collaborative way of governing Iraq in a sustainable way.

ACDI/VOCA has assisted nearly 900 smallholder farmers in taking a step toward accessing stable and lucrative markets by connecting them with Kenyan exporter Vegpro Ltd.

Our Sell More For More approach helps farmers earn more income by improving post-harvest handling and executing effective market-oriented business plans.

We engage with voluntary social and economic actors, civic and social organizations together with other groups to build local capacities and strengthen local societies for the common good.

Join us in celebrating National Volunteer Week! Read about the many ways ACDI/VOCA volunteer experts help us fight poverty and build local economies worldwide.

ACDI/VOCA's team uses solar-powered smartphones with custom-designed app to track aid distribution in Haiti's Southeast Department.

Women are key drivers of economic growth in emerging countries. Learn how we use an integrated approach to transform opportunities for women and men around the world.

With new youth dorms, agriculture college students in Paraguay’s Horqueta are now able to concentrate fully on completing their studies.

Learn how our USAID-funded program in Lebanon helped a local pickle business launch its products in specialty stores and supermarkets from Asia to South America.

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Register now for a two-day event convening donor, practitioner and research communities to disseminate significant value chain learning and discuss development's most pressing issues.

Our USAID-funded maternal and child health and nutrition program helps the neediest in Haiti access crucial food and health care services. “You can see the difference in my son’s health,” says Jesula Faustin.

Iraqi microfinance institution Al-Thiqa has made steady progress toward self-sustainability and turned a major corner in 2011.

ACDI/VOCA applauds the theme for 2012: “Cooperative Enterprises Build a Better World.”

Our holistic approach is informed by our roots in volunteer assistance and U.S. farm cooperatives and credit banks. Learn more about our story through this new video.

More than 1,200 people in Iraq's Maidan community now have access to quality health services, including services critical to pregnant and lactating women.

We need less than $5,000 to meet our goal. Donate to help Egyptian farming families grow more and earn more through the gift of technology and education.

Starting at the local level, ACDI/VOCA works to support Iraq’s efforts to decentralize authority in order to facilitate the process of democratic transition and promote stability.

Learn how a carpentry association offers youth in northern Paraguay a chance to build their skills and a brighter future for their communities.

“Without Mr. Joseph’s determined follow-up, I would never have received my loan,” says dairy farmer Michel Sarkis Nader.

Information and communication technologies offer new solutions to many old problems. In this issue of our World Report, read how ICT advances our goal of expanding opportunities worldwide.

Two conferences organized by ACDI/VOCA lead to "a major breakthrough" in efforts to foster cooperation between citizens and local government and boost the process of decentralization in Iraq.

As a community leader, a nursing assistant and a mother, Shirley Argandoña has a lot of reasons to care about the water system in her Mosetén indigenous community.

A billion people—one-sixth of the world's population—go hungry each day. Learn how ACDI/VOCA is working to change that.

2010 presented us with formidable challenges as well as opportunities. Learn how we applied holistic development solutions to create lasting impact in 39 countries.

Juan Torrez has become one of the highest-yielding pig farmers in Bolivia's Dorado Chico with ACDI/VOCA's help. Learn what's made the difference.

ACDI/VOCA partnered with the Selale Dairy Producers Cooperative Union to make investments in local agricultural production to fill market gaps and improve local food quality and availability.

ACDI/VOCA has worked in 145 nations since 1963 to provide knowledge, opportunities and choices. Learn about what distinguishes ACDI/VOCA and our signature approach to international development. (PDF, 966 KB)

Behind petroleum, coffee is the world’s second most commonly traded commodity. Learn how it also poses unique economic opportunities for rural smallholder farmers around the world.

Join us in celebrating National Volunteer Week! Read about the many ways ACDI/VOCA volunteer experts help us fight poverty and build local economies worldwide.

Are time and distance conflicts making it difficult to train staff? As ACDI/VOCA has learned, e-learning tools make those barriers easy to overcome.

See photos and learn how ACDI/VOCA staff around the world celebrated International Women’s Day with our local partners, communities and beneficiaries.

ACDI/VOCA has an outspoken fan in southeast Haiti—Melissa Jean. She is one of 74 orphans in Jacmel who receive food rations through our programming.

Looking for a way to give back to Lebanon? ACDI/VOCA seeks professionals who are willing to potentially volunteer 2-3 weeks of their time to support proposed business development work in Lebanon.

Find out more about USAID's and ACDI/VOCA's successful founding of the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative—one of the largest fertilizer producers in the world and the largest in Asia.

Youth present both unique challenges and great promise in development work. Read our latest findings on how to engage this population to drive economic growth.

Jan. 12's earthquake devastated the lives and livelihoods of many Haitians in the Southeast. For 80 women, hope has been found in a small but lively business—sisal angels.

ACDI/VOCA staff share in the 2011 Hunger Report insights learned from our highly successful Kenya Maize Development Program.

Check out this video of our USAID-funded Lebanon Business Linkages Initiative, which shows our value chain approach to economic development in action.

Our Lebanon Business Linkages Initiative worked with key firms to improve the Lebanese tomato value chain from seed to shelf to increase jobs in rural areas and reduce rural poverty.

Give a gift that will have a long-term impact on Bolivian families’ lives: Donate to equip rural farmers to earn better incomes!

A volunteer’s visit to Sri Lanka helped a local aquaculture company improve its seabass-raising business, which should help 3,000 local fisher families boost their incomes by about $3 million.

ACDI/VOCA believes individuals' and families' health and nutrition is crucial to ensuring food security, creating sustainable livelihoods and empowering people to seize opportunities for better lives.

In Bolivia, ACDI/VOCA recently helped the Alto Beni Milk Producers Assocation build a processing plant and trained them in yogurt and cheese production. “Now,” says one member, “we are producing very good cheese."

What started as a small, one-time lettuce sale to U.S. embassy personnel is growing into the first farmers’ market in Monrovia, Liberia.

Looking for a way to give back to Armenia? ACDI/VOCA seeks professionals who are willing to potentially volunteer 2-3 weeks of their time to support proposed business development work in Armenia. We need experts with experience in IT, medicinal herbs, renewable energy, SME finance and tourism.

H’Bim Buon Krong manages three cocoa clubs, a seedling business and her own farm. “Until I became educated, I never knew it was possible for my life to change,” she says.

Youth are valued partners in our work to build more prosperous and secure futures in developing nations. Learn more about how we engage youth to affect positive change.

By harnessing renewable energy from small streams in Northern Afghanistan, IDEA-NEW has brought electricity to almost 1,000 remote rural households.

ACDI/VOCA recently connected rural Bonti farmers to tractor service providers. The result? Over 80 farmers had 400 acres plowed in time for planting, meaning higher food yields and a stronger value chain.

ACDI/VOCA helps poor indigenous farmers in Ecuador to boost their incomes through premium prices and market connections for an internationally sought-after crop: quinoa.

Working with ACDI/VOCA, Saad increased his production from 18 to 30 tons of tomatoes per feddan. He says, “I thought I knew farming, but now I realize how much there is to learn.”

See a video of ACDI/VOCA's on-the-ground work in Haiti's Southeast Department.

In a region of Colombia that suffers from violence and instability, coffee offers hope and economic opportunities for farmers.

Micah Milgo was among 25,000 farmers who attended a Kenyan business fair sponsored by ACDI/VOCA, coming away from the fair with a potentially transformative profit scheme.

ACDI/VOCA's Kenya Maize Development Program program officer Jane Tum took these recent photos of impact that your donations made possible through the successful “Greenest of Gifts” campaign.

Read our 2009 annual report to learn about our impact last year and our ongoing efforts to empower people. (PDF, 1.4 MB)

Learn about Laurenco Njoroge, a community mobilizer in Kenya who helps increase local incomes and food security as well as community peace and stability.

ACDI/VOCA's Kenya Maize Development Program helps build local skills and knowledge for Kenyans like Beatrice and Steve Kemboi.

ACDI/VOCA empowers both women and men to succeed in the global economy. Read lessons that led us to where we are today and continue to shape how we work.

Read what Filipino farmers say their current challenges are and how our new project will work with them to achieve their goals.

100 Afghan widows, refugees, IDPs and poor women learn new wool-spinning methods through IDEA-NEW.