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October 2015

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Winrock is excited to partner with USAID on the Feed the Future Asia Innovative Farmers project to support smallholder farmers, increase incomes and improve food security in Asia.

This year, the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer program celebrates 30 years of implementation around the world. Winrock's volunteer staff recently reflected on the spirit of the program and what makes it so special..

There are approximately 30 million children in Latin America involved in child labor. See what Winrock is doing, in partnership with JTI International and the International Labour Organization, to say "no" child labor, and "yes" to education.

New market opportunities for farmers: John Fisk, Director of the Wallace Center at Winrock International, blogs about the expansion of the GroupGAP program. Read more.

Thank you, Food Tank for including Winrock International in the 2015 Good Food Org Guide. Search the guide, or get a digital copy here.

What is the state of the food hub across the country? Join the National Good Food Network to learn the latest from an in-depth survey on food hubs in the U.S. Register today for the free webinar on Nov. 19.

A nascent coffee-producing industry is just starting to realize its potential in Myanmar. Winrock has partnered with USAID and the Coffee Quality Institute to support smallholder producers, particularly women and minorities, and help link them with competitive markets.

Are you interested in working at Winrock? Search current openings and post your resume. Would you like to volunteer with Winrock? Learn more about new opportunities for volunteers.

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 Building confidence, leadership skills of women in the cookstove value chain
Household cooking with solid fuels over open fires and in rudimentary cookstoves, in particular the air pollution it creates, are among the world’s most pressing problems – adversely affecting the environment as well as people’s health. Women can plan an important role in helping more households in developing countries adopt cleaner and more efficient fuels and cookstoves, both as consumers and cookstove entrepreneurs.

With this in mind, a Winrock-implemented project organized an “Empowered Entrepreneur Master Trainer” workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, for trainers from local and regionally-based cookstove organizations. During the workshop, trainers learned tools and techniques they can use to pass on business, empowerment and leadership skills to the cookstove entrepreneurs in their network – with a specific focus on women entrepreneurs. Trainers learned approaches for agency-based empowerment, which builds on traditional resource-based empowerment approaches to emphasize core beliefs and concepts such as self esteem, sense of control, and power or self reliance. The training, which followed the “Empowered Entrepreneur Training Handbook,” was especially focused on gender-sensitive training approaches and skill building designed to increase the participation of women in the cookstove value chain. Read more.

Indonesian president: More power generation; Winrock supports renewable efforts
Winrock International has joined the U.S. Power Working Group dedicated to helping Indonesia ramp up its power capacity, while supporting the island nation in its efforts to increase the supply of energy from renewable sources. Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced the country's ambitious goal in April, with the additional production capacity essential to the Indonesia's efforts to meet electricity demands as well as its targeted economic growth.
 
Organized by the Department of Commerce at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Winrock joins more than 45 of America’s most prominent energy companies, showcasing a broad range of cutting-edge technologies and equipment, proven technical and policy expertise, and innovative financing and engineering solutions. The working group is dedicated to supporting Indonesia to achieve its goal of developing an additional 35,000 megawatts of power generation capacity by 2019. Additionally, Indonesia hopes to increase the percentage of energy from renewable sources to 23 percent by 2025, which is where Winrock will play a significant role – lending its substantial renewable energy expertise. Six percent of Indonesia’s energy output came from renewable sources in 2013, and while that figure grew to 11 percent in 2014, there is still much progress to be made. Read more.
 
(Photo: U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake and Minister Sudirman Said for the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources shake hands at the launch event Sept. 2. Image courtesy of the Department of Commerce, U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.)

Call for applications: Innovative grants fund in Myanmar
The Value Chains for Rural Development Project, funded by USAID and implemented by Winrock International, invites qualified producer groups, for-profit businesses, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and nonprofits to propose inititatives under one or more of the Project's broad objectives: 1) to improve agricultural productivity of smallholder producers; 2) to strengthen value chains; and 3) to enhance private sector engagement.

Grants will fund initiatives to support coffee, soybean, ground nut, sesame and horticultural value chains found within Southern Shan and the Dry Zone. This competition is open for one year (May 18, 2015 - May 17, 2016) for grants up to $300,000 to be implemented over a 6- to 24-month period. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. The deadline for applications to be considered under the second review round is November 30, 2015. Learn more.
       


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