Category: Uncategorized

“We, the representatives of over 200 civil society organisations from around the world have come together at this crucial moment in history to call on the leaders of the G7 to agree a bold and ambitious policy agenda that puts people and planet at the centre of the world’s recovery.”

So begins the communique from Hand in Hand Afghanistan Chair Seema Ghani and other leaders who gathered this month at the Civil Society (7) Summit. The two-day meeting, hosted by industry group Bond, aimed to help shape the agenda at this year’s G7 meeting in Cornwall.

Among other recommendations, the communique calls for governments to “Build Forward” from the pandemic sustainably and inclusively based a new, green economic model. It also calls for the G7 to close the global gap in funding for vaccines and build an early detection system for future pandemics.

To read the full communique, click here.

Hand in Hand International CEO Dorothea Arndt has been elected to the Board of Directors of the SEEP Network, the leading global network for NGOs working in women’s economic empowerment, representing millions of savings groups members worldwide.

Dorothea joins a Board of Directors that includes senior leaders from some of the biggest names in the sector, including Habitat for Humanity International, Oxfam, the Mastercard Foundation and more.

“Each of the individuals shares a strong sense of commitment and bring a wealth of experience and knowledge from their respective roles and as members of the network,” the SEEP Network said in a statement.

Dorothea said: “I look forward to advancing SEEP’s disruptive collaboration among members. Each member organisation brings a unique lens to our goal. We only succeed together.”

Established in 1985 with USAID support, the SEEP Network was originally focused on promoting enterprise development and microcredit. Today its 100-plus member organisations, active in 150 countries worldwide, also specialise in agriculture, resilient markets and women’s economic empowerment.

Hand in Hand looks forward to participating in SEEP’s plans to leverage its members’ collective power to foster greater collaboration around funding opportunities and influence government policy.

With the right mindset, turning a profit and restoring the environment can be one and the same. That’s why Hand in Hand and the IKEA Foundation are teaming up to help smallholder farmers in Kenya become leaders in planet-positive agriculture, equipped with the training and tools to lift themselves out of poverty, reverse environmental degradation and show their neighbours there’s a better way to farm.

The problem

Agriculture employs 70 percent of the rural Kenyans and contributes 26 percent of the country’s annual GDP. But most farmers lack the money, skills and tools they need to get the most out of their land and are forced to use practices that damage the environment, make the soil less fertile and threaten the future of their food systems.

Already, more than a third of Kenyan farmers grow crops on degraded land, costing the national economy an estimated US $1.3 billion a year. Unless we act now, more land will be damaged and productivity will continue to fall, breaking the backbone of Kenya’s economy while causing untold damage to its food systems and natural environment.

Our solution

With support from the IKEA Foundation, Hand in Hand will train 1,600 smallholder farmers in regenerative and circular practices to increase productivity and reduce poverty.

Regenerative agriculture favours practices such as crop rotation and using organic fertilisers that help restore soil and water systems, ensuring farms remain sustainable long into the future. Circularity means reusing essential resources like water and natural fertiliser, cutting down on agricultural waste and encouraging vibrant local economies, independent from global demand. Together, they comprise a transformative approach to agriculture that does good for farmers and for the environment.

To help take this transformative approach to scale, Hand in Hand will generate evidence and spread project learning to its network of 250,000 smallholder members countrywide. At the same time, it will empower its core group of 1,600 planet-friendly farmers to be grassroots advocates for regenerative and circular practices at the local and regional levels.

The three-year, US $2.5 million project concludes in September 2023.

Why the IKEA Foundation is supporting the project

The IKEA Foundation is supporting Hand in Hand to test, share and scale up planet-positive farming methods so that smallholder farmers can earn a decent income and protect the planet, while laying the foundations for future efforts to promote this approach to farming across Kenya.

By the numbers

It’s being billed as the Association of Corporate Treasurers’ ‘(Not the) Annual Dinner’, but for the third year running Hand in Hand International most definitely is the Charity of the Year.

On Wednesday 11 November the ACT’s membership will not meet in a packed ballroom in London’s Mayfair to ring in the premier networking event in the corporate finance calendar. Instead, they’ll meet online as the event goes virtual – including a live online auction in support of Hand in Hand.

Funds raised on the night will go towards Hand in Hand’s Fund for Fearless Women, helping vulnerable women beat the odds and succeed as entrepreneurs, lifting their families and their communities out of poverty.

Hosted by business leader and BBC presenter David Meade, the event features an address from Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury.

From coronavirus to climate change, poverty to food security, humanity’s greatest challenges prove that we, the global family, depend on each other.

Now, a new partnership between The Hilti Foundation, Hand in Hand International and thousands of smallholder farmers across East Africa proves that when our global family comes together, no challenge is too big to overcome.

Launching this month thanks to a US $4.2 million investment from the Hilti Foundation, the three-year project aims to reach 24,000 farmers across Kenya and Tanzania, creating almost 17,000 enterprises and 22,000 jobs. Members will be trained to run some of the most profitable agri-businesses in the region, then recruited into its most robust value chains, helping them rebuild from coronavirus and stay thriving for years to come.

Focusing on dairy, poultry and high-margin produce, the project is the second between Hand in Hand and The Hilti Foundation, bringing the overall number of farmers reached by the partnership to 40,000. Changes to women’s decision-making power in the home will be measured. And climate-resilient practices such as topsoil regeneration, biodiversity and rainwater harvesting will be emphasised throughout.

“The Hilti Foundation was committed to expanding our partnership with Hand in Hand before the outbreak of Covid-19. In the context of the global pandemic, our program in Eastern Africa has become even more relevant: enabling smallhold enterprises in rural areas to grow into flourishing businesses creates economic and social development for entire regions.” said Werner Wallner, The Hilti Foundation CEO.

Dorothea Arndt, CEO of Hand in Hand International, said: “Covid-19 is already leaving a global economic crisis in its wake. As we switch from saving lives to saving livelihoods, organisations like Hand in Hand will be crucial in leading the recovery. And strategic partners like The Hilti Foundation, committed to creating opportunities for people to take their lives into their own hands, will be more important than ever before.”

For more information about the project, please contact Senior Partnerships and Project Officer Dan Browne.

By the numbers

 

What happens when thousands of unemployed women in Africa’s biggest slums are empowered to take control of their finances and launch their own businesses? And when thousands more of the most promising micro-entrepreneurs in those same slums receive specialist training, financial services and mentor support to help level up their businesses – what happens then?

Thanks to a ground-breaking new partnership with Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, we’re about to find out. Launched with a US $2.4 million grant from Visa, the three-year project aims to reach 10,200 members in two groups in the slums of Greater Nairobi, some of the biggest anywhere on Earth.

Financial inclusion, a prerequisite to small-business growth, will feature centrally throughout the programme, which aims to elevate both groups to a position where they can access the financial services they need.

Equality for each

This International Women’s Day, millions of individuals will converge on a collective theme: #EachforEqual. Hand in Hand’s partnership with Visa flips the equation, seeking equality for each of the 6,880 women who comprise 80 percent of the programme’s first group, our Launchpad.

Women living in Nairobi’s slums face restrictive norms and attitudes that keep them from earning their own incomes, controlling their own assets and making decisions for themselves. Hand in Hand’s package of Self-Help Groups, business and skills training, mentorship, financial inclusion and market linkages will empower our Launchpad members to overcome those barriers and increase their incomes

Scaling up our most promising micro-businesses

Our second group, the Accelerator, takes established micro-businesses to new heights. Here, we’ll select 1,600 pre-existing entrepreneurs for high-growth potential – including Hand in Hand’s most promising entrepreneurs from previous projects – with an eye to helping them scale up. Urban in nature, businesses in this category will range from retail shops and salons to garbage collectors, upcycled-waste producers and more. At least 50 percent will be owned and run by women.

Since our very first days in rural south India, Hand in Hand has prioritised a single demographic: women living in extreme poverty, defined since 2015 as those earning less than US $1.90 a day. So why, almost 20 years later, are we expanding to include our Accelerator class?

Small businesses lift up the communities around them by creating employment opportunities and enhancing livelihoods in a multiplier effect. But the answer is also strongly reflected in a 2019 survey of our members in Kenya, conducted by impact measurement leaders 60 Decibels. On the whole, found the survey, Hand in Hand’s members are pleased with our programmes: 95 percent said their quality of life improved after taking our training, and 51 percent said it improved “very much”.

Still, when researchers asked for improvements a number of key themes emerged. Eleven percent of respondents, many fitting the accelerator profile, said they wanted “expanded content” to help them keep learning and growing. For 34 percent, the answer was even simpler: “increased financing”.

Hand in Hand’s Enterprise Incubation Fund already provides finance to members at the Launchpad level. In keeping with our ethos of self-help, that finance is limited to one loan cycle of roughly US $200 – a bridge to other, more formal providers. By helping our Accelerator members scale up, we’re extending that bridge further, to a place where lines of credit are comfortably within reach. In other words, they receive “expanded content” – more training – and “increased financing” all in one go.

The programme will also see investment in Hand in Hand’s IT infrastructure to support digital program data and collection. Eventually, this technology will be scaled across all 23 of Hand in Hand Eastern Africa’s field offices, enabling programme managers to learn and adapt in real-time.

At Hand in Hand International, two things get us out of bed in the morning: women’s entrepreneurship and several cubic metres of coffee. So imagine how thrilled we are to partner with Pact Coffee, the UK’s finest purveyors of Direct Trade joe, delivered to your door.

Pact doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to social purpose, they walk the walk – with a pep and sense of purpose that only the truly caffeinated will understand. That means embracing a Direct Trade model by working directly with farmers, paying anywhere from 25 percent to 125 percent above Fairtrade rates.

Lucky for Hand in Hand, it also means going an extra step further in honour of #InternationalWomensDay and donating £1 from every sale of a very special coffee during the month of March. That coffee is El Triunfo and it’s grown by Karla Baquero, the youngest member of a women’s co-operative in Colombia that supplies beans to Pact.

Hand in Hand has won the Prince Talal International Prize for Human Development.

Awarded by AGFUND, the US $400,000 prize recognised a Hand in Hand project in Sarepul Province, Afghanistan that created more than 9,700 microbusinesses and 13,300 jobs.

Hand in Hand’s submission – one of 166 from 78 countries – was selected as winner by a committee that included Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize Laureate and founder of Grameen Bank, and Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain. Past winners include BRAC, Habitat for Humanity and the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

“From our board of trustees to our staff in Afghanistan who do such amazing work every day, Hand in Hand is honoured to receive this award,” said Hand in Hand International CEO Dorothea Arndt. “We thank AGFUND, and dedicate this award to each and every one of the 9,712 inspiring women and men of Sarepul Province who joined our project made it such a success.”

Held at the United Nations’ Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, the awards ceremony capped AGFUND’s eighth annual development forum, ‘Empowering Women through Financial Inclusion’. Hand in Hand International Trustee Dr John Barrett accepted the award.

Three smaller prizes were awarded to Kenya’s Dandora Dumpsite Rehabilitation Group, Rwanda’s Ministry of Youth and Egypt’s Ms. Nawal Mostafa, founder of the Children Female Prisoner’s Care Association.

All proceeds from Hand in Hand’s prize will go towards our programmes in Afghanistan.