Blog
Winrock in Costa Rica
November 19, 2018
Draped in lush tropical rainforests, flanked by pristine beaches, and dotted with smoldering volcanoes, Costa Rica has become a beacon for nature-loving tourists and adventurers. It stands out from its neighbors as a prosperous and booming ecotourism destination, and this is no accident. Rural migration in the 1980s, followed by policies and outreach that shifted […]
Getting ‘CLEAR’ About Child Labor
November 13, 2018
For the past four years, the CLEAR II team, represented by Winrock and its partners Verité and Lawyers Without Borders, has been working steadily to fight child labor. CLEAR II, which stands for Country Level Engagement and Assistance to Reduce Child Labor, aims to increase the capacity of host governments to reduce child labor. As […]
Loving Lake Village
November 6, 2018
Lake Village, Arkansas. It’s small, it’s rural. It’s one of my favorite places in the world. I first visited it as a Winrock employee 11 years ago. The people there welcomed me with wide open arms and made me a part of their family. I’ve shared many a dinner with Mayor JoAnne Bush and her family […]
Promoting Sustainable Aquaculture in the Philippines
October 25, 2018
I recently returned from the Philippines, where I was asked to assess and advise on water quality conditions in two areas of the Caraga region of Mindanao where Winrock’s Philippines Cold Chain project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is helping farmers and fisherfolk. These areas have adopted their own distinct technologies for cultivating […]
Fishing for Change
October 23, 2018
“Do your husbands object to your attending class?” “No, no, no,” say the women. “With a show of hands, how many of you are now earning money?” Nearly everyone in class raises her hand. The women of Baika Beel are participating in one of USAID Bangladesh’s Climate Resilient Ecosystem and Livelihoods (CREL) project’s financial entrepreneurship and […]
Sustainable Development and Science: Bridging the Gap with Tools
September 12, 2018
While sipping your tea this morning, chances are you weren’t thinking about the journey it made to reach your cup. A world away, on a plantation in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, those tea leaves grew, were handpicked by farm workers and hauled off in diesel trucks to processors who fermented and dried them. The […]
Examining Climate Information Services from Production to Uptake
July 31, 2018
By Abby Love, Fatema Rajabali and Robert O’Sullivan In June, the fifth international climate change adaptation conference, Adaptation Futures, was held in Africa, a first for the conference series. Around 1,200 people attended Adaptation Futures in Cape Town with a program that reflected the growing emphasis on climate information services (CIS) in the adaptation community. […]
Providing Low-Income Customers with Life-Improving Products
July 26, 2018
By Katie Gross and Evgenia Sokolova When Lilian first saw the modern charcoal stove for sale through a local retailer in her town of Kiserian, Kenya, she admired the product. But with only 1,000 shillings (USD $10) in her pocket, she couldn’t afford to pay for the $40 stove outright. School fees were a struggle […]
Winrock Forward
July 17, 2018
Winrock President and CEO Rodney Ferguson outlines his vision for creating maximum impact. Interview by Chris Warren As the President and CEO of a development organization with projects in the U.S. and around the world, Rodney Ferguson often carves out reading time while on airplanes. On a recent trip from his home base in Washington, […]
Getting Credit for Solar
June 18, 2018
By Samwel Tobiko of Juhudi Kilimo, and Genia Sokolova, Winrock finance consultant In Kenya, 80 percent of the population derive their livelihoods from agriculture, yet the share of agricultural finance in national credit is below 5 percent. Juhudi Kilimo, a Kenya-based microfinance institution, aims to address unmet demand for agricultural lending by focusing on rural […]