Blog
Letter from Sumba
November 9, 2017
Illustration by Jessica Kelley; Story and Photographs By Anne Cassidy To reach Kataka School, you drive east along the coast from Waingapu, then head south into the rugged hills of Sumba, Indonesia. Flashes of silvery ocean appear outside the car windows, and, deeper inland, a herd of wild horses. As you near the school you […]
Feeding the People
October 16, 2017
By John Fisk, Director, Wallace Center at Winrock International October 16 is World Food Day. What does that mean, you ask? It means too many people in the world still deal with hunger and extreme nutritional deficiency. It means we must still pay attention and seek solutions. In her seminal book Diet for a Small Planet, […]
Getting Pumped
September 20, 2017
By Evgenia Sokolova, finance consultant to Winrock’s Clean Energy Innovations team “I fell in love with that water pump the first time I saw it,” said Joshua Okundi, a passion-fruit farmer from Kendu Bay. Okundi (pictured above, center, with blue cap) is one of the 9,000 farmers who saw the solar pump at one of […]
What is Water Security?
August 7, 2017
By Eric Viala, Sustainable Water Partnership Director Water fuels every aspect of life. It’s essential for basic health and hygiene, and it drives society’s most essential industries: agriculture, energy and transportation. Without water security there can be no national security. In fact, water is essential to the stability of every country on the planet. Understanding […]
The Journey from Research to Policy
April 4, 2017
Since the 1980s, Winrock has implemented multiple projects in Bangladesh, one of which is the USAID-funded Climate Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) project (2012-2017), which seeks to improve livelihoods and the environment. Under CREL, Winrock’s John D. Rockefeller 3rd (JDR3) Program, which supports evidence-based research by local researchers to inform policy, commissioned two research teams […]
In Kenya, Blue Skies for Solar Water Pumps
March 14, 2017
By Jenn Holthaus Solar water pumps can greatly boost incomes by improving yields and allowing farmers to grow high-value horticulture crops during the dry season. On February 15, Winrock hosted a convening in Nairobi to discuss smallholder financing for these pumps. Through the USAID/Kenya Smallholder Solar Irrigation project, Winrock has spent two years working to […]
In Rural Kenya, Women Find Livestock They Can Call Their Own
March 7, 2017
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, Winrock International salutes women smallholders all over the world. DeAnn McGrew, Winrock’s director of agriculture and volunteer programs, talks about a time when everything came together to help women in Kenya — the USAID-funded Partnership for Safe Poultry in Kenya (PSPK) program. Tell us about the Partnership for […]
New Video: ‘All Farmers Are a Family’
February 2, 2017
It would be easy to assume that Cody Hopkins and Yurien Bec Jelis would struggle to find something to talk about. Hopkins is an Arkansas native who taught high school physics in Rhode Island before the pull of his roots drew him south again to rural Searcy County. Back home, Hopkins and his […]
How Do You Measure Carbon in a Forest?
January 19, 2017
By Chris Warren As part of its Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) agreement with Norway, Guyana had to estimate the carbon contained in its expansive forests. Though a lot of rigorous analysis went into developing the best way to do this — a process Winrock spearheaded — getting it right ultimately required […]
Kids and Cookstoves
November 30, 2016
By Lindsay Dworman Last year, when members of Winrock’s child labor team in Malawi attended a workshop on fuel-efficient cookstoves organized by Winrock’s clean energy team, what their two projects had in common wasn’t necessarily obvious. What soon became clear, however, was that advancing one project’s goals helped achieve the other’s, and together they are […]