Projects
Microbusiness Empowerment Project
The Microbusiness Empowerment Project will assist approximately 50 low-income Arkansas-based entrepreneurs, especially minority and female-owned businesses, with the mentorship, technical assistance, and business leadership skills they need to prepare for capital acquisition and deployment. Funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration, the project helps disadvantaged entrepreneurs seeking support with financial management, product and target market…
Science Venture Studio at Winrock International
Science Venture Studio at Winrock International is a science-and-technology startup facilitator that helps promising new, Arkansas-based ventures commercialize and obtain federal funding. The SVS project works with early-stage companies to help them obtain critical, non-dilutive federal funding – front-end cash that does not require startup entrepreneurs to forfeit any equity in their new businesses. The…
USAID Upper Lempa Watershed Project
The USAID Upper Lempa Watershed Project will improve the health and resilience of the Upper Lempa watershed, directly impacting the well-being and water security of 180,000 people in nine municipalities in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, setting the foundation for water resources management essential to millions of people who depend on the Lempa River and […]
West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emissions Development (WABiLED) activity
The West Africa Biodiversity and Low Emissions Development activity promotes biodiversity conservation and supports climate-resilient, low emissions development in the West African countries of Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. As a partnering organization in this USAID activity, Winrock will support the development and implementation of rural livelihood activities that generate income and support…
SafeStep Project
The SafeStep mobile phone application was originally designed and launched in 2020 by a consortium including ELEVATE, Diginex and Winrock International with funding from UK aid and the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS) to support Bangladeshi migrants traveling to Gulf Coast countries. It has been expanded with additional funding from GFEMS and new…
USAID’s Esho Shikhi Activity
USAID’s Esho Shikhi Activity will increase learning opportunities, enhance teaching quality and teaching learning materials to improve quality education in selected subjects, strengthen the capacity of field-level mentors to deliver quality education, and improve school communities’ ability to mitigate and manage the effects of shocks and stressors on education access and quality. Esho Shikhi will…
USAID Entrepreneurship & Investment Activity
Each year an estimated 300,000 young new job seekers enter Senegal’s workforce. With few opportunities for wage-based employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship currently offer the most viable path to self-sufficiency for Senegalese youth. While small and medium-sized enterprises represent 90% of Senegal’s private sector, most of these businesses are operated and managed informally, resulting in low…
Advancing Organic Agriculture in the Mid-South II
Winrock’s Advancing Organic Agriculture in the Mid-South II project takes a research- and evidence-based approach to generate and share practical information to farmers who are interested in transitioning to, and/or becoming certified organic producers. Focusing on the three mid-Southern states of Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee ─ where organic production lags behind much of the rest […]
Readying Small Businesses for Capital Access
The COVID-19 crisis and associated economic downturn disproportionately impact Black and other minority-owned businesses across the U.S., in part because they have more difficulty securing business loans than non-minority-owned enterprises. Minority-owned businesses can also lack the cash flow buffer needed to remain liquid during downturns, as well as lacking access to traditional sources of capital…