Features

Working with ACDI/VOCA, Saad increased his production from 18 to 30 tons of tomatoes per feddan. He says, “I thought I knew farming, but now I realize how much there is to learn.”

It’s now been six months since the Jan. 12th earthquake in Haiti. See a video of ACDI/VOCA's recent work in the Southeast Department of Haiti.

In a region of Colombia that suffers from violence and instability, coffee offers hope and economic opportunities for farmers.

Micah Milgo was among 25,000 farmers who attended a Kenyan business fair sponsored by ACDI/VOCA, coming away from the fair with a potentially transformative profit scheme.

ACDI/VOCA's Kenya Maize Development Program program officer Jane Tum took these recent photos of impact that your donations made possible through the successful “Greenest of Gifts” campaign.

Learn about Laurenco Njoroge, a community mobilizer in Kenya who helps increase local incomes and food security as well as community peace and stability.

Read our 2009 annual report to learn about our impact last year and our ongoing efforts to empower people. (PDF, 1.4 MB)

ACDI/VOCA's Kenya Maize Development Program helps build local skills and knowledge for Kenyans like Beatrice and Steve Kemboi.

ACDI/VOCA empowers both women and men to succeed in the global economy. Read lessons that led us to where we are today and continue to shape how we work.

Read what Filipino farmers say their current challenges are and how our new project will work with them to achieve their goals.

100 Afghan widows, refugees, IDPs and poor women learn new wool-spinning methods through IDEA-NEW.

Access our value chain publications library to read case studies, find tools and more.

Join us and celebrate National Volunteer Week. Read about the many different ways veteran and new volunteers help us fight poverty and build local economies worldwide.

We are less than $5,000 away from our donation goal for a job creation project for areas in and around Jacmel, Haiti. Donate today to create jobs in Haiti.

Because of your generous donations, ACDI/VOCA successfully delivered the greenhouse kit and expert training to Kenyan farmers, who jubilantly received them.

Lodz Joseph shares her personal observations working as a consultant for ACDI/VOCA’s emergency distribution efforts.

We have learned from 45+ years’ experience: women are essential to economic development. Learn how gender approaches foster better results and investments in women pay multiple dividends.

Haitians have shown incredible resilience following the Jan. 12th earthquake. Read how people like Rachelle Cheristal are trying to move forward.

Intelligentsia's Geoff Watts recently described our Colombian coffee program as "one of the more thoughtful, well executed and well planned I've run into.”

Since 2004 our partner Al-Thiqa has provided loans to over 38,000 Iraqi borrowers including 6,685 women entrepreneurs.

ACDI/VOCA has launched a new USAID-funded project to increase smallholder incomes and reduce hunger for Dekhan farmers and rural families.

A new Agribusiness Systems International project aims to double the incomes of small-scale farmers—including women—using tested techniques.

See images of our relief work on the ground as ACDI/VOCA has been working with the local civil sector, USAID and U.N. agencies.

ACDI/VOCA's Kenya Maize Development Program’s private sector connections turned into boons for two groups of Kenyan youth.

Help us in our relief and recovery efforts.

In climate change discussions, one group has perhaps the biggest stake in the deliberations: smallholder farmers in developing countries.

Check out the newest issue of the World Report, which examines how ACDI/VOCA is meeting the challenges of food security around the world.

Voice of America interviewed ACDI/VOCA's Paul Guenette on sustainable agriculture. Check out the video to learn more.

An estimated 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide. ACDI/VOCA is dedicated to being proactive in the fight against HIV/AIDS and helping people live healthier, more productive lives.

ACDI/VOCA is working with the local civil sector, USAID and UN agencies to aid relief efforts and begin assessing immediate, on-the-ground needs following last week’s devasting earthquake.

This holiday season give a group of Kenyan farmers the greenest of gifts: a drip irrigation greenhouse and training from an expert volunteer.

ACDI/VOCA and its partner financial institutions have worked to provide $1 billion in loans to create opportunities for rural residents, smallholder farmers and small business owners.

Learn about the emerging global best practices to enhance the competitiveness of SMEs.

ACDI/VOCA fosters the sustainable development of the coffee and cocoa sectors to empower smallholder farmers to take control of their economic futures.

ACDI/VOCA is helping farmers better weather hurricane season in Haiti with a new variety of sweet potato. Now they're better prepared to put food on their families' tables.

We're now on Twitter! Follow us if you're a member to learn about the latest happenings, new job opportunities and more.

This year’s World Food Day caps off an extraordinary year both for U.S. policy and international developments related to global food security.

ACDI/VOCA and local partners introduced a new bean strain to rural farmers in Haiti. The result? A doubling of bean crop yields. One farmer said, “It is the first time I have seen a variety of bean with such results."

ACDI/VOCA connects impoverished Liberian youth to a new hotel on the coast to gain practical job skills and reinforce the importance of schooling.

A recently formed Ecuadorian women’s association has blossomed into a nationally sought-after cocoa nursery. Read how they did it with ACDI/VOCA's help.

Our volunteers provide technical expertise to people to live better lives. Help us do even more—make a donation today to support our volunteers!

The World Food Program has asked for $230 million to provide emergency food assistance to 3.8 million Kenyans. ACDI/VOCA staff there say that help may not come soon enough.

Poorer women who work in rural agriculture have the drive to succeed in national and international markets. How do we know? We listen to what women want.

A public-private partnership creates a win-win for BP and local Azerbaijan SMEs.

With help from ACDI/VOCA, Gabriel Gils, a smallholder farmer in Colombia, now sells his quality coffee beans to U.S. roasters.

A volunteer assignment turned into a life-changing event for Tim Moley and cocoa farmers around the globe. Read how a trip to Indonesia led to Chocolove.

ACDI/VOCA has won a $10.8 million, 3-year program funded by the Millennium Challenge Account to transition smallholder producers from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture in Mali.

A cooperative supported by ACDI/VOCA in Rwanda’s Northern Province celebrated a record-breaking wheat crop this year, making the national Umuganura harvest celebration a true festival of firsts.

While food security was the impetus for ACDI/VOCA’s creation in 1963, not until recently was it declared one of the company’s official practice areas. Here's the story of how that happened and why it matters.

Our 2009 success story contest winner was David Lukungu of our Title II PL 480 program, for his story, which describes a farmers’ group that, despite terrible odds, is now thriving in northern Uganda.

ACDI/VOCA Chief of Party Nadia Namken received a certificate of recognition from Tijara for helping to develop microfinance in Iraq. Tijara, which means “trade” in Arabic, is a large USAID project that gives out this top honor to only one person each year.

Created under ACDI/VOCA's USAID-funded Knowledge and Practice II AMAP BDS Task Order, the wiki codifies value chain resources and enables users to learn about emerging best practices.

In Tanzania, ACDI/VOCA has helped mariculturalists like Salim Hatibu, who through his seaweed sales was able to rebuild his home and send his children to school.

Through the Farmer-to-Farmer program, Dr. Rick Bates, a Penn State University horticulturist, helped the future of Georgia's Nordmann fir industry to become bright once more.

What started out as a three-week Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer assignment in July 2002 has led to a robust Little League program where the crack of the bat was seldom before heard—in Uganda.

With the help of Board Chair Mort Neufville, ACDI/VOCA recently tapped the eminent Dr. Eugene Terry as a volunteer for its Promoting Agriculture, Governance and Environment project in Sierra Leone.

Volunteer service is a powerful component of our approach to development. For over 45 years, our expert volunteers have increased capacity and improved living standards in over 130 countries.

East Timor – CoBank Helps Volunteer Provide Further Guidance on Property Rights

As an international development organization, we are driven by our mission to empower people to live better lives. And in that work there’s no denying there’s power in numbers. Connect to us to share in our work.

Bipartisan legislation supports roadmap calling for comprehensive strategy.

World Cocoa Foundation and leading chocolate companies partner with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve cocoa farmer livelihoods in West Africa. ACDI/VOCA to help implement.

Coconut expert Randal Moore had just returned from a trip to Venezuela when ACDI/VOCA contacted him for an activity in Panama. A self-taught expert in palm trees, this expertise led to a life-changing volunteer experience.

ACDI/VOCA has launched a blog called “A Day in the Life of USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteers,” where Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers can share their impressions and photos from overseas trips.

We've just released a new general video: Empowering People. Watch the three-minute condensed version of it now.

After much international discussion and collaboration, ACDI/VOCA's Global Food Crisis Team has issued a food crisis position paper that presents our thinking on how we can be most effective.

The reformatted Fall 2008 issue of the World Report is now available.

As we mark our 45th anniversary, we're reflecting on programs of particular impact and importance. In this third installment we'll look at how ACDI/VOCA increased productivity, reduced food insecurity and enhanced rural incomes through the establishment of competitive, profit-oriented and professionally managed cooperatives in Ethiopia.

New features emphasize greater user participation and interactivity.

As we mark our 45th anniversary, we're reflecting on programs of particular impact and importance. In this second installment we'll look at ACDI/VOCA's role in restoring cooperative banking in Poland.

The USAID Marla Ruzicka War Victims Fund is helping one family rebuild their lives in Iraq.

The stories of three ACDI/VOCA volunteers who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.

As we mark our 45th anniversary, we're reflecting on programs of particular impact and importance. In this installment we'll look at ACDI/VOCA's role in founding the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative, one of the largest fertilizer producers in the world and the largest in Asia.

Annatto producers access the international market for a traditional crop with the support of ACDI/VOCA and USAID.

Cocoa production improves livelihoods of vulnerable populations.

On July 12th, we marked 45 years of empowering people in 145 countries around the world.

HIV/AIDS nearly destroyed an entire family in Uganda until ACDI/VOCA’s food distribution program brought them back from the brink.

ACDI/VOCA musters response to world food crisis. President Leonard says our proficiency in agricultural development and food aid gives us insight into the crisis and also opportunities to alleviate it. Ongoing projects report on the local effects of the food crisis

This video showcases ACDI/VOCA’s 16 years of food security work in Cape Verde.

After a lifetime of hardship, a Vietnamese woman has found hope and financial security in a cocoa bean fermenting business.

ACDI/VOCA and Infosys have partnered to develop an information and communication technology-enabled application that will improve efficiencies in the agricultural supply chain and maximize profits for smallholders.

In 2007 ACDI/VOCA-assisted microfinance institutions (MFIs) were featured prominently on the Mix Market and Forbes lists.

Support from ACDI/VOCA has led to new products, packaging, certifications, and ultimately higher sales, for one women’s specialty food co-op in Lebanon.

ACDI/VOCA is linking vegetable farmers in the West Bank with marketing companies.

In 2007 ACDI/VOCA celebrated 35 years of Friendship and Cooperation with Bolivia

New application process, tools take effect.

ACDI/VOCA renovates and equips dilapidated kindergarten in Bolivia.

ACDI/VOCA has compiled a list of items produced by our beneficiaries to help you complete your holiday shopping this year.

An independent Iraqi radio station ACDI/VOCA helped launch encourages public discourse.

ACDI/VOCA is working to increase the use of movable property in Azerbaijan as an efficient form of collateral for small business loans.

Coffee from ACDI/VOCA client awarded a score of 96 by Coffee Review.

ACDI/VOCA is teaching smallholder cocoa farmers in Ecuador how to make sound business decisions, how to organize with one another in order to increase their market options and negotiating power, and how to receive higher prices by selling directly to cocoa exporters.

MicroInvest, a microfinance institution established by ACDI/VOCA in Tajikistan, has teamed up with Kiva to provide its clients with the opportunity to receive person-to-person loans.

ACDI/VOCA and its Indian corporate and NGO partners are successfully integrating Indian smallholder farmers into fresh produce supply chains serving India’s rapidly growing organized retail sector.