Our Projects
Our Projects in 2023
"It has been a year of achievement for Shared Interest Foundation, as we delivered a record number of projects across six countries.
"We worked together with farmers, artisans and communities to establish and strengthen enterprises, increase employment opportunities and implement innovative methods of sustainable production. Thanks to our supporters, we have worked with organisations in Africa and Latin America to build their climate resilience and delivered projects aimed at increasing gender equality and the involvement of young people in agriculture and product diversification."
Quoted: Shared Interest Chair, Dr. Yvonne Gale in an excerpt from our 2023 Annual Review. Read it here.
Pictured: Atule Azeyoke weaves baskets after her morning farming routine.
Read moreDeveloping Sustainable Enterprises
To support the development of sustainable income generating enterprises to improve livelihoods and contribute towards a reduction in poverty.
Empowering Women and Youth
To economically empower women and youth to play an active role in supply chains and earn a meaningful income.
Building Climate Resilience
To support farmers to implement climate adaption techniques to build their climate resilience and increase environmental protection.
Our Three Pillars of Impact
As set out in our Annual Review, we have identified three pertinent themes to address through our projects. These are: 'Developing Sustainable Enterprises', 'Empowering Women and Youth' and 'Building Climate Resilience'. By anchoring our work around these three pillars, we aim to maximise the impact of our projects by equipping smallholder farmers and craftspeople with the vital skills and resources necessary to lift them out of poverty and build their resilience for the future.
Building Resilience
In 2023, over 800 women have received training through the Foundation in a range of topics including agro-processing, soilless farming, Climate Smart Agriculture, business skills and leadership. In Ivory Coast and Rwanda, we provided training, tools and farming inputs to help over 200 young farmers establish sustainable cocoa and coffee farms. Additionally, 143,269 trees were planted including coffee seedlings, agroforestry trees and fruit trees supporting 1,423 coffee farmers.
Partnership plays a huge part in all of our projects and it is only with the support of partners, colleagues, volunteers, donors and grants from trusts and foundations that we are able to continue to support the talents of rural businesses. This year, we worked with 11 in-country partners, supporting producers of seven different commodities.
This year, the team had the opportunity to visit projects in East and West Africa to meet with project participants, monitor ongoing activities and conduct impact assessments. They also performed due diligence checks on potential partners and conducted needs assessments to inform our work and priorities.