Africa Development Promise

When ADP launched in 2014, we served one small agricultural cooperative in Rwanda. As of 2021, we are supporting nine groups - nearly 450 members - in Rwanda and Uganda with inputs, training, credit, and access to markets for social and economic growth. We have made significant progress in both countries delivering profitable results, demonstrating sustainability, and cultivating local leadership.

Vocational Program Working with the women we have learned that women often start their individual micro-businesses, running them alongside the cooperative enterprise. ADP's Vocational Training program was launched in Uganda in February 2019 to enhance and improve livelihood opportunities of the rural women and girls we serve and the broader community. Programs are held at our training facility and offers cooperatives members, middle and high school students, and community members access to computer literacy, tailoring, and entrepreneurship courses. These courses are designed to enhance entrepreneurial participant skills allowing them to start a business and/or gain skills for non-agricultural employment, thus further boosting the local economy. The center connects cooperative members to markets, credit, management tools and the resources available to those on the right side of the digital divide.

Agriculture ADP works to ensure that women farmers are poised to capitalize on expanding markets as East Africa adopts more market-based approaches to agriculture. Our agriculture programs are designed to strengthen the capacity of women-led agricultural cooperatives, enabling them to improve their business management skills, cooperative governance, expand their networks, and increase productivity. Working with the cooperatives we help them identify the strengths and gaps in their operations and develop a plan that trains them on improved production techniques, post-harvest storage and food processing; adoption of improved agricultural inputs and technologies; and how to access markets directly. Most of the cooperatives that ADP supports initially relied on rain-fed agriculture, but with increasing climate irregularities farmers were generating very low yields or experiencing crop failure. For cooperatives to achieve the desired sustained growth there is a need to invest in agricultural water resource technologies. ADP assesses the water limitations and needs for the crops the cooperative grow or plans to grow and based on that we determine the best irrigation option (full-fledge or supplemental irrigation). ADP has implemented irrigation systems that include hillside irrigation, water harvesting, solar powered irrigation, that include drip irrigation, gravity fed sprinklers and/or drag hoses. ADP has also integrated a solar energy retail sales model to meet the challenges of delivering affordable energy solutions to rural communities in the Wakiso District of Uganda.

Girls with Dreams Program ADP launched the pilot program Girls with Dreams in August 2019. The intention was to run the pilot for two years as an after-school program and offer three-week camps during the school holidays. In August 2019, we partnered with Gayaza Cambridge College - a mixed day and boarding secondary school - to identify and recruit bright and motivated girls. Although 45 girls applied, we selected 14 girls for the first cohort due to funding constraints. With the advent of COVID-19, school closures, and the travel restrictions, the original plans for the pilot had to be modified. Rather than recruiting additional girls, we decided to continue with the same girls once travel restrictions were lifted. Since August 2020, the program has offered afternoon activities that keep the girls engaged. In January 2021, we plan to relaunch the pilot for two years adding an additional 20 girls each year. The goal is to help keep the girls in school and help them navigate the social and cultural pressures that prevent them from achieving their own dreams. The program will develop girls, so they learn to value themselves, understand their strengths, develop their leadership skills, find support and solidarity with their cohort peers, and understand the college and career options available to them.0