Development Impact Report 2014
IFC ADVISORY ServiceS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA DEVELOPMENT IMPACT REPORT 2014 Working Together to Accelerate Development IN PARTNERSHIP WITH IFC Advisory Services in Sub-Saharan Africa: Development Impact Report 2014 1 Foreword Charles Muheria, of Gatanga Province in Kenya, was born to farm coffee. The one-hectare plantation he cultivates was originally owned by his grandfather. Charles has taken over the family business with tireless dedication. “If you don’t work hard, you will go hungry,” he says. The Muheria farm produces more than 12 tonnes of coffee beans a year, which Charles sells to the Gatanga cooperative. The earnings have helped him and his wife, Jacqueline, put three children through school. But the farming life has not always been kind to Charles. Five years ago, Kenya’s coffee-growing The Muheria family industry was in decline. Growers were harvesting only half of what they had reliably produced 10 years Ethiopia’s fruit-processing capacity. While IFC before, and the quality of the coffee beans had fallen, Investment Services focuses on the financial terms of reducing income. the project, IFC Advisory Services works to ensure that Today, the country produces almost as much coffee as small-scale farmers are included in the expanded out- it did in 1989. Despite declining coffee prices in the grower program, and that the project is run responsibly world market, Kenya’s income from coffee sales is on in terms of social and environmental commitments. the rise. The World Bank Group has formalized this joint This remarkable turnaround
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