How we innovate
-
Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps
The toughest places demand the boldest ideas and solutions. That’s why Mercy Corps partners with creative thinkers from the private and public sectors to develop social innovations that transform lives. New technology, business models and creative partnerships provide transformational opportunities for overcoming poverty and despair. We leverage our robust global programme platform to identify breakthrough ideas, test them in the field, and scale them broadly.
We often take a shared value approach in our partnerships with the private sector, and focus our efforts in two key areas: financial services and last mile distribution.
Learn more about these social enterprises and shared value models at work in the Mercy Corps world. Download the fact sheet ▸
Find out how to partner with us ▸
Financial services
Through savings, insurance and loans, we enable individuals to grow their businesses with confidence, knowing they will be able to weather unforeseen setbacks.
- MiCRO: Haiti, Colombia, Central America
- Bank Andara: Indonesia
- Agri-Fin Mobile: Indonesia, Uganda, Zimbabwe
- Mobile money: Haiti
The Microinsurance Catastrophe Risk Organisation offers microinsurance products that protect clients, mainly women, from the economic aftermath of severe natural disasters.
This commercial bank exclusively caters toward serving Indonesia’s microfinance sector with the capital, and financial and technical services they need to better serve low-income small business owners.
Agri-Fin Mobile uses mobile technology to provide small-scale farmers with “bundled,” localized financial services, market information and agricultural expertise.
Our first-of-its-kind mobile money food security programme helped poor and rural people to receive, withdraw and transfer funds as well as pay for goods from affiliated merchants via a mobile phone.
Last mile distribution
Poor people in rural areas are usually the last to access new technologies and information. Mercy Corps finds ways to extend the benefits of these advances through the power of mobile networks, online resources, and new sales and distribution models.
- KeBAL: Indonesia
- Tiendas de la Salud: Guatemala
- Red Tierras: Bolivia, Guatemala, Colombia
- Rural energy: East Timor, Haiti, Nigeria and Uganda
Our for-profit food cart microfranchise in urban Jakarta creates jobs and helps meet the nutritional needs of kids under five years old.
This microfranchised network of health stores supplies high-quality, low-cost medicines to rural areas.
Red Tierras connects land rights practitioners from marginalised communities, NGOs and government agencies to accelerate the process of securing land rights and make it more cost effective.
To increase energy access and economic opportunities for rural communities, we identify and train supply chain actors, tailor appropriate finance mechanisms, and develop business skills among local micro-entrepreneurs and retailers.
All stories about Innovations
-
Indonesia, Uganda, Zimbabwe: Agri-Fin Mobile program provides big benefits on small phones May 17, 2013
How Mercy Corps and local partners are bundling services on a unique mobile platform to help smallholder farmers boost their harvests and incomes.
-
Timor-Leste: Solar energy lights the way for rural families May 8, 2013
Celeste da Silva and her husband Clementino grinned broadly as they held up the recent addition to their modest tin-roofed home. The source of their contentment? A simple solar light.
-
Bolivia: Mobile phones bring land ownership to indigenous farmers April 11, 2013
How new technology is helping rural communities achieve greater equality.
-
Mercy Corps ranks among top 10 international NGOs for social innovation February 27, 2013
Mercy Corps is proud to be recognized for its "leadership in using social innovation as an engine for sustainable development" by The Global Journal.
-
Guatemala: Juan Tista Toj, pharmacist in Guatemala February 13, 2013
More pharmacies will begin serving remote villages thanks to a pilot programme that Mercy Corps and partners are taking to scale throughout the country.
-
Haiti: What does resilience look like? January 22, 2013
Discussions at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting this week will focus on how to better prepare for and minimize disasters of the future. In Haiti, we've been investing in communities to do just that.
-
Haiti: Three years later, investing in the long-term January 11, 2013
Since the January 2010 earthquake, Mercy Corps has reached more than 1.6 million people with lifesaving assistance. Now, we're investing in youth, small business owners and rural communities to build back stronger.
-
Indonesia: Food carts on a whole new scale December 20, 2012
In Jakarta, our teams found that 17% percent of children under 5 are malnourished, while 12% are overweight.
-
Indonesia: Nutrition on wheels December 18, 2012
In the urban slums of Jakarta, kids under five years old are getting enriched, nutritious food from an unusual place: healthy food carts.
-
Zimbabwe: Innovative farming initiative recognized at Clinton gathering September 27, 2012
Mercy Corps and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation were recognized at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City on Tuesday for their Commitment to Action to implement Agri-Fin Mobile.