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How we innovate

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  • 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 program 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

    • The Microinsurance Catastrophe Risk Organization offers microinsurance products that protect clients, mainly women, from the economic aftermath of severe natural disasters.

  • Bank Andara: Indonesia

    • 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: Indonesia, Uganda, Zimbabwe

    • Agri-Fin Mobile uses mobile technology to provide small-scale farmers with “bundled,” localized financial services, market information and agricultural expertise.

  • Mobile money: Haiti

    • Our first-of-its-kind mobile money food security program 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

    • Our for-profit food cart microfranchise in urban Jakarta creates jobs and helps meet the nutritional needs of kids under five years old.

  • Tiendas de la Salud: Guatemala

    • This microfranchised network of health stores supplies high-quality, low-cost medicines to rural areas.

  • Red Tierras: Bolivia, Guatemala, Colombia

    • Red Tierras connects land rights practitioners from marginalized communities, NGOs and government agencies to accelerate the process of securing land rights and make it more cost effective.

  • Rural energy: East Timor, Haiti, Nigeria and Uganda

    • 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.

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