Nuru Kenya

Nuru is a Kiswahili word meaning light or hope. As an organization, we aim to inspire hope in marginalized communities that experience systemic injustices and the compounding issues of instability and poverty. To learn more about our approach, click here.

In its simplest form, a market linkage is the formal or informal relationship between a buyer and a seller of a good or service. In Nuru’s work, this relationship is between cooperative agribusinesses and private-sector consumer-facing companies or traders. Nuru local organizations act as facilitators and mediators, helping to develop trust and efficiencies between buyers and sellers that do not currently exist and that lead to stable business partnerships and, eventually, contracts.

Nuru adheres to the gender minimum standards across interventions. Nuru organizations work through a women-first approach, and encourage women’s participation in leadership and decision-making roles in their communities. Nuru recognizes the importance of inclusivity in its approach, advocating that sustainable progress towards equality necessitates the active involvement of men, women, and youth in interventions. Learn more here.

Climate change adaptation is the action of adjusting our behaviors, systems, and ways of life to the present and future impacts of climate change. Adaptation is focused on reducing the risks associated with harmful climate-related events and, where applicable, utilizing any potential opportunities, like longer growing seasons. Learn more here.

Resilience is the capacity of a system or person to withstand or recover quickly from a shock or stressors. Especially while working in vulnerable and marginalized communities, Nuru cannot unlock economic potential without building resilience to shocks and stressors experienced by the local community. Much of the resilience is context-specific to the areas in which Nuru works. For instance, while one community may be primarily concerned with instability due to violence, another area may experience relative peace, but widespread drought. Communities often experience a combination of many different stressors all at once. To learn more about how Nuru measures its impact on resilience capacities, please see the Nuru Nigeria Resilience Study.

By ensuring rural people have the opportunity to act on their knowledge, skills and abilities, Nuru supports their journey in achieving their unique economic potential. Economic potential is the capacity to produce goods and services. As an entrepreneurship-promoting organization, Nuru promotes the perspective that financial gains must be bounded by environmental, social and economic responsibility. Nuru believes in an optimistic world where human ingenuity and collaboration contribute to shared prosperity. Nuru works to provide an enabling environment, through business development services and training that remove barriers for youth, women and marginalized populations, equipping them to tap into their vast economic potential.

Demand for dairy products continues to increase in the places Nuru works, specifically Kenya where Nuru supports sustainable dairy livelihoods. Milk production impacts the environment in various ways, and the scale of these impacts depends on the practices of dairy farmers. Nuru supports sustainable semi-zero grazing practices that increase productivity per cow and strike a balance between carbon and nutrient cycles in rural landscapes. Nuru believes that when farmers can make meaningful choices that are supported by trusted information, tools, and finance, they will be prepared to lead the restoration of diverse landscapes and are incentivized by proximity and stewardship to conserve all the goods of a place.