Our approach

RuralInvest’s participatory bottom-up approach ensures that farmers take ownership in their projects. Business plans are developed through interactive group sessions, use of flipcharts, and constant communication between RuralInvest users and the farmers. We aim to build up national capacities by generating pools of users and trainers from national institutions who can implement the methodology and undertake RuralInvest activities.

The RIV20 software

User-friendly and free software that supports all types of small and medium-scale rural businesses and translates participatory data collection into professional-quality business plans. It is open-source and works perfectly offline. Cloud features are under development and will be ready by mid-2022.

The users

RuralInvest users come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Field technicians, extension agents, members of universities or training centres, business plan development consultants, or financial specialists can become experts in RuralInvest. The users understand which data are needed to develop a business plan, how to collect it and insert it in the software, and how to analyse the business plans generated.

The results

Harmonized and visually appealing reports make it easy to evaluate and compare business proposals with solid capital budgeting and performance indicators automatically calculated.