OREANDA-NEWS. September 27, 2016. The University of Virginia Darden School of Business Institute for Business in Society, Concordia and the U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships announced Project Nurture as a model public-private partnership (P3) and winner of the third annual P3 Impact Award during the 2016 Concordia Summit in New York City last Tuesday evening.

Project Nurture, a partnership between the global nonprofit TechnoServe, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Coca-Cola Company, sought to address poverty among African smallholder farmers as well as the challenges food and beverage companies face sourcing agricultural products in Africa by connecting mango and passion fruit farmers in Kenya and Uganda to better markets, including the local Coca-Cola supply chain. This partnership met the company’s business objectives while providing a steady market and greater incomes for the farmers.

Project Nurture has improved the outputs and incomes of 54,000 farmers, nearly a third of them women. The public-private partnership trained the farmers to enhance the quality and quantity of their fruit, helping them strengthen or create more than 1,000 farmer business groups and connecting them with buyers such as local processors, wholesalers and regional exporters. As a result, Coca-Cola was able to produce a locally-sourced fruit juice in East Africa for the first time, reducing time and costs over the long run — while farmers’ incomes more than doubled, increasing by an average of 142%.

Project Nurture and four award finalists were featured in a special edition P3 Impact Award article series within the Darden School’s thought-leadership publication, Darden Ideas to Action. The series features leading practices and actionable insights from the winner and finalists. It will also be used to develop teaching cases and other materials to share and advance best practices with other public-private partnerships around the world.

The 2016 award finalists included: Energize the Chain, MTV Shuga Campaign, Satellite Assisted Pastoralist Resource Management (SAPARM) and Sustainable Living Beyond Borders—Transforming Lives via Health and Wellness. As the winner, Project Nurture will receive a full scholarship to attend a week-long Darden Executive Education course.

About the University of Virginia Darden School of Business The University of Virginia Darden School of Business delivers the world’s best business education experience to prepare entrepreneurial, global and responsible leaders through its MBA, Ph.D. and Executive Education programs. Darden’s top-ranked faculty is renowned for teaching excellence and advances practical business knowledge through research. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

About the Darden Institute for Business in Society The Institute for Business in Society, established at the Darden School in 2011, prepares leaders to positively impact society through business. The institute advances thought leadership and innovative practices through research, teaching, programs and convening events.

About Concordia Concordia is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that enables public-private partnerships to create a more prosperous and sustainable future. As equal parts convener, campaigner, and idea incubator, Concordia is creating a new model for how a nonpartisan, nonprofit can have a global impact. Matthew A. Swift and Nicholas M. Logothetis founded Concordia in 2011.

About the U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships The Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships (S/GP) at the U.S. Department of State is the entry point for collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, the public and private sectors, and civil society. S/GP aims to strengthen and deepen U.S. diplomacy and development around the world by building and promoting public-private partnerships that leverage the creativity, innovation, and core business resources of partners for greater impact. S/GP works with partners across sectors, industries, and borders to promote economic growth and opportunity; to invest in the wellbeing of people from all walks of life; and to make democracy serve every citizen more effectively and justly.