Nuru International

I am the founder of Nuru International. I graduated from the US Naval Academy and served 7.5 years as an Infantry and Force Recon Platoon Commander in the Marine Corps. During this time, I led Marines on four operational deployments including two combat tours in Iraq. My experiences in combat convinced me that the contributing causes of violent extremism – specifically extreme poverty – must be eradicated in order to win the fight against violent extremism. After I left the military, I enrolled at Stanford Graduate School of Business to found Nuru International. Upon graduation, I led a team to launch Nuru’s first project in Kenya. Since 2008, Nuru has created resilient, locally-owned and locally-led NGOs in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. These NGOs have developed over 40 thriving farmer cooperatives, equipped over 10,000 entrepreneurs to enter the local workforce, and improved the lives of over 130,000 people. 

Nuru is committed to eradicating extreme poverty and building resiliency in smallholder farming communities in the Sahel who are at risk of falling under the control of a violent extremist group. Nuru serves African populations in fragile regions most vulnerable to violent extremism, climate change, extreme poverty, food insecurity, socio-economic marginalization, and global pandemics like COVID-19.

Nuru believes everyone deserves the freedom of lasting, meaningful choices. We are committed to creating meaningful choices in vulnerable communities that others cannot reach due to instability. Nuru moves farmers from subsistence farming to farming as a business to decrease hunger, increase agricultural productivity, and increase their income. Over the next five years, Nuru will bring meaningful choices to over a million people in the Sahel–people at risk of falling prey to ISIS or Al Qaeda–to help stop the spread of violent extremism and to create a safer and more secure world for all.

Conflict fueled by violent extremism is spreading across the Sahel with no clear backstop preventing its spread across the African continent. Extremists exploit vulnerabilities of marginalized populations living in extreme poverty in fragile states to gain footholds and grow. The economic impact of terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2019 was estimated to be $12.2 billion (Global Terrorism Index).

Additionally, the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not on track. By 2030, more than 80% of the world’s poorest people could be concentrated in regions like the Sahel which are most vulnerable to not only violent extremists, but also climate change, extreme poverty, food insecurity, socio-economic marginalization, and global pandemics like COVID-19. Nuru has identified approximately 1.7 million people in the Sahel who are presently at risk of falling under the sway of a caliphate. 

Nuru has melded the capabilities of former Special Operations Marines, returned Peace Corps volunteers, and development professionals to be adept at building locally-led sustainable footholds in vulnerable communities of fragile states. By restoring agency, fostering resilience, and unlocking prosperity among vulnerable marginalized communities through sustainable livelihoods and increased social cohesion, Nuru deprives extremists of their local support.

Nuru works in vulnerable, impoverished communities in highly fragile rural areas to create a locally-led NGO with vetted, emerging leaders. Nuru co-designs cost-effective rural livelihoods and community health solutions that address the most critical needs of the community, and it works with the local NGO to create farmer cooperatives that serve as the delivery vehicle for the programs to the community. Nuru builds the capacity of the local NGO, focusing on the leaders and the systems of the organization, to create a professional organization that can stand and grow on its own. After 5-7 years, Nuru exits from the project, and the cooperatives become profitable businesses that are able to graduate from the support of the local NGO and continue delivering services to members independently. At that point, the local NGO scales to new communities and forms new cooperatives to repeat the process in a vulnerable community that will otherwise slip through the development cracks.

Nuru’s solution is straightforward and designed to transition to local ownership, therefore making it simpler than programming requiring perpetual action. Nuru has scaled the model to three local organizations and has successfully exited two of them. Farmers are at the center of our model and we localize it based on what the community identifies as its vulnerabilities. The community identifies the problems and develops the solutions together with Nuru in a replicable process that uses cooperatives as the service delivery vehicle for sustainability. 

Nuru works with smallholder farmers and their families in rural regions of fragility in Sub-Saharan Africa–people most vulnerable to being targeted by violent extremist groups, episodic hunger, lack of nutrition, financial shocks, and preventable disease and death. Nuru helps farmers move from subsistence farming to farming as a business through the establishment of cooperatives supported by locally-led NGOs. 

Nuru’s solution has significantly and consistently increased resiliency by helping thousands of farmers diversify their livelihoods; farmers have been enabled to stand resilient in the face of shocks from climate change, agricultural pests, and other forms of instability. Nuru farmers have demonstrated significant increases in crop yields (98%), incomes (70%), and ability to reduce under five child mortality (25%).

Nuru works in geographies where others are often unwilling or unable to operate. As a result, Nuru is helping highly vulnerable communities–who are unlikely to be reached with meaningful choices–to chart a path toward self sufficiency. At the nexus of security and development, Nuru is also at the forefront of changing the conversation around the US approach to defeating violent extremism through efforts such as the recent passage of the Global Fragility Act. Nuru has helped thousands of farmers become more resilient while simultaneously building strong, healthy agribusinesses in the form of locally-owned and led cooperatives.

In 2003, I was serving as a Force Reconnaissance Marine on the front lines during the Iraqi invasion. I witnessed poor farmers in southern Iraq being forcibly recruited by Saddam’s fedayeen. These farmers were being given this choice: watch their children starve or fight the Americans. It was then that I realized violent extremists exploit the conditions of extreme poverty to further their cause. After that awakening, I enrolled at Stanford in 2006 to learn how to build a scalable organization that could address extreme poverty in areas that others were not reaching. Under the advisement of one of my professors at Stanford, I started Nuru in areas that, while fragile, were not under direct threat by a violent extremist group to test the viability of Nuru’s approach: Kenya and Ethiopia. After creating strong local organizations in Kenya and Ethiopia, Nuru launched a new project in northeast Nigeria in former Boko Haram caliphate territory in 2018. Our goal over the next ten years is to serve an additional 1.7 million people in the Sahel region of Africa who are at risk of falling under the control of Al Qaeda, ISIS, or other similar groups.

In the first days of the Iraq invasion, my team and I were on the front lines. A vehicle rapidly approached our position, so we fired a warning shot. The car stopped, and the driver, a young Iraqi man, jumped from the car and ran towards us, waving his arms. I thought he had strapped a bomb to himself, so I sprinted towards him, weapon raised. Suddenly, a military vehicle drove up. Six men jumped out and sprayed the man’s car with bullets. The man stopped, turned around, and sprinted back towards his car. I realized what was happening. We’d heard reports that Iraqi Special Forces were coercing desperately poor farmers to fight Americans. One of those farmers, this man was trying to escape to safety. By the time I reached the man’s vehicle, his wife lay dead in the passenger seat and his baby had been shot in the face. As he knelt, cradling the body of his 6-year-old girl, I began weeping. It wasn’t fair that this man had no choices because of where he was born. I vowed to devote my life to ensure that people had meaningful choices and hope where none previously existed.

Nuru brings together the strength of local leaders, the wisdom of development experts, and the invaluable skill set of special operations combat veterans. Nuru builds successful locally-led nonprofit organizations that grow and thrive with minimal operational support, and Nuru has become a leader in locally-led development. Critical skills include trust building between stakeholders, building social cohesion and restoring agency, working with local power brokers and government, and navigating tribal and ethnic dynamics. Nuru’s deep knowledge of security operations is rare in nonprofit organizations focusing on long-term development. Nuru has created several high impact media assets in the past that have been widely lauded, and it developed the ability to tell stories appropriate for the local context. 

Nuru has an established track record of creating lasting impact and cultivating local leadership alongside marginalized populations. Nuru has consistently been able to reduce household vulnerability through increasing income (241% increase) and reduce child mortality (28% reduction) for farmers and their families in remote, rural areas of two of the most fragile countries in the world, Ethiopia and Kenya. Nuru created local organizations in each country who have been able to help thousands of households grow and thrive in the wake of crop disease, drought, agricultural pests like fall army worm, political instability, and tribal conflict. Amid all of these challenges, Nuru farmers and their local member-owned cooperatives not only cultivate solutions, but also improve social cohesion and trust in the face of instability by working together.

In my first week launching Nuru in Kenya, I was struck by lightning, attacked by thieves and black widow spiders, survived an earthquake, and contracted malaria. I felt powerless, defeated, and ready to give up.

My friend, Philip Mohochi, invited me into his home and offered me chai. He had grown up in extreme poverty in a rural village, but did well in school and built a successful career in Nairobi. He moved back to his village to help his people. 

While I told him about my week and plan to leave, he looked at me with compassion in his eyes, “Rafiki, you have had a difficult week. But I want you to consider something before you leave. The farmers and families here have bad weeks, too, except they have a bad week every single week. Mothers go months without knowing how they will feed their children the next day. You took medicine and feel better now. They don’t have medicine, and their children get malaria and die. These farmers need us. They need the chance to have choices in their lives. You can’t give up.”

I didn’t give up in Kenya, and I gained a dramatically different perspective.

When I arrived at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), I didn’t know the first thing about building a company, nor did I have a solid understanding of what worked and what didn’t when it comes to addressing global poverty, but I was consumed with a desire to bring hope to communities like those I saw in deployments as a Marine in Iraq, the Horn of Africa, and Indonesia. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do all of the work on my own. 

When my classmates and professors heard my story, and why I wanted to tackle this problem, they offered their support. My classmates helped me create a robust business plan that took into account successes and failures over the last 50 years of international development. My professors offered mentorship, expertise, time, and resources, and I was able to connect with some amazing individuals and foundations to help get Nuru off the ground. Classmates from the GSB and Naval Academy, fellow marines, and people from my home state of West Virginia donated time and money to help us raise the initial funding we needed to put a team on the ground and transform Nuru from an idea to reality.

The Nuru Model embraces the complexity of extreme poverty and focuses on resilience and permanent change. Nuru’s approach of sustainable, locally-led development is based on this philosophy: a strong African woman who possesses the same skill set and knowledge as an international development expert is far more capable of sustainably ending extreme poverty in her country than the outside expert will ever be. Long-term sustainability is achieved through building local leaders and businesses. Having an expatriate exit plan from Day One leads to locally owned and led organizations. Nuru’s work leads to a restoration of agency not only at the household level, but also in every level of the local organization. Nuru possesses unique capabilities, including special operations combat, security and leadership development experience in some of the most fragile regions in the world. Nuru’s staffing combines the best on the ground development expertise with military special operations veterans. Nuru also focuses on capacity development of local leaders who can research, design, implement, manage, and scale interventions at the local level. In addition, Nuru works in places where other organizations are either unable or unwilling to work because of instability and violence.

Nuru's emphasis on a holistic, locally-led approach, its planned exit of expatriate staff within seven years, it combining of former special operations veterans and on the ground development experts, and its work to develop local farmer organizations that will continue to drive impact long after staff leave an area each differentiate Nuru from other organizations in its field.

The key long-term outcome for Nuru is to have communities that have more financial resources, diversified incomes and livelihoods, are more resilient in handling shocks and recover more quickly. At the household level, long-term outcomes include households that have improved health and nutrition, increased food security and income, and the ability to exercise meaningful choices. 

Other long-term outcomes are focused on the creation of an enabling environment where communities have improved economic opportunities and social cohesion; positive collective action and access to markets through cooperatives, decreased vulnerabilities, local leadership agency, capacity, and decision-making.

1. Nuru establishes local NGO with effective implementation capacity, mobilizes the community and holds open community meetings to discuss the benefits of farmer organizations

2. Farmers agree to form farmer organizations

3. Local NGO offers farmers improved livelihoods opportunities through micro-loans and extension

4. Farmers adopt better production, nutrition and business practices

5. Local NGO provides digital financial services and social behavior change communication (SBCC) extension

6. Households save income and practice healthy behavior

7. Local NGO provides best-in-class agribusiness training/coaching to farmer organization leaders

8. Farmer organizations implement better business practices

9. Local NGO acts as farmer organization partner to access markets/finance and rebuild agency

10. Common economic interest drives community toward greater collective benefit from working together and pooling risks and rewards rather than working alone (positive collective action)

11. Nuru develops leadership and agency in local NGO and farmer organizations

12. Mobilized and economically empowered community builds sustainable social cohesion and common voice through repetition of positive collective action

13. Local NGO leverages success stories as a local positive narrative to mobilize support locally to scale to adjacent communities 

14. The resilient community has lasting meaningful choices and no longer feels the need to listen to or support VEOs who are offering services or trying to exploit conditions of desperation 

Nuru’s impact has been evaluated by third parties including annual impact data analyzed by the Ray Marshall Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and overall evaluations of the strength of local organizations conducted by Genesis Analytics. In addition, Nuru was also featured in a case study for USAID-funded research called “Stopping As Success”.

This year Nuru is serving 51,000 people in three countries.

Next year Nuru will be serving 72,000 people in three countries.

In five years Nuru will be serving over one million people across six countries.

Over the next five years, to stop the spread of Al Qaeda and ISIS, Nuru will help 1.7 million people across 17 districts in 4 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in yellow zones (fragile regions with communities vulnerable to violent extremist organizations with high rural populations and adjacent to conflict areas) begin to lift themselves out of extreme poverty permanently by building local organizations and a network of farmer cooperatives that will help communities work together, build resilience, establish market linkages that will enable these communities to enter the global economy.

Violent extremist movements cannot grow or thrive without local support. By restoring agency, fostering resilience, and unlocking prosperity among vulnerable marginalized communities through sustainable livelihoods and increased social cohesion, Nuru deprives extremists of their local support.

The Sahel has the youngest population globally (14 years old) and one of the highest birth rates. Every year of conflict that persists is another year that peace becomes a more distant memory until it is fully erased. Nuru will cultivate a homegrown, transformational vision of hope in the Sahel. Without intervention, the Sahel is destined to instability: a region of failed states with no memory of peace and an enduring safe haven and launchpad for extremism and terrorism. Together, however, we can bring an alternative future into reality–a bold future where these same communities are thriving and contributing to a better world for everyone.

The current state of security in fragile states and the ongoing threat of exploitation and violence at the hands of violent extremist groups  (ISIS and al Qaeda) is both a continuous barrier and a constant reminder of the necessity of our work. Fragile states suffer from a “fragility trap,” including inadequate government capacity and legitimacy, the absence of a functioning private sector, a divided and distrustful populace, and a lack of basic security. These factors limit the support a fragile state is able to provide to local development efforts. Additionally, NGOs in fragile states in Africa face the added barrier of the US government’s deprioritization of efforts in Africa–a decision that has ramifications in the loss of both financial and security support. Across the Sahel, Nuru also faces the increased threat of climate change and the negative impacts of desertification. 

Nuru’s largest and most significant barrier to success is funding. In order to scale to the level we wish to reach, we need more funding. At the same time, we also need to develop systems internally to handle the growth of our organization and our capacity to more aggressively scale our approach.

Nuru will start addressing these barriers using these tactics: 

Barrier 1. Security situation (ISIS and AQ)

• Develop an Early Warning Network where we work

• Hire future field staff with security expertise/military background 

Barrier 2. Deprioritization of Africa by USG - loss of financial and security support

• Ensure GFA passage leads to funding for implementers like Nuru in Africa 

• Build key government partnerships and develop allies 

Barrier 3. Climate change/desertification

• Train farmers on Climate-smart Agriculture practices across new regions such as Conservation and regenerative farming techniques, Sustainable intensification, and nutrient management

Barrier 4. Lack of host nation government support (fragile states)

• Maintain neutrality among political and people groups

• Garner support from local leadership and focus on co-creation that supports communities' desired outcomes

• Establish government relationships and partnerships at local level through local leaders  

Barrier 5. Funding & Systems Build out: 

• Build on successful relationships with existing funders 

• Tap into new donor networks 

• Explore international funding opportunities 

• Secure government funding. 

• Make Nuru “Big Bettable” –continue to build relationships with big bet entities and networks

• Promote Nuru’s brand and position it as the premier organization at the nexus of security and development. 

• Ensure security processes are documented and replicable

• Create country project start up kits that include lessons learned

• Position recruiting and onboarding systems for rapid growth

• Develop robust Salesforce instance to manage relationships

Nuru actively engages with other groups, which includes leadership training provided to organizations like UMCOR, Glimmer of Hope, and Mavuno. Nuru has partnered to implement larger efforts such as EmbraceNest incubators with Little Lotus, tree planting with Trees for the Future, Literacy Boost with Save the Children, and dairy programming with Kenya Crops and Dairy Market Systems USAID-funded, RTI-implemented activity. Nuru has conducted research with the University of Texas at Austin and with the College of William & Mary. Moreover, Nuru is a key member in coalitions such as the Movement for Community-Led Development and the Agribusiness Market Ecosystem Alliance.

Nuru establishes locally-led NGOs that mobilize subsistence farmers to form farmer cooperatives and begin farming as a business. The local NGO, supported by an expatriate team, provides startup capital that becomes a revolving loan fund in each cooperative. The capital is used to fund livelihoods programs (lending that generates interest), some community health initiatives, and extension services. The cooperatives trade in the markets (with member-produced goods) to make money and become profitable. The local NGO graduates profitable cooperatives and moves on to mobilize new groups of famers and seed new cooperatives. Sustainable cooperatives are funded by the market and continue producing meaningful choices for members in perpetuity, while the local NGO requires ongoing philanthropic capital to continue scaling to form new cooperatives.

Nuru’s impact is financially sustainable at scale through two paths:

1. Markets: network of profitable farmer cooperatives and unions that graduate from Nuru's services to continue driving impact via self-funding

2. Governments: USG partnering with Nuru to fund this approach at scale or create an internal agency that adopts Nuru's approach in highly fragile areas; and host nation governments adopting Nuru's approach and funding it to scale within their countries

Out of respect, we protect the identity of our donors and choose to not disclose their personal information publicly through domains outside of our organization.

Anonymous Donor

420,000

Anonymous Donor 

420,000

Anonymous Donor

400,000

Anonymous Donor

400,000

Anonymous Donor 

400,000

Anonymous Donor 

400,000

Anonymous Foundation 

319,874.38

Anonymous Foundation

300,000

Anonymous Foundation 

249,944

Anonymous Foundation 

200,000

Anonymous Donor

177,357.25

Anonymous Donor 

177,357.25

Anonymous Donor

175,000

Anonymous Donor

175,000

Anonymous Foundation 

150,000

Anonymous Foundation

150,000

Anonymous Foundation 

140,000

Anonymous Donor

135,000

Anonymous Donor

135,000

Anonymous Foundation 

130,000

Anonymous Foundation

100,000

Anonymous Foundation

100,000

Anonymous Foundation 

100,000

Anonymous Foundation

98,203

Anonymous Foundation

84,044.94

Anonymous Foundation

75,000

Anonymous Donor 

60,000

Anonymous Donor  

60,000

Anonymous Foundation

54,296.85

Anonymous Donor

50,000

Anonymous Donor 

50,000

Anonymous Donor 

50,000

Anonymous Donor

50,000

Anonymous Donor 

50,000

Anonymous Donor 

50,000

Anonymous Donor 

50,000

Anonymous Donor 

50,000

Anonymous Donor 

50,000

Anonymous Donor

50,000

Anonymous Foundation

43,272.60

Anonymous Donor 

40,000

Anonymous Donor

40,000

Anonymous Foundation 

40,000

Anonymous Donor 

30,700

Anonymous Donor 

30,700

Anonymous Foundation

30,000

Anonymous Donor 

25,000

Anonymous Donor 

25,000

Anonymous Donor 

25,000

Anonymous Donor 

25,000

Anonymous Donor 

25,000

Anonymous Foundation

25,000

Over the next five years, Nuru plans to grow its budget from approximately $5M to $50M by 2026. To achieve this goal, in addition to growing its existing support base through grants and donations from high net worth individuals. Nuru is working to secure government funding. Nuru hopes to win at least one large government grant in 2021 and is pursuing at least three possible pathways for funding its future work in the Sahel. 

1. USAID’s New Partnerships Initiative (NPI). This is a new initiative created to provide funding for smaller, newer, and underutilized partners like Nuru. 

2. USAID’s Office of Local Works Grants -  exists to support locally led development and enhances USAID’s ability to empower local actors to take the lead in solving their own development challenge;. $5M to give out annually

3. The Global Fragility Act. This is the piece of legislation that Nuru worked to get passed and signed into law that commits $1.1B over the next five years to fund programs that support efforts to address the rise of violent extremism in fragile areas like the Sahel.  

While government funding is a significant part of Nuru’s future growth strategy, Nuru will also need to be able to further diversify its funding base, and will be working to strengthen existing relationships with individual, foundations, and funder groups (like Big Bang) while also increasing awareness of its work through opportunities like the Elevate Prize, Audacious, and expanded multi-year grants from existing HNWI which will help attract additional financial support.

Nuru International’s estimated budget for 2020 is $4.9M dollars. This funding falls into three large buckets. The primary bucket is programs, and this includes everything that allows us to directly impact and improve the lives of farmers and their families (this includes agricultural inputs, training materials, field staffing, transportation costs in each of the countries where Nuru serves farmers–Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria). Programming costs represent approximately 82% of our budget or $4.03M. 

The second major funding bucket is management and administration. This includes the costs of our U.S-based leadership team and other costs such as insurance, security, resilience programs, and travel. Management and Admin costs represent approximately 8% of our budget or $405k.

The third and final major funding bucket is fundraising. This includes costs associated with not only fundraising staff, but also external contractors like graphic designers, website and fundraising video production, and other services like online giving platforms. Fundraising costs represent approximately 9% of our budget or $457k.

These combined expenses will allow Nuru to reach approximately 60,000 people this year.

International operations: This category covers all costs that are incurred in the countries where Nuru works (examples include cost of farming inputs, livestock, fertilizer, etc.)

     -Nuru Nigeria Operations:  $750K

     -Nuru Ethiopia Operations:  $1M

     -Nuru Kenya Operations:  $790K

Personnel:   $1,570,894

Contract Services:  $638,937

Operations:   $83,991

Travel and Meetings:   $50,000

Business Expenses:   $5,967

Total Expenses:   $4,890,368

The tools and resources made available through the Elevate Prize could help Nuru amplify existing strategies to address its challenges from fundraising to raising awareness for its work. Nuru is currently working toward securing its budget for the next two to three years as it works to secure larger institutional and government funding streams. The financial impact of winning the Elevate Prize would be a significant financial contribution to help Nuru continue to grow. In addition, winning the prize will help rally new and renewed support from a growing network of HNW and foundation investors.  

Nuru would also benefit from an ongoing partnership and relationship with Elevate Prize. As Nuru approaches the next phase in the growth and scale of its model, being able to share its challenges and successes with other Elevate Prize organizations, and with a wider array of like-minded data-driven philanthropists will help Nuru to be better equipped to make an even more significant impact to addressing the issue of extreme poverty particularly in fragile rural areas where violent extremist organizations are working to exploit the conditions of extreme poverty to further their cause.  

Finally, being a recipient would help Nuru continue to raise the profile of its work and the issue of global poverty, particularly in hard to reach areas that are prone to violent extremist activity.

Nuru would benefit from each of the categories above, but the most pressing needs are identifying additional and larger sources of funding as well as increasing Nuru’s exposure. As Nuru begins scaling its efforts in communities who are vulnerable to groups like ISIS and al Qaeda and their affiliates, the most critical resource need is funding. Of course, as we are expanding our operations, having support in developing stronger systems for our rapid expansion will also be important.

Nuru would like to have opportunities to partner with additional foundations like Gates, Rockefeller, Ford, and MacArthur. Additionally, we seek to build relationships within USAID, DFID, and with other government and multilateral funders. These entities can provide the financial and relational support needed to help Nuru scale at this pivotal tipping point.