We started CAPABLE to give families the opportunity to drastically improve their circumstances: generating enough income so that every member of their household could live above the extreme poverty line, for good. We have consistently achieved this goal, and our impact has increased with each new cohort; 2024 was no different.
Each year, we test variations of our model during implementation, monitor each iteration, and apply what we learn to improve service delivery. This ensures that everything we do is working towards giving every clients the opportunity to live out their best possible future.
Here's what we accomplished in 2024:
- We doubled the size of our program
- We reduced our cost-to-serve by 30%
- Clients increased their income by 6.7x
- For every $1 we spent, clients increased their income by $5.04
These improvements will allow us to reach 69,000 people over the next three years
As we look forward we remain committed to radical transparency and continual improvement. Thanks for supporting us on this journey.
Apwoyo matek,
Our clients are defined by their potential - not their current economic or social status. The crux of our work is mindset change: a shift from I can't to I'm CAPABLE.
This is the through line of our entire model: every literacy class, business training, one-on-one mentorship session, field demonstration, or radio program is delivered through this lens.
This shift starts at the individual level, but when people begin to imagine and live out their best possible future, it's remarkably contagious.
Individual choices - ranging from self-belief, relationships, business practices and climate - lead to collective action as families, savings groups, farming cooperatives, and communities begin to take ownership over their future.
We generate unprecedented impact because of this approach.
We believe that true transformation happens up close. We live and work in the communities we serve and invest deeply into our relationships with our clients. We are not trying to help people in a far away place, we are helping our own people in our own place. This proximity allows us to respond in real-time, tailor our approach to local realities, and co-create solutions with those directly impacted.
Our region is the poorest in the country and is impacted by many challenges: unreliable growing seasons due to climate change, unpredictable markets due to global instability, and a refugee crisis along our northern border.
We seek out those who can benefit most from our program. This means spending long days in the field, traveling to communities that take hours to reach and serving those who are discnnected from the marketplace.
Asset based development delivers results because it’s built on the resources available in a given context. In our context, clients have access to an abundance of land and labor, which is why we partner with them to grow their farming capacity as step one on their journey out of extreme poverty.
Our Theory of Change is grounded in the belief that ending extreme poverty is not solely an economic process, so we don't treat it as such. Each component of our program is designed to create human flourishing across four areas: wellness, agency, connection, and prosperity.
Our belief in interdependent outcomes, drives us to partner with our clients to address their well-being from an economic, physical, emotional, psychological and social perspective. Our program relies heavily on mentorship and counseling to ensure that clients can heal from trauma and develop the resilience required to remain out of poverty. After two years, clients transition into formal farming cooperatives and open up membership to the wider community.
Our goal is to see our clients transition to commercial farming, diversify their income, and consistently earn above the extreme poverty line (more than $2.15 PPP per day / household member).
We combine proven asset based economic development interventions with climate-smart agriculture and mental healthcare. Our core teams (agronomist, business mentor, counselor) spend a day in the field with each group every week. The result is impact that is as transformational as it is durable.
We invest enough time and resources over two years to ensure that clients have every opportunity to exit extreme poverty for good. It takes a nimble and multidimensional program to accomplish this audacious goal - we are proving that it can be done and that it can be done at scale.
We prioritize the impartiality and precision of this report, which is why we collaborated with Gulu University. The collection and analysis was conducted by faculty and students from Gulu University who assessed the impact of every Cohort, past and present, as well as a comparable peer group.
We used the most up-to-date PPP (purchasing power parity) conversion rate for income data. All averages across all reports are treated to remove outliers (top and bottom 5%).
Additionally, while calculating averages, we used the actual number of dependents in each household (average family size: 7.2) instead of using the “standard” household size (average family size: 5) which could potentially inflate our impact.
Back in 2018, the cooperative piece of our program was an afterthought - a week or so of training right before the program concluded. This wasn’t enough and that's reflected in a short-term drop in income for this cohort until they were properly connected to our cooperative network in 2023. Cohort 2018-19 wasted no time: they've added 404 households to their cooperatives - an increase of 180%. Seven years after joining The Capable Program, Cohort 2018-19 is earning well above the extreme poverty line.
Cohort 2020-21 marked another significant step forward for us as we nearly tripled in size. We applied our key learnings from the previous cohort to focus on cooperative development during year two of the program. Now three years post-graduation, clients continue to earn above the extreme poverty line thanks to stable cooperatives that brings economies of scale and significant market advantages. They've increased the size of their cooperatives by 116% since graduation, adding 700 new members.
Cohort 2022-23 marked our expansion into a new district and the inclusion of South Sudanese Refugees into our programs. Despite another period of significant growth (doubling in size), key outcomes outpaced all previous cohorts and clients continued to increase their income during their first year after graduation. Notably, clients in this cohort began adding new cooperatives members even before graduation: they currently have increased their membership by 935 households, an increase of 78%.
With the launch of Cohort 2024-25, we doubled in size again, but reduced our cost-to-serve by 40%. Clients have increased their income well above the exteme poverty line - and at a faster rate than any previous cohort - despite only being halfway through the program. Cohort 2024-25 has already added 500 new members into their cooperatives too - an increase of 20%.
Back in 2018, the cooperative piece of our program was an afterthought - a week or so of training right before the program concluded. This wasn’t enough and that's reflected in a short-term drop in income for this cohort until they were properly connected to our cooperative network in 2023. Cohort 2018-19 wasted no time: they've added 404 households to their cooperatives - an increase of 180%. Seven years after joining The Capable Program, Cohort 2018-19 is earning well above the extreme poverty line.
Cohort 2020-21 marked another significant step forward for us as we nearly tripled in size. We applied our key learnings from the previous cohort to focus on cooperative development during year two of the program. Now three years post-graduation, clients continue to earn above the extreme poverty line thanks to stable cooperatives that brings economies of scale and significant market advantages. They've increased the size of their cooperatives by 116% since graduation, adding 700 new members.
Cohort 2022-23 marked our expansion into a new district and the inclusion of South Sudanese Refugees into our programs. Despite another period of significant growth (doubling in size), key outcomes outpaced all previous cohorts and clients continued to increase their income during their first year after graduation. Notably, clients in this cohort began adding new cooperatives members even before graduation: they currently have increased their membership by 935 households, an increase of 78%.
With the launch of Cohort 2024-25, we doubled in size again, but reduced our cost-to-serve by 40%. Clients have increased their income well above the exteme poverty line - and at a faster rate than any previous cohort - despite only being halfway through the program. Cohort 2024-25 has already added 500 new members into their cooperatives too - an increase of 20%.
True transformation happens up close: we live and work in the communities where we serve and invest deeply into our relationships with clients. We are helping our own people in our own place.
Our clients' journey out of extreme poverty - every challenge and every success - is also ours. Wun wan, wan wun. Aluta continua.
.png)
.png)
.png)
We are laser-focused on a singular, audacious goal: ensuring that every individual in every household lives above the extreme poverty line. This clarity of purpose drives everything we do.
We deploy technology, including tablet based data collection, GPS crop mapping and live impact dashboards to operationalize our impact data and improve our services.
.png)
Since 2018 we've reached 59k individuals. Over the next three years alone we'll reach even more: we're doubling the size of our program with Cohort 2026-27.
In addition to our own growth, we are helping other organizations pilot our model to maximize our impact potential. Extreme poverty has a definition, our goal is to end it for good.
We invest deeply into a community over two years so that the change they experience while in the program remains durable. After graduation, farming groups transition into formal farming cooperatives.
This is where the catalytic nature of our approach takes off: community members that did not participate in our program begin joining cooperatives started by those who did. This creates new opportunities for communities to access markets, receive support, and change their circumstances.
The results are in: new cooperative members are exiting extreme poverty just like our clients.
This is an unprecedented level of second-tier impact as our clients are producing sector leading outcomes.
.png)
In 2024 we saw a real-time ROI of 404%, investing $1.57 million to see our clients increase their income by $7.89 million. For very $1 we spent, clients increased their income by $5.04.
At the five year mark, we'll see $25 in increased client earnings for every $1 spent.
We’ve proven that we can improve our impact while we scale and we have no plans to slow down. Since 2018 we've reduced our cost-to-serve by 78%.
hello@capable.org
© 2025 Capable. All Rights Reserved.
