Blog

The December 7, 2023 Finance Champions meeting featured four finance-focused presentations on:

Introduction

In her November 2021 speech, “A New Vision for Development,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced two ambitious goals. One, that USAID will provide at least a quarter of program funds directly to local partners by the end of FY 2025.

Society Development Committee, or SDC, based in Faridpur, Bangladesh, is a microfinance partner of the Feed the Future Bangladesh Livestock and Nutrition Activity, funded by USAID and implemented by ACDI/VOCA. Through this partnership, thousands of people working in Bangladesh’s livestock sector have benefited from microfinance products.

In Sri Lanka, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) face an estimated $17 billion financing gap. Women-led enterprises comprise a significant proportion of this financing need and face greater barriers in accessing finance.

In the Western Balkans, Albania is witnessing remarkable economic growth propelled by foreign investment, infrastructure development, and a thriving tourism sector. Despite this positive trend, women-led businesses encounter uneven opportunities. As in many Western Balkans countries, women-led businesses in Albania tend to be smaller, concentrated in the services sector, and often constrained by factors such as limited networks and historical gender biases.

The digital economy offers emerging countries opportunities to accelerate economic growth, increase productivity, reduce inequalities, and support sustainable development, but emerging evidence shows that cyber harassment and other forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence limits productive economic participation, especially for women.

Accessible finance is vital for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Yet, oftentimes, they struggle to access financing from traditional sources because they lack the knowledge to produce comprehensive financial documentation required by banks. Meanwhile, financial institutions may perceive small businesses as higher risk clients due to their size, limited track record, and insufficient collateral. In many countries, like Rwanda, financial institutions have limited knowledge in the livestock value chain financing opportunities compared to crops value chain.

Communities expressed diverse interests regarding how they wanted to receive assistance. Some community members said they were happy receiving aid in the form of vouchers while others wanted cash. What was interesting was that the underlying reason was the same–convenience and choice–but what was convenient for some members who were closer to stores was not as convenient for the others who were more remote.

The final blog in this series inspired by the four take-away messages from USAID’s primer on private-sector engagement in fragile and conflict-affected situations demonstrates why going beyond financial support is essential to provide partners with the coaching, networking, and advocacy needed to succeed in particularly complex, fragile and conflict-affected environments. It draws on the experience of the Strengthening Livelihoods and Resilience Activity in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

This blog, the third in a series inspired by the four take-away messages from USAID’s primer on private-sector engagement in fragile and conflict-affected situations, focuses on the Strengthening Livelihoods and Resilience Activity's experience vetting private-sector actors as potential development partners in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where a paucity of enterprise data, low standards for company operations, and an absence of familiar business norms make it difficult to apply a typical approach to partner prospecting.

This blog, the second in a series inspired by the four take-away messages from USAID’s primer on private-sector engagement in fragile and conflict-affected situations, focuses on managing private-sector actors who are problematically invested in maintaining a fragile, humanitarian-dependent socioeconomic system dominated by conflict. It describes the strategy of the Strengthening Livelihoods and Resilience Activity for selecting partners and co-creating activities with communities in a conflict-sensitive way in the eastern DRC and explores the team's discomfort with some aspects of the 'bad actor' paradigm.

This blog, the first in a series inspired by the four take-away lessons from USAID’s primer on private-sector engagement in fragile and conflict-affected situations, focuses on adding social inclusion and conflict sensitivity as a third dimension to shared value in the partnerships of the USAID Strengthening Livelihoods and Resilience Activity in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

In rapid response to the abrupt trade disruptions resulting from Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea—a tactic in its war on Ukraine, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Agriculture Resilience Initiative (AGRI)-Ukraine. AGRI-Ukraine is critical to supporting Ukraine’s export and agricultural sector needs, which are expected to remain vulnerable to the Russian Federation’s aggression in the months and years to come.

The USAID CATALYZE Engines of Growth (EoG) Activity and the USAID Diaspora Invest Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina are creating new investment opportunities in the country. While domestic family businesses have developed over generations, they need to prepare to find investors and for future investments. This was the driving force behind the organization of the “Family Business: Next Generation” workshop, which brought together representatives from 28 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

USAID CATALYZE Partners with the Private Sector to Propel the Growth of Women-owned Businesses through Innovative FinancingA CASE STUDYBackground

In the Western Balkans, women entrepreneurs face notable challenges in accessing finance, stemming from issues such as high collateral requirements, societal norms, and financial literacy gaps. USAID CATALYZE Engines of Growth (EoG) in the Western Balkans addresses these challenges by establishing a network of Business Advisory Service Providers (BASPs) and promoting alternative financing sources tailored to SME needs.Learning from Experience:

By Kalkidan Lakew YihunProgram Coordinator, Women (in VSLAs) Respond, CARE USA There are few certainties in life, but one I have come to recognize, is that women in crisis will always take incredible action – whether there is outside intervention or not. 

How to measure LGBTQIA+ inclusive market systems development

A level legal playing field in employment, entrepreneurship, and access to and control of resources is an essential component of women’s economic empowerment (WEE). Government laws and business policies can restrict or remove impediments to women’s ability to fully and independently participate in the economy. Additionally, laws and policies that support women’s economic empowerment create the basis for legal recourse and consequences for violations.

Revolutionizing Drug Development with AI TechnologyThe advent of AI technology has revolutionized several sectors, one of which is drug development and validation. The potential of AI technology in informing the processes such as the development of antibodies and optimizing molecules is progressively substantial. AI technology has made it easier, faster, and more accurate to train models, validate antibodies, and optimize molecules for drug development.

An increasing body of evidence shows the importance of addressing social norms as an essential component of women’s economic power.

Growing evidence suggests that companies which increase women’s equitable participation experience overall business growth, stronger financial performance, and increased productivity. According to the evidence, these companies can attract the best talent, focus on innovation, and gain access to new and changing markets. To create a detailed review of what evidence currently exists, this study looks at policies, practices, and programs for increasing women’s equitable participation. 

The Finance Champions group was established in March 2023 with the aim to share innovative approaches being tested by USAID Missions, Bureaus and Independent Offices and to exchange learning on the topic of mobilizing finance in development. This group, which is internal to USAID, meets every six weeks, and has grown from an initial group of 20 to 160 members.

This photo blog is based on an interview with AFCHIX Morocco Coordinator Houda Chakri conducted on May 17, 2023. Photographs taken by Mosa’ab Elshamy on April 30, 2023. Ait Izdeg’s 8,400 residents live deep in the Atlas Mountains in central Morocco. Their town’s remote location has made it challenging to access reliable Internet. Until now.