Blog

This post summarizes key themes and takeaways from the 2019 Cracking the Nut conference held in Dakar, Senegal from October 14-15.

Driving interoperable payments in Latin America through the mobile platform BICOO to address key barriers facing the unbanked.

This report introduces INVEST, a mechanism that uses USAID funding to mobilize private capital for development and overcomes barriers to private sector engagement. INVEST works to build the capability of new and underutilized firms (new partners) by awarding and managing subcontracts.

The ILO Toolkit is a practical resource for organisations and projects to support small and medium enterprises (SME) decide what aspects of SME performance (productivity, working conditions, etc.) to measure, as well as how to measure them.

A partnership with USAID, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, and the Visa Foundation aims to address barriers that women entrepreneurs face by building supportive entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging markets.

KATA Solar is one of a dozen Ghanaian companies offering rooftop solar. Sales of solar products in West Africa’s off-grid energy access market jumped by nearly one-third in the first half of 2017.

This post explores how USAID is mobilizing institutional investors to develop Africa's infrastructure through an initiative called MiDA, which connects American investors to the local partners.

This post shares an interview with Roula Moussa, the CEO and founder of Netways and DiasporaID, a digital platform that connects and promotes collaboration among Lebanese diaspora communities.

The USAID-funded Climate Economic Analysis for Development, Investment, and Resilience Activity promotes clean energy lending by commercial banks in Central America. Seven banks in the region now have energy efficiency and green credit lines for small- and medium-sized businesses.

This post highlights the USAID-funded Cooperative Development Program, which promotes measurable impacts on women’s earning potential and leadership in cooperative organizations in Rwanda.

This post introduces USAID’s Creating Economic Opportunities project, which aims to help qualified people find jobs that give them the stability and prosperity they want for their families.

USAID’s Value Chains for Rural Development project uses an inclusive, market systems approach to support smallholder producers, farmer groups, agribusinesses, and community organizations.

“Pay-for-results” is trending! There is a swelling chorus in the development community about the potential of pay-for-results (PforR) to increase accountability, foster innovation, and stretch scarce development dollars. With the growing need to “do more with less” and demonstrate results when using development dollars, PforR is a compelling solution — one which USAID and other donors will inevitably want to see more of.

This post highlights two youth dairy farmers through Feed the Future Kenya Investment Mechanism Program with the support of USAID Kenya.

This post spotlights an interview with Lala Faiz and Cameron Khosrowshahi from the USAID INVEST team on mobilizing private capital.

Blended finance continues to gain traction. Used properly, blended finance channels private capital into areas where it can have a positive impact while generating solid returns. It develops markets and builds local capacity. However, blended finance is far from meeting its full potential.

This post offers recommendations on managing the shifts in culture, management and partnering needed when a project shifts from providing direct services to a facilitative market systems approach.

In Moldova, the “golden triangle” of collaboration among industry, government, and academia is transforming the technology sector. Here’s the recipe for success from the Moldova Competitiveness Project.

In a five-part blog series, the Feed the Future Enabling Environment for Food Security project examines how the enabling environment shapes market systems outcomes. Each post spotlights a key area of the relationship and its relevance to informed program design and smart interventions.

Promising results are unfolding as project staff begin to think and work politically on one USAID project in Timor-Leste.

This is the third blog in the Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation building private sector resilience blog series.

This post explores the role of the enabling environment — the political economy in particular — in influencing the transition from personal exchange to impersonal exchange as a crucial step toward market transformation.

In June, we're excited to take a look at political economy analysis (PEA), a development approach to inform programs and project activities from a politically-minded place.

In Nigeria, a Pay-for-Results prize competition incents use of Aflasafe to combat aflatoxin contamination and drive demand for higher-quality maize.

Growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is an important goal of much donor assistance. However, development practitioners do not always articulate theoretical frameworks linking interventions to outcomes of sales or employment growth.