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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.

In the second blog in the series, the authors focus on the importance of using a retail distribution market systems lens to gain insights into the business realities of selling construction products and services to low-income customer segments. For example, low-income customers buy in smaller lots and often have important considerations related to decision-making, coping strategies, and trust that require specific business strategies and tactics. The blog examines a few examples from TCIS’s work in relation to how they applied systemic thinking related to retail distribution to improve housing outcomes for incremental builders.

USAID’s $1.5 million Women’s Global Development Prosperity: Expanding Women’s Labor Force in Lebanon (EWLFL) Project (2020 – 2023) identifies women business owners or entrepreneurs. The Lutheran World Relief-led project enables women to enhance their skills, and affords opportunities to benefit from mentoring relationships and support networks.

Third in a series of five blogs on the factors that contribute to sustaining and scaling private sector partnerships from the Enduring Results Study 3.0

(Second in a series of five blogs about the drivers of sustainability in USAID partnerships with the private sector based on the Enduring Results Study 3.0)

Worldwide, the private sector is playing an unprecedented role in shaping opportunities that improve the lives in the countries and communities that USAID supports. For six decades, USAID has partnered with the private sector to solve the world’s most complex development challenges and to help countries accelerate development progress. 

To strengthen economic prosperity in the Kingdom of Jordan, bolster female employment. 

Frenki Kozeli, Julian Guelig, and Dany Khy share three approaches to forming private sector engagement partnerships that can be replicated and tailored across development contexts.

At first sight, Lebanon and Uganda might not have a lot in common. Yet when it comes to hosting displaced persons, some similarities start to emerge: together, the two countries host an estimated 2.7 million forcibly displaced, making them two of the largest refugee host countries worldwide. 

The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth recently collaborated with Mercy Corp's virtual mentoring program, MicroMentor, to deliver an Arabic platform in Jordan and the MENA region.

What impact does mentoring have on entrepreneurs? Can it boost an entire entrepreneurship ecosystem?

Want to boost entrepreneurship? Here are two more tricks to keep up your sleeve.

Interested in economic growth, job creation or entrepreneurship? Don't miss this post!

Let’s be real: poor women in rural regions inevitably work. And yet, they are disproportionately absent from the labor market. What's the deal?

USAID press release: Entrepreneurship plays a significant role in driving economic growth and job creation.

Mentoring brings experienced women business owners together with new entrepreneurs to provide a deeper understanding of the business world.

Semhar Araia, founder and Executive Director of the Diaspora African Women's Network, shares her story of her involvement in the Horn of Africa diaspora.

Only a third of youth in the Arab world believe their education has prepared them to get a job, according to a recent study by the Education for Employment Foundation.

Guest blogger Brenda Schuster (Youth and HIV Technical Advisor for Catholic Relief Services) reports back on the Making Cents Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference’s final morning plenary session, “Youth Economic Opportunity in the MENA Region.” This session included Brandee McHale, COO of Citi Foundation, Svava Bjarnason, IFC Senior Education Specialist, Jamie McAuliffe, President and CEO of the Education for Employment Foundation, and Awais Sufi, Vice President for Work Programs at the International Youth Foundation.

Diaspora can now more than ever be instrumental in development through investment.

Sanabel hosts 8th Annual Conference "Microfinance in the Arab Region: Challenges of the Past and Opportunities of the Future"

A brief review of the Sanabel Conference closing plenary session on "Managing Political Risk and Contingency Planning" on June 9, 2011.

At the 2011 conference, Sanabel Chairman Hassan Faried talks about Sanabel's work and the theme of the conference.

Dominique Villeneuve of PlaNet Finance discusses the role of postal networks in financial inclusion.

A recap post about the Sanabel Annual Conference Day One Plenary Session: "Sanabel State of the Industry Regional Overview: Political Instability, What Does it Mean for the Industry?"