Blog

By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist

By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist In today’s technology-driven world, having access to the internet is an essential for building educated societies, pathways out of poverty, and competitive economies.

Whether you are a business looking to expand or an investor sourcing new ventures, emerging markets provide unique opportunities for growth and diversification. However, hidden players, rules & regulations, and the general lack of data in these ecosystems can make the foray into these markets time-consuming and risky. In addition, investors & corporations oftentimes lean on anecdotal evidence and personal experience to make haphazard decisions on which frontier market to enter.

While the gender gap represents $28 trillion that could be added to global GDP by 2025, the pipeline of potential investments remains elusive for many funds. This is due to a range of factors including unconscious bias, a rigged system, lack of access to female networks, and lack of women in decision-making roles. These existing systemic issues are further exacerbated by COVID-19 and the uneven burden placed on women during the pandemic.

With pandemic lockdowns crippling labor demand and supply around the world, government interest in social protection and labor market programs in general, and cash transfers in particular, has increased dramatically.

This June, Marketlinks explores data-driven partnerships to Maximize Market Impact. Increasingly, the development community is emphasizing partnerships between public and private sector actors in order to advance our goals in a sustainable manner. But how do we know that we are on the right track? What metrics should we use to help us gauge the progress we’ve made?

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently released the Amazon Vision 2020 Report describing its achievements in biodiversity and sustainable landscape initiatives across Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Guyana, and Suriname. As part of this progress update, the report focuses on the Agency’s work to promote a more sustainable and innovative development model that supports Amazonian entrepreneurs with a vision for a sustainable local economy.

By Kati Suominen, Erica Vambell, Mariah Furtek, Nextrade Group

The first 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

The Opportunity – Massive Mango Production and Processing Potential Makueni County is Kenya’s top mango-growing region, producing more mangoes (38,000 metric tons per year) than any other county. With a short harvest season from November to March, more than 40% of production goes to waste due to processing and demand constraints. Further, mango farmers struggle with dramatic price fluctuations, including an annual collapse in mango prices during the peak production season in January.

By: Nathan Martinez and Ishani Desai from the Economics Team in the Center for Economics and Market Development. This is the fourth in a series of blogs around the six principles of USAID’s Economic Growth Policy.

This post, authored by William M Butterfield, the Entrepreneurial Environment Team Leader in the Center for Economics and Market Development at USAID in Washington, is the third in a series of blogs around the six principles of USAID’s Economic Growth Policy.

FROM SILICON VALLEY STARTUP TO LANDMARK ACQUISITION Access to technology is an essential component to development, especially in Africa. Africans use cheap mobile phones to pay their bills, conduct small business, and make calls anywhere and everywhere. However, even a small mobile phone is not useful if power is not available to charge it. Eighty percent of African households lack electric power, which limits opportunities to access information and mobile money, as well as business and educational opportunities. 

Many USAID Missions grapple with the question of how to engage the private sector in its work with public service sectors. Working with USAID INVEST, USAID India has been assessing the private-sector landscape to determine which types of engagement can lead to sustainable improvements in the delivery of WASH and education services.

This article was written by Lucas Simons, CEO of SCOPEinsight.  Let me ask you a question: Why haven't we solved the access to finance challenge by now?

This post was originally published on the SCOPEinsight website and was written by Xoe Juliani. Agribusiness Financing is Exclusionary

This post, authored by William M Butterfield, the Entrepreneurial Environment Team Leader in the Center for Economics and Market Development at USAID in Washington, is the second in a series of blogs about USAID’s Economic Growth Policy.

This post was originally published on DAI website and was written by Thaniya Theungsang

The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the growth of online shopping worldwide and made it a priority for small businesses in developing countries to set up ecommerce capabilities.

This May, Marketlinks explores how economic growth programs can create more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient economies

By Benjamin Butcher, INVEST Activity Associate

There is growing momentum in the international community to ramp up climate finance for mitigation and adaptation actions. Undoubtedly, a focus on climate change adaptation in the developing world must be a priority for the financing. At the same time, there is a rallying call for countries to focus post-COVID-19 recovery investment on green and resilient pathways that take into consideration urgency to address climate change priorities.

The United States has entered into bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) with just 20 of the other 163 members (or 12 percent) of the World Trade Organization. Most U.S. FTA partners represent either developed markets, such as Canada and Australia, or emerging markets, such as Chile and Colombia. However, in the case of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), our missions partner mostly with “frontier markets,” like Ghana and Paraguay.

Resilience is a word we’ve heard a lot during the pandemic. It means having the ability to absorb, adapt, and transform during shocks and stresses. Access to financial resources allows households to make changes in response to current shocks or anticipation of future shocks. Ultimately, a resilient financial system can lead to better food security, improved health, and nutrition. One of the largest shocks in recent history, the COVID-19 crisis, has allowed us to understand just how resilient some systems are.

The IKI has been financing climate and biodiversity projects in developing and emerging countries and in transition economies since 2008 and the IKI wants to ensure that the measures carried out by the projects do not have any negative effects on the people, their living conditions and nature.