Blog

This is the first in a two-part blog series. It draws on ongoing research in South Sudan funded by USAID/OFDA and implemented by Mercy Corps and the Feinstein International Centre at Tufts University. This post presents research findings on the importance of social connections for coping and recovery.

Village Enterprise works to end extreme poverty in rural Africa by providing groups of three entrepreneurs with seed capital, training, ongoing mentoring, and support for the formation of Business Savings Groups. This post highlights a $5.32m payment-for-results project in the form of a Development Impact Bond.

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

In August, Marketlinks is focusing on the Pay-for-Results model in global development. This post from NextBillion offers insights on how and when to use a results-based finance model.

This post starts an important evidence-based discussion about why diversity and inclusion are central to addressing complex challenges.

This post introduces an interview with Kristin O'Planick for the System Insight Podcast about a new framework for assessing market systems resilience being designed by USAID.

As Marketlinks examines Pay-for-Results this August, check out this blog from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) highlighting compact designed to reduce poverty through economic growth in Cabo-Verde.

This post shares an overview of the Digital Credit and Women's Economic Empowerment Convening 2019 and introduces a resource by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) that explores four steps in conducting impact evaluations for measuring women's empowerment.

In August, Marketlinks is focusing on the Pay-for-Results model in global development. This post from the World Bank blog highlights an upcoming project to incentivize dairy suppliers in Tanzania to deliver input bundles for smallholder dairy farmers.

“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.

Data protection is a primary focus of the humanitarian sector. In late 2016, USAID supported a digital cash transfer preparedness grant meant to help NGOs be equally well-prepared to offer (digital) cash as to offer other modalities of assistance (e.g. in-kind items).

The Government of Morocco is addressing the challenge of providing youth with skills to enter complex, highly competitive global industries. Morocco's Employability and Land Compact introduces a scalable model for secondary education to improve graduates' employability.

This post highlights critical questions about youth entrepreneurs and how to build an inclusive system that supports them through both financial and non-financial means.

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.

In July, Marketilnks is spotlighting Youth Employment in observance of World Youth Skills Day. Check out this post on measuring youth skills development.

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 month, Marketlinks is highlighting the topic of Youth Employment.

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.

The world market for avocados is pretty much divided between Hass and green skin avocados.