Blog

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.

As USAID programs evolve to adopt a market systems approach, implementing partners must adapt their monitoring and evaluation approaches to better capture dynamics of complex systems change.

This is the second blog the Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation series on building private sector resilience. Stay tuned for the next blog in the private series, as we look at an example of how a more resilient company can provide critical technologies and value-added services after a natural disaster.

This post introduces a paper from the Market Development Facility that explores the effect of increased household income on women's economic empowerment in the context of household dynamics, and seeks to understand how access to economic inputs, information, opportunities or services impacts agency.

Most developing countries need more 'fiscal space' to finance the investments required to develop and become self-reliant. In this blog post, USAID's Steve Rozner argues that when it comes to creating fiscal space, it's the size of the pie, not the slice that matters.

This is the second blog post on what Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) can learn from market systems.

This post shares a blog from the Learning Lab about how the practice of market segmentation could benefit DRG programming.

Applied political economy analysis can offer insights leading to recommendations about how to influence key decision-makers, thereby facilitating the change necessary to foster a more conducive enabling environment for market systems to thrive.

USAID's Economic Competitiveness Project is helping to provide technical assistance to micro and small companies in innovation, technology adoption, manufacturing practices, marketing, and more.

Mike Ducker answers remaining questions from the EcoSystem Forum on Building Social Capital.

USAID's Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3) Office of Forestry and Biodiversity is now accepting submissions for a case study competition on biodiversity integration across USAID's portfolio.

Strengthening grain contracts in Mali has the potential to open up farmers' access to products and services they need to operate and grow their businesses, achieving key agriculture development results in the process.

Strengthening the private sector to meet smallholder farmers’ needs is a sustainable option that reduces the cost of long-term aid in at-risk regions.

USAID/Honduras recently awarded a five-year (2018-2023) activity – Transforming Market Systems (TMS) to foster competitive, resilient, and inclusive market systems that provide increased economic opportunities that incorporate poor, marginalized Hondurans and reduce incentives to migrate.

To gear up for the 2019 Market Systems Symposium, let’s take a closer look at recent research exploring the relationship between measuring business and enabling environment change in market system development.

Learning from an initiative to help private maternity homes in Ghana survive the departure of the primary midwife-owner.

In Guatemala, USAID’s Creating Economic Opportunities project is working with the private sector and national and local authorities to strengthen economic growth and generate income and employment.

Women lead approximately one-third of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets but remain disproportionately underserved. They often face less favorable terms for financing and limited access to essential resources needed to build, sustain, and grow their businesses.

This blog introduces the Feed the Future Tanzania Land Tenure Assistance (LTA) project, which works with local banks to encourage new loan opportunities to improve farms and small businesses.

Among the entrepreneurs supported by USAID's Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) Initiative, those businesses that were owned by women grew both revenues and jobs significantly faster.

USAID is accepting submissions to the annual Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) Case Competition until Friday, April 12.

Watch a new video from The SEEP Network to learn more about their collaborative learning network.

Market systems that inhibit productivity growth and depress livelihoods are familiar enough across the developing world. Barriers to improvement that turn out to be fundamentally political are two-a-penny.