Blog

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. 

A population’s vulnerability to climate change proceeds along three axes: exposure, susceptibility, and ability to cope.

This post was originally published on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This April, Marketlinks explores the relationship between climate finance and environmental equity and justice.

Engagement in international trade provides many benefits for MSMEs including diversifying and expanding their market base, driving revenue growth and job creation, and increasing competitiveness. For these reasons intentional trade has been recognized as a powerful tool for creating economic opportunity and reducing poverty in developing economies.

This post was authored by Paul Newall, Associate Director of Partnerships and Investments at ACDI/VOCA. Sajeda Begum purchased a bull for $330 after receiving a cattle loan from the Society Development Committee for the first time. After four months of rearing, she sold the bull for $1,180, earning a huge profit. She plans to reinvest the money in purchasing another bull to continue contributing to her household’s income.

Disasters adversely affect local economies, making it hard for microenterprises to remain open and damaging critical assets and infrastructure.  USAID’s humanitarian economic recovery assistance seeks to help people recover their livelihoods and be able to provide for their own needs. The market systems these people work in, though, are often deeply inequitable.

Like many women, Wamahoro, a native of Rwanda, once worked two jobs, one of which was in the informal sector. “I used to sell my baskets at the local market to supplement my farming income,” she says. At the local market, however, Wamahoro’s handmade baskets sold for only 82 cents a basket — not much in the way of supplemental income.

The article originally appeared on Washington Business Dynamics website.

In the Sahel region of West Africa, small and growing businesses account for nearly 50 percent of new job creation. When these businesses are women-led, the potential to drive growth is even higher: a USAID study found that, globally, these businesses grow revenues 1.5 times faster and jobs twice as fast compared to male-owned businesses.

This post was originally published on Agrilinks. The Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment (AWE) Program’s Julia Hakspiel, with Friederike Strub, spoke with Wade Channell, senior economic growth advisor for gender with USAID about how we can leverage the enabling environment to achieve scale in women’s empowerment.

Over the past few decades, we’ve all heard variations of the same refrain: the future is digital. However, digital’s promise is hard to realize in many contexts given the technology infrastructure required for success. This goes beyond broadband internet availability and access to include cultural norms and other factors that affect individual access and use, particularly for vulnerable populations.

This post was originally published on LandLinks and was written by Jennifer Duncan.

USAID is excited to start implementing the new 2021 Economic Growth Policy.

PepsiCo and USAID are partnering to demonstrate that investing in women in PepsiCo’s supply chains through improving access to resources, land, skills, and employment can lead to greater growth, profitability, and sustainability.

This month, Marketlinks is taking a look at a market systems approach to women's economic empowerment. Throughout March, we will take a deep dive into the topic and its relation to other relevant subject areas.

Kati Suominen, Founder and CEO of Nextrade Group; Technical Director of the Alliance for eTrade Development

This post originally appeared on the website of the Pace Able Foundation and was written by Kate Hyder, Senior Manager, Advisory Quality and Innovation at Root Capital

This post was originally published on Agrilinks and was written by Alison Harrell and Gerson Morales.

By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist  

When M-Pesa launched as a mobile money service in Kenya in 2007, it quickly extended banking and money transfers to remote rural areas where there were no brick-and-mortar banks. Today, M-Pesa is a well-known digital technology that transformed financial services for underserved rural families in east Africa.

This post was originally published on the Center for Financial Inclusion blog and was written by Jonathan Fu and Mrinal Mishra.

This is one of two posts reflecting on private-sector engagement in a complex, thin market system (read the companion post). It relates to a previous four-part series you can read on Marketlinks.

This is one of two posts reflecting on private-sector engagement in a complex, thin market system (read the companion post. It relates to a previous four-part series on Marketlinks.

Over the last half century, USAID programming has resulted in tremendous gains in global health. Around the world, USAID’s global health activities have saved lives, protected vulnerable populations from disease, decreased infant and maternal mortality rates, and promoted stable communities.