Blog

The relationship between international trade and the climate is complex. In the same way that trade liberalization can create “winners” and “losers,” international trade can mitigate or exacerbate climate change and its impacts. To reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieve the commitments of the Paris Agreement, countries need to minimize the negative and maximize the positive effects of trade on the environment.

USAID CATALYZE Partners with Private Equity Fund to Ready SMEs for Private Investors Increasingly, global private investors are eyeing the Western Balkans as the potential for diversifying their portfolios. While private equity financing can raise working capital for a company through restructuring ownership and/or management, few small- and medium-sized business owners in the region are aware of, understand, or desire such a private equity model. In fact, many SME owners resist giving up power and ownership to outsiders.

By the USAID CATALYZE WEE team

Sri Lanka’s socioeconomic situation continues to worsen with rising costs and increased challenges in imports and exports due to ongoing supply chain disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. The country’s traditional artisans and the handloom industry have been hit hard.

This blog was authored by Rhea Dhar and Rachel Levine while interning at Chemonics International.

This post was written by Gillian Caldwell and was originally published on Climatelinks.

By Natalie Alm, Communications Advisor, and Nicole Garcia, Senior Activity Manager, INVEST

By Kendahl Tyburski, Senior Gender Program Associate, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)

USAID’s Amazon Vision is focused on fostering an environmentally friendly economy so that forest-dependent communities can develop their local economies in a sustainable way. Fishing is an important livelihood for Indigenous and other communities living along the Juruá River in Brazil. Both women and men in these riverine fishing communities play essential roles in the fishing industry: while men fish for pirarucu—the world’s largest-scaled freshwater fish—women process, clean, and sanitize the fish. 

About the Author: Bryan O’Byrne serves as a Senior International Trade Advisor at the Center for Economics and Market Development in the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation at USAID.

This blog was authored by Liz Keller, Senior Specialist, Economic Growth and Trade, Chemonics, and Greg Rulifson, Sustainability Advisor to BHA, ICF International.

Community-based savings groups are impactful mechanisms to build opportunities for entrepreneurship and market development.

An important element of effective markets is strong consumer demand that is recognized in the consumer behavior of purchasing and using products. To utilize latent demand and improve demand that produces significant shifts in consumer behavior will require that market activities continuously cater to evolving consumer needs and values. Failure to do so results in missed opportunities to maximize latent demand, activities, and products that fall short of expected goals because of low consumer acceptance.

CARE and MARS’s Women for Change program works with women and their families in cocoa-growing communities to improve livelihoods so communities can thrive. The program started in Côte d’Ivoire in 2016, founded on CARE’s Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) approach. Between 2016 and 2022, more than 77,000 VSLA members (58,000 women) were supported through CARE’s partnership with Mars.

This blog, written by Vivekan Jeyagaran, Carolina Pimentel Corrêa, Meghan Bolden, and David Byiringiro, was originally published on Agrilinks

This blog, written by Ashfaq Enayetullah, was originally published on Agrilinks. 

For two decades, Abt has spearheaded private sector engagement for better development outcomes, including the recent USAID Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus project. Lessons from this—captured in several briefs on private sector engagement—continue to guide our work across sectors, including in agriculture and energy.

Since 2014, hyperinflation, corruption, supply shortages, and violence in Venezuela forced over 6 million people to leave their homes in search of safety and opportunity. Migrants face barriers to finance, have limited collateral and have informal businesses and jobs. This blog summarizes four key lessons learned through the USAID Colombia Rural Finance Initiative.

This brief, based on sustainability research led by Tashfiq Ahsan and Mehrul Islam, was written by Emily Janoch and originally posted on Agrilinks.

This blog was written by Carolyn Barker-Villena, Corus International’s Senior Regional Director of Latin America. She reflects on the importance of private sector engagement after a recent trip to El Salvador. 

Demand for meat has been growing in Rwanda and is likely to rise further as the country becomes increasingly urbanized and more affluent. However, meat safety remains a challenge. A 2021 quality inspection of 44 slaughterhouses and 152 meat retail shops by the Rwandan government revealed that only 27 percent of medium and large businesses met the “gold” standard, whereas none of the smaller operators were able to meet this standard.

This post is authored by Ramakrishnan Ganesan and Md. Ashraful Islam of the Feed the Future Bangladesh Nutrition Activity and is part of the Marketlinks and Agrilinks co-hosted month of October exploring the role that private sector engagement can play in advancing nutrition outcomes. It is also published on Agrilinks.

This post was written by Keith Dokho, USAID RFS PSE Secretariat, Team Lead and was originally posted on Agrilinks.org. During this month on Agrilinks and Marketlinks, USAID looks forward to sharing with readers highlights of our private sector engagement (PSE) strategy, our progress over the last decade, and our vision and goals for the future.

In Northern Kenya, county governments have a unique responsibility to support local development, as much of their population struggles with poor access to economic markets, frequent drought, and other challenges that perpetuate poverty and food insecurity in the country’s arid and semi-arid lands. Their efforts cannot succeed without the involvement of the community and often partners like USAID.

Amakelech Lulu is no stranger to winning. Founder of Gishen Pharmacy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she won the 2019 Invest2Impact East Africa competition, which included 100 women-led businesses selected based on their potential to achieve growth and contribute to women’s economic empowerment. In July 2022, she also was awarded a certificate of merit in recognition of her exemplary professional service for best Community Pharmacy Practices by the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association. Despite her success, even her business was not immune to the economic impact of COVID-19.