Blog

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

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 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.

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. 

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

This month, Marketlinks is exploring digital finance. Throughout February, we will take a deep dive into the topic and its relation to other relevant subject areas, Do you have relevant content you'd like to share on Marketlinks? We look forward to hearing from you! Please help us highlight digital finance by sharing your blogs, events, toolkits, announcements, and resources with us. Create an account and log-in to add a post, and reach out to info@marketlinks.org if you have any questions!

On December 10, USAID’s Sashi Jayatileke and Wade Channell hosted Joe Heim of Dopkins & Company and Bar Pereg of Deloitte for a discussion on Movable Property Lending, an inclusive finance tool that has recently been introduced to many USAID presence countries. The panel discussed the specific barriers to uptake for movable property lending, approaches that enable financial institutions to overcome these barriers, and broader lessons learned for the development community. 

Thanks to a program made possible by the USAID Forests and Deltas Program (VFD), implemented by Winrock International, every six months Koren Gren receives five million Vietnamese dong [USD $213] for his forest protection work — an arrangement that promotes forest conservation and reduces poverty, especially among Vietnam’s poorest ethnic communities.

This month, Marketlinks is exploring the topic of Finanical Inclusion. Throughout December, we will take a deep dive into the topic and its relation to other relevant subject areas.

On November 12, Marketlinks hosted a webinar discussing two innovative finance interventions that are mobilizing private capital in agricultural finance through an approach that combines market incentives and technical assistance. 

The global call for access to quality education for all by 2030 comes with a hefty price tag. To meet this target, we need $40 billion in additional funding every year for primary and secondary education alone. To begin closing this gap, new approaches to mobilizing more resources will be imperative, since development agencies and philanthropic organizations do not have the funds to fill the gap on their own.

By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist This is the final post of USAID/Mexico’s four-part series on hosting virtual co-creation workshops.

By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist This is the third blog post in USAID/Mexico’s Virtual Co-Creation Series. 

By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist This is the second blog post in USAID/Mexico’s Virtual Co-Creation Series.

USAID’s Mission in Mexico understands that the most effective and long-term solutions should be informed by a variety of organizations and people. USAID Mexico decided that using a co-creation process — a participatory approach to problem-solving that brings people together to design a solution with mutually shared benefits and value — through a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) — was the best strategy to identify viable solutions.

In many countries, social norms and laws restrict women’s ability to control property, so female entrepreneurs are often unable to obtain the real estate needed to satisfy traditional collateral requirements for loans. Asset-based lending (ABL) allows businesses to use their company’s moveable assets — such as equipment, vehicles, livestock, and inventory — as pledged collateral. Recently, INVEST and USAID have been exploring the intersection of ABL and women’s access to finance in Colombia.