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As connectivity grows, digital technologies are transforming the Indo-Pacific region. The Southeast Asia region grew from 360 million internet users in 2019 to 400 million in 2020.

Across engagement efforts in the field, we’ve seen firsthand how some private sector actors can mitigate drivers of instability and conflict by creating jobs, providing essential goods, increasing financial inclusion, developing infrastructure, advocating for peace and economic stability, and promoting other forms of inclusive economic development.

When Hurricane Dorian struck The Bahamas in 2019, USAID led and coordinated the U.S. Government’s disaster response efforts, deploying an elite disaster team and providing nearly $34 million in humanitarian assistance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stephen Leonelli is the Inclusive Development Hub’s LGBTQI+ Program Analyst. Mirna Garcia, summer intern for the LGBTQI+ portfolio, contributed to this article.

In March 2020, the Government of Uganda introduced a series of preventative measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country. These measures, including the closure of businesses and restriction of movement, were anticipated to have an impact on the economy and on agricultural production. USAID/Uganda was interested in understanding the impact of COVID-19 and these government measures on the agricultural market system, to anticipate how resilient the system would be and to identify opportunities to adapt existing programming or introduce new emergency measures.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: M. Daniel Vazquez is a Senior Standards Specialist at the Center for Economics and Market Development in the Bureau for Development, Democracy and Innovation at USAID.

This August, Marketlinks explores effective programs, strategies, and approaches to ensuring that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex people and other people of diverse genders and sexualities (LGBTQI+) have the tools and opportunities to thrive in local and national economies! Around the world, stigma, discrimination, and exclusion prevent LGBTQI+ people from fully participating in the economy and from accessing social benefits systems.

The article originally appeared on Washington Business Dynamics website.

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 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.

The Private Sector Engagement Relationship Qualities in a Market Systems Development Activity learning brief provides evidence and learning from the team of the USAID/Honduras Transforming Market Systems (TMS) Activity on how to most effectively engage the private sector and the relationship qualities that influence the achievement of partnership results.

As COVID-19 circumvented the globe impacting every nation, sector, business, and family, it brought numerous challenges in its wake.  In developing countries – where market systems are often fragmented, connections between market actors weak, and businesses’ reserves limited – perishable products like vegetables were particularly hard hit. Both the supply and demand were affected by the shock. As the crisis deepened, some market actors lost considerable revenue and some went out of business.

As global health supply chains expand and become more complex, the information systems that are used to manage them need to mature along with them. USAID’s Supply Chain Information System Maturity Model helps countries evaluate their supply chain systems’ capabilities holistically, enabling informed decision-making and timely delivery of health commodities.

The term “enabling environment” often conjures a singular focus on policies, laws, and regulations. These formal rules are important and necessary, but they alone are an incomplete picture of the market system. The Feed the Future Enabling Environment for Food Security (EEFS) project recognizes this, and takes a broader view of the enabling environment which holistically considers the incentives and barriers for market actors operating in complex systems.

This month, Marketlinks is exploring markets in crisis. Throughout October, we will take a deep dive into the topic and its relation to other relevant subject areas, like the COVID-19 pandemic, adaptive managment, and resilence.

The Heifer International program in Nepal provided women with goats and training to facilitate sustainable escapes from poverty.

Learn how USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures grantees are adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first struck, the data science company Fraym understood its unique product was critical in mounting the most effective global COVID-19 response at scale.

The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth recently collaborated with Mercy Corp's virtual mentoring program, MicroMentor, to deliver an Arabic platform in Jordan and the MENA region.

USAID's Somalia Growth, Enterprise, Employment and Livelihoods project is responding to COVID-19 by employing a strategy across its value chains to mitigate the impact of distruped supply chains and damage to the private sector.

How do agricultural households make decisions about the uptake of new practices or inputs alongside savings, credit, and insurance products? MEDA INNOVATE shares learnings on the potential of non-traditional finance to enable agricultural innovation adoption among smallholder farmers.

Since the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, CARE has prioritized supporting groups to lead their own COVID-19 responses. The groups are rising to the occasion.

This post shares a new platform from the European Microfinance Platform, the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, and the Social Performance Task Force. This resource is a forum for discussion and debate about the challenges and solutions for the financial inclusion sector in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

CGAP CEO Greta Bull and Timothy Ogden highlight how the millions who rely on inclusive finance to borrow, save and spend money are counting on the microfinance sector.