Blog

This blog is authored by John Rachkara, Deputy Chief of Party of the Rural Resilience Activity, John Daudu Ebile, Senior MIS/T4D Officer of the Rural Resilience Activity.

CARE’s Farmer Field and Business School (FFBS) model focuses on improving small-scale farmers’ productivity, resilience, and access to markets. FFBS is a hands-on, learning-by-doing approach through which groups of farmers meet regularly during the course of their value chain production cycle to learn about new agricultural techniques and to experiment these treatments on group-managed demonstration plots. Since 2014, FFBS has directly improved the lives of more than 2.5 million farmers and their families.

A nation’s ability to mobilize resources to combat and cope with climate change is primarily constrained by its resources and financial capacity, which vary dramatically across developing contexts.  While external sources of funding like the Green Climate Fund (GCF) are critical to meeting a nation’s Paris Agreement goals, they are often out of reach without domestic financial systems and processes to absorb such funds and use them productively.

How many times this week have you heard someone rave about an amazing mother who is simultaneously juggling her business with childcare, while running a household? This is constantly happening. Everywhere across the globe. We all do it – men and women. Glorifying multi-tasking by women entrepreneurs must stop.

This blog was authored by Tess Bayombong, Maria Adelma Montejo, Emily Janoch, Caitlin Shannon, and Tzusuan Peng. Women entrepreneurs who talk about success in their businesses in the Philippines have fascinating contributions to what success means. Cecile Corio describes an arc of resilience and equality: “I think of ways to recover (my business). Don’t lose trust in yourself. I started from nothing; I can prove that I can lead a better life. … My husband and I have a good give-and-take relationship.”

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.

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

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. 

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.

Inclusion contributes to greater market connectivity, one of the key determinants of market system resilience. People—including those traditionally excluded from or marginalized by market systems, such as women, youth, LGBTQI+ individuals, people with disabilities, and indigenous or other identity groups—are human resources. They are critical for enabling a system to better absorb, adapt, or transform when faced with shocks and stresses.

Necessity Breeds Entrepreneurship  “I needed to provide for my children.” It’s a simple reason that motivates millions of parents to earn money every day.

The next three years are expected to be “characterized by either consistent volatility and multiple surprises or fractured trajectories that will separate relative winners and losers,” according to most respondents of a recent World Economic Forum survey. The development industry is seeing this volatility play out through rising fertilizer, fuel, and food prices and worsening impacts of climate change.

We live in an age of compound disasters where one emergency is layered on top of the next. This gives way to terrible humanitarian consequences that stop development in its tracks. Forced displacement is at record levels with more than 100 million people displaced around the globe for the first time.

Pact’s longstanding livelihoods model, WORTH, is a critical tool for building financial access and incomes around the world. Since its inception in Nepal in 1998, WORTH has reached 1.14 million individuals, primarily women and girls, through 48,342 groups across 16 countries. To recognize and learn from this milestone, we recently conducted a formal review of 28 WORTH programs, 17 of which were funded by USAID.

This column was originally published on Abt Associates Perspectives Blog. 

This article first appeared in NCBA CLUSA’s Co-op Weekly Newsletter and has been updated for MarketLinks.

Since 1986, Equal Exchange has been partnering with cooperatives around the world through inclusive supply chains, offering better trade conditions and improved pricing all while building long-term relationships. It is through these relationships that the opportunity arose to dig deeper into the challenges these communities face to facilitate solutions that are designed and led by cooperatives in each unique context through the Cooperative Development Program, funded by USAID. 

This article first appeared in NCBA CLUSA’s Co-op Weekly Newsletter and has been updated for MarketLinks.

Localization is the recognition that local stakeholders know better what their challenges are and how to solve them than do traditional development practitioners. It necessarily positions local stakeholders as solution-makers and implementors while positioning development practitioners as facilitators, trainers, and networkers. 

Agriculture and food security, democracy, human rights and governance, economic growth and trade, environment and global climate change, gender, and women’s empowerment. What sectors do you work in? Whatever they may be, in the quest to increase local efforts for a more resilient, prosperous, democratic, and inclusive world, there has never been a better time to focus on cooperatives! What is a Cooperative?

This post was written by Dan Langfitt and was originally published on the Vikāra Institute's website.

Like many countries around the world, gender inequality remains prevalent throughout social and economic systems in Rwanda. Discriminatory gender norms have hindered the opportunity for sustained equality among men and women in many facets of life, including within the cooperative sector. The Rwandan government has shown their commitment to advancing gender equality through numerous laws and policies at the national level; however, generations of subconscious gender biases and mindsets are not so easily changed, continuing the cycle of restrictive gender norms and inequity.

The story doesn’t end when the lights come on for the first time in rural communities – electric service is a powerful foundation for strengthening communities. It’s critical to also provide enough knowledge to help them generate more income, improve healthcare services, and access better education. With electricity, farmers can mechanize their mills, coffee growers can process their own harvest, and dairy farmers can chill their milk.

This blog, written by Kathryn Merckel, ACDI/VOCA, was originally posted on Vikāra Institute's website.

This post was written by Mike Field and Abigail Martuscello, Vikāra Institute.