Blog

This blog is co-authored by Komal Bazaz Smith, Program Director of USAID Digital Connectivity & Cybersecurity Partnership Programs and Anthony Brown, Co-Founder, Acute Incite

Water is essential not only to health, but also to poverty reduction, food security, human rights and education. Despite the global target for clean water and sanitation through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, 2 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water at home. 

Senegal is home to an emergent fresh fruit and vegetable sector that employs many women, from production to retail. Despite challenges in maintaining quality throughout the product lifespan, there are growing markets for fresh fruit and vegetables, like “ditax”. Ditax, or Detarium Senegalese J.F. Gmel, is a forest tree found in Senegal whose fruits are locally called ditax in Wolof.

The USAID/World Council of Credit Unions’ (WOCCU) Economic Inclusion Project in March introduced to more than 100 representatives of Peru’s financial sector a formal guide that will help them identify the types of assistance refugee and migrant populations need to access formal financial services, and the best practices to help facilitate their financial inclusion.

Across Guatemala’s Alta Verapaz region, the USAID/Microsoft Airband Initiative partnered with New Sun Road to bridge the rural broadband gap and close the gender digital divide by establishing 10 Digital Community Centers and, in turn, 10 Women’s Leadership Committees (WLC) to run them. In this blog, WLC members share five key reflections and lessons learned from their involvement with the Digital Community Centers and the impact on their communities.

The blog is authored by John Rachkara, Deputy Chief of Party, Rural Resilience Activity.

This blog is jointly authored by Christiana Stephen Wakawa, Senior Intervention Lead – Microenterprises Support of the Rural Resilience Activity, and John Rachkara, Deputy Chief of Party of the Rural Resilience Activity.

This post was authored by Alexandra Klass of USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). We know the power of the Graduation Approach and its impressive results that lift the ultra-poor out of poverty, but can it also be successful for people living in humanitarian crises and displacement?

This blog is jointly authored by Wilson Wakawa, Intervention Lead – Livestock Productivity of the Rural Resilience Activity, Nurein Abdulafattah Shittu, Advisor, Peace and Conflict at the Rural Resilience Activity and John Rachkara, Deputy Chief of Party of the Rural Resilience Activity.

This blog is jointly authored by Cecilia Adamu, Intervention Lead and Inclusion focal point of the Rural Resilience Activity, Dooshima Anita Terkehe, Intervention Lead for Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) on the Rural Resilience Activity, and John Rachkara, Deputy Chief of Party of the Rural Resilience Activity.

This blog is jointly authored by Dongnaan Swomen, Intervention Lead, Agri Insurance of the Rural Resilience Activity, Mark Akpan, Senior Advisor, Financial Services of the Rural Resilience Activity, and John Rachkara, Deputy Chief of Party, Rural Resilience Activity.

Investors are demanding more transparency and accountability from corporations as they look beyond the bottom line to understand an organization’s value and long-term sustainability. ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) provides shareholders with more effective management of material opportunities and risks. Virtually all major corporations report on ESG issues, and many small and medium enterprises are factoring it into their businesses.

This post was authored by William Martin of USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Laura Meissner of USAID BHA and the University of Arizona, and Melanie Mason of USAID BHA.

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.

USAID CATALYZE Pay for Results Incentive Model Pays Off for a Financial Cooperative in Burkina Faso

USAID CATALYZE’s Private Sector Development Activity in partnership with Sri Lanka’s largest supermarket retailer Keells and Hatton National Bank (HNB) launched an innovative Supply Chain Financing Facility to support micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the food sector, improving the resilience of the supermarket’s supply chains and helping to meet MSMEs’ working capital needs.

USAID Collaborates with SLASSCOM to boost SME competitiveness In December, the USAID CATALYZE Private Sector Development (PSD) Activity partnered with the Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM) to conduct a five-session digital masterclass on using digital marketing to establish an online brand for 50 information and communication technology (ICT) professionals from 30 companies.

Sinharaja Forest Reserve is Sri Lanka’s only remaining primary tropical rainforest and home to the country’s highest concentration of endemic species of plants and animals, several of which are rare or endangered. Designated both a UNESCO Biosphere and World Heritage Site, the forest reserve’s health is critical to the country’s ecotourism industry. Sustainable ecotourism can accelerate economic growth through increased foreign exchange, employment, and business opportunities, and help countries reach development objectives while protecting their natural resources.

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.

Even though USAID MBIOs have identified the value of engaging the private sector in the development sector (even consulted USAID’s PSE policy and the PSE Opportunities Tool), the problem of ‘where to begin’ and ‘how to operationalize private sector engagement’ remains a challenge for both U

This post was authored by the Feed the Future Advancing Women's Empowerment program and was originally published on Agrilinks.

Across Central America, the number and size of renewable energy power plants has grown exponentially in recent decades. In Honduras particularly, hydroelectric power plants have sprung up as the government looks for sustainable ways to generate energy and economic stability for communities across the country.

This post was authored by Justin van Rhyn and originally appeared on Springfield Centre.

This post was authored by the Feed the Future Advancing Women's Empowerment activity and originally appeared on Agrilinks.

The fourth iteration of the ‘Enduring Results Study’ (ERS) explores what drives enduring results in USAID’s partnerships with the private sector.