Blog

Globally, 65 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face a $5.2 trillion financing gap. SMEs not only represent the large majority of businesses but also create more than half of the world’s employment. A lack of finance impedes the growth of these critical businesses and the economies in which they operate. 

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

In the Sahel region of West Africa, small and growing businesses account for nearly 50 percent of new job creation. When these businesses are women-led, the potential to drive growth is even higher: a USAID study found that, globally, these businesses grow revenues 1.5 times faster and jobs twice as fast compared to male-owned businesses.

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

This post explores how global development organizations can mitigate food and agricultural systems during the COVID-19 crisis, using a market systems approach.

Learn about innovations in agricultural index insurance to help build a future of prosperity and resilience for small-scale farmers and pastoralists worldwide.

While these kinds of benefits can promote food security and resilience, effectively implementing agricultural index insurance in developing economies around the world has been a challenge.

New results from pilot projects in the Mali and Burkina Faso cotton sectors show how index insurance can accelerate and protect growth for small-scale farmers, promoting long-term resilience both for their families and their local economies.

The Victory Against Malnutrition Project (ViM) was established to is reduce food insecurity by increasing and diversifying agricultural and livestock production, improving farmers’ incomes and household health and nutrition.