Blog

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.”

This post was originally published on Helvetas' website and written by Chalachew Gebeyehu, SKY Project Manager, Helvetas; Bettina Jenny, Head of Skills Development & Education, Helvetas; and Sabrina Würmli, Advisor for Skills Development, Helvetas. 

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. 

By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist  

In our recent webinar discussing the findings from the Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment (AWE) landscape analysis and case studies on women and youth inclusion in agricultural market systems, we were joined by RisiAlbania and ELAN RDC, two of the activities featured in the case studies. 

The White House–led Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative brings new energy and a comprehensive approach to our mission at USAID.

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

Access to finance is a major pain point in market systems development, but how can we go beyond traditional financing methods to better reach agricultural businesses?

Nine projects are funded by NWO-WOTRO to strengthen the Netherlands-CGIAR research partnership on generating insights that contribute to improving seed systems in focus regions within Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa.

In Pakistan, promising small and medium-sized enterprises are turning their innovative ideas into reality — and improving livelihoods — with a boost from a special grant fund.

SNV's "Enhancing Opportunities for Women Enterprises" (FLOW/EOWE) programme focuses on supporting rural women in entrepreneurship by addressing the systemic barriers that many rural women face when launching their businesses.

While women make up a large part of Bangladesh’s agricultural workforce, they are rarely at the forefront of commercial agriculture. Engaging women in more diverse agricultural activities could change this.

The Enhancing Opportunities for Women’s Enterprises programme and the Centre for Industry and Trade is implementing a strategy to facilitate access for rural women entrepreneurs to markets and strengthen linkages between different actors in selected agricultural value chains.

The Women in Agriculture Network (WAgN): Cambodia project teaches women who manage small farms ways to diversify their operations for improved nutrition.

Tajikistan is on the cusp of achieving its vision of a fully-functional market that allows land-use rights to be bought and sold.

Women Empowerment in South Punjab through Investment in Rural Economy (WEinSPIRE) was selected as one of the winners of Chemonics’ recent innovation contest.

This post examines difficulties in measuring inequalities and differences in women's participation in the labor market as well as ways forward in the field.

Read how private sector-led technical and entrepreneurial trainings are playing an important role in boosting women's economic empowerment in Bangladesh.

Explore how reframing market systems as enabling environments with pockets of momentum, rather than a series of snapshot problems, can boost market systems change efforts.

Learn how the PAGE program is empowering adolescent girls and building their job skills in schools in low-income communities in New Delhi, India.

Learn how a direct sales model solves a market need in Bangladesh.

A few small changes in the market system—collection points closer to home, machines that provide more transparency, and aligning the needs of buyers and producers—can provide all of these benefits because together they solve the market failure.

In Indonesia, MercyCorps is pioneering a program to help MFIs prepare for natural disasters, respond quickly when clients are in need, and stabilize the financial sector serving low-income people post-disaster.

Reporting back from USAID’s recent Resilience Workshop, ODI’s Dr. Anna Mdee reflects on sustainable poverty escapes, the evidence around them, and the relevance of the resilience agenda and systems thinking to this concept.

Underdevelopment and missed market opportunities come with real costs, especially for women.