Blog

At the Making Cents International’s Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference, the youth and ICTs panel mentioned a few of the many areas where new technologies can be integrated in youth development work.

On April 18, MasterCard helped Pro Mujer open their latest center in Mexico City’s Milpa Alta neighborhood and in celebration of Pro Mujer President and CEO Rosario Pérez blogged about igniting the entrepreneurial spirit of women.

The message from the opening plenary at the Making Cents International Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference was clear: youth employment is more important than ever.

Guest blogger Brenda Schuster (Youth and HIV Technical Advisor for Catholic Relief Services) reports back on the Making Cents Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference’s final morning plenary session, “Youth Economic Opportunity in the MENA Region.” This session included Brandee McHale, COO of Citi Foundation, Svava Bjarnason, IFC Senior Education Specialist, Jamie McAuliffe, President and CEO of the Education for Employment Foundation, and Awais Sufi, Vice President for Work Programs at the International Youth Foundation.

Only a third of youth in the Arab world believe their education has prepared them to get a job, according to a recent study by the Education for Employment Foundation.

Amanda MacArthur of CDC Development Solutions (CDS), a member of VEGA, talks about the six main interventions that make up the CDS Tourism Employment & Opportunity (TEMPO) approach.

Corrinne Ngurukie of YouthSave discusses YouthSave's focus on providing the evidence base for youth savings products

Grameen Foundation Director, Human Capital Center, discusses insights with Microlinks on building human capital in MFIs at the MFC conference in Belgrade, 2009.

Driving interoperable payments in Latin America through the mobile platform BICOO to address key barriers facing the unbanked.

A partnership with USAID, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, and the Visa Foundation aims to address barriers that women entrepreneurs face by building supportive entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging markets.

The ILO Toolkit is a practical resource for organisations and projects to support small and medium enterprises (SME) decide what aspects of SME performance (productivity, working conditions, etc.) to measure, as well as how to measure them.

Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II is a five-year project, now at its halfway point, working to help Cambodia accelerate horticulture sector growth and strengthen the horticulture market system. This case study describes Harvest II’s blended buyer-led and market systems development approach, citing examples of progress to date and posing several learning questions about the project moving forward.

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.

The Feed the Future Malawi Ag Diversification Activity worked with partners to develop an input bundle and a loan package to help farmers increase their soybean and groundnut yields.

It is essential that markets actively engage people, regardless of gender, to increase the likelihood of generating value-added solutions for society. In this context, gender inequities are not secondary but are of primary concern.

This month, Marketlinks is focused on seed-related enabling environment and market systems. Share your submissions to be included in our round-up.

With 30% of children under five years old stunted, there are critical vitamin and mineral deficiencies among the poor population in Haiti.

The vast majority of food grown in Africa is by smallholder farmers. Implementing these four recommendations will speed up the process of putting improved seed in the hands of Africa’s food growers permanently.

In February, our Marketlinks blog will focus on economic recovery in crisis-affected communities. Throughout the month, we’ll take a deep dive into how communities around the world are building resilience in the wake of a crisis.

This post highlights how officials are stimulating economic reform in Jordan by improving the legal rights of borrowers and lenders, implementing digital financial services and access to credit.

Sunday, March 8, 2020, is International Women’s Day. Here are some previous blog posts from Marketlinks that detail the advancement of gender equality worldwide.

USAID is strengthening the fishing sector in El Salvador to help achieve self-reliance in coastal communities, reducing the need to migrate.

Blended finance has demonstrated the ability to mobilize additional financing for gender-focused projects and companies that advantage women and narrow the gender gap, with a quarter of all blended transactions demonstrating alignment with SDG 5 (Gender Equality) to date.

Sylvia Natukunda is feeling the effects of COVID-19. As the founder of Farm Reap, a Kampala, Uganda-based company that produces five flavors of yogurt, she is putting together a game plan on how to keep her business profitable.

This blog post highlights how the RisiAlbania project, which sponsors youth employment and skills training programs in Albania, has invested in and adapted online learning and collaboration to local contexts in the face of COVID-19.