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Browse recent blogs of interest to the Marketlinks community. Use the search box or the filters on the left-hand side to refine the listing of blogs by keyword, topic, and/or region/country.

The “Domino Effect” of Disbursing a Single Microloan

Society Development Committee, or SDC, based in Faridpur, Bangladesh, is a microfinance partner of the Feed the Future Bangladesh Livestock and Nutrition Activity, funded by USAID and implemented by ACDI/VOCA. Through this partnership, thousands of people working in Bangladesh’s livestock sector have benefited from microfinance products.

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Photo by ACDI/VOCA

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Photo Credit: Solina Kong, Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II

What is (and isn’t yet) Impact Investing?

Author(s):

Autumn Gorman
To continue developing a deeper understanding of impact investing and finance for development, Autumn Gorman from USAID's Private Sector Engagement Hub discusses what is and what is not yet impact investing in this first installment of a four-part blog series.
Edith Poma (left) standing in her bodega

Minimizing Risk While Growing Small Businesses in Peruvian Amazonia

Author(s):

USAID CATALYZE Mobilizing Private Capital for Development
USAID CATALYZE Peru increases small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and producer associations’ access to finance through an innovative Pay for Results (P4R) program, which helps financial institutions (FI) minimize their risk in lending while growing their portfolios in underserved regions in the Amazon. CATALYZE Peru has signed P4R agreements with 10 FIs, which have committed to mobilize USD24.1 million to the Amazonia region.
USAID CATALYZE Engines of Growth is developing a viable pipeline of investment-ready SMEs in the West Balkans through technical assistance, training, and administrative support in the information technology, agribusiness, and manufacturing sectors. Photo: Nikola Aleksic, Belgrade, Serbia

Bolstering Economic Dynamism in the Western Balkans

Author(s):

USAID CATALYZE Mobilizing Private Capital for Development
In early 2022, the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia) started to emerge from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, boasting rising industrial production, exports to the European Union (EU), increases in wages, and credit growth. The region is ripe for investment, but Russia’s war against Ukraine threatens this recovery, through higher energy and food costs, disruption in supply chains, and interruptions in trade.