Blog

Village Enterprise works to end extreme poverty in rural Africa by providing groups of three entrepreneurs with seed capital, training, ongoing mentoring, and support for the formation of Business Savings Groups. This post highlights a $5.32m payment-for-results project in the form of a Development Impact Bond.

This is the first in a two-part blog series. It draws on ongoing research in South Sudan funded by USAID/OFDA and implemented by Mercy Corps and the Feinstein International Centre at Tufts University. This post presents research findings on the importance of social connections for coping and recovery.

Najib Seguya of the Feed the Future Uganda Youth Leadership in Agriculture (YLA) activity’s Strategic Activities Fund team discusses key considerations to keep in mind when designing a pay-for-results (PfR) program, also known as performance-based financing.

This post introduces USAID’s Creating Economic Opportunities project, which aims to help qualified people find jobs that give them the stability and prosperity they want for their families.

This post highlights the USAID-funded Cooperative Development Program, which promotes measurable impacts on women’s earning potential and leadership in cooperative organizations in Rwanda.

This is the second post in a two-part blog series. This post explores the methodology to quantitatively measure social connectedness.

This post shares an interview with Roula Moussa, the CEO and founder of Netways and DiasporaID, a digital platform that connects and promotes collaboration among Lebanese diaspora communities.

The USAID-funded Climate Economic Analysis for Development, Investment, and Resilience Activity promotes clean energy lending by commercial banks in Central America. Seven banks in the region now have energy efficiency and green credit lines for small- and medium-sized businesses.

KATA Solar is one of a dozen Ghanaian companies offering rooftop solar. Sales of solar products in West Africa’s off-grid energy access market jumped by nearly one-third in the first half of 2017.

This post explores how USAID is mobilizing institutional investors to develop Africa's infrastructure through an initiative called MiDA, which connects American investors to the local partners.

Complex flows of capital and credit reach the most remote parts of the continent to pre-finance the extraction and sale of conflict minerals. Few recognize the importance of property rights in these flourishing economies.

Under the landmark peace agreement, the Government of Colombia has committed to addressing land issues by formalizing property rights across the country, organizing the national registry, and recovering lands that belong to the state.

A new report by Babson College on the Goldman Sachs "10,000 Women" initiative has found that training and education for women entrepreneurs positively affect emerging economies by increasing revenues and creating jobs.

Across a wide spectrum of society, there is growing recognition of the central role that women play in the world economy.

Equity-based crowdfunding emerges as a promising opportunity to empower female entrepreneurship and to emancipate investment.

Women’s World Banking (WWB) finally closed its first private equity fund to invest in microfinance enterprises that support women.

About 63 percent of women in the non-agricultural labor force are self-employed in the informal sector in Africa, more than twice the worldwide rate, according to World Bank data.

New index from the Economist Intelligence Unit, commissioned by the Multilateral Investment Fund, scores 20 countries on their support for female owners of micro, small and medium enterprises.

Research suggesting that certain entrepreneurial mindsets and skills can be learned has given rise to the field of entrepreneurship education and training (EET).

Relative to men, women are pursuing lower opportunity activities, with their enterprises more likely to be smaller, informal, and in low value-added lines of business.

African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP) is an outreach, education, and engagement initiative that targets African women entrepreneurs to promote business growth, increase trade both regionally and to U.S. markets through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Development finance institutions – such as the International Finance Corporation and Britain's CDC – play a significant role in early stage SME financing while laying the foundation for other forms of investment.

This project conducts critical research and learning activities to disseminate and share with the development community to examine how women leaders of small businesses can better engage in the cashew value chain.

According to an Asia Foundation study of the business environment in Bangladesh, male- operated small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) far outnumber those led by women SME entrepreneurs, and only 69 of the 3,800 firms in the sample have at least one female owner.

El Programa Mujeres Empresarias Liderando el Desarrollo (MELD), promovido y financiado por USAID (Agencia de los Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional), tiene como objetivo fortalecer las capacidades de gestión y liderazgo de mujeres empresarias de la pequeña empresa.