Blog

Tim Sturgeon shares how developing country SMEs have successfully leveraged their participation in global value chains to upgrade their capabilities and access export markets.

At the 2012 SEEP Annual Conference, Jacobo Menajovsky of Grameen Foundation and Mary Liz Kehler of Fundación Paraguaya presented two client-led data tools that help inform the design and delivery of products and interventions for the poorest.

What do the tortilla riots in Mexico, the London riots, the global financial crisis, and Disney’s Finding Nemo have in common? As Luis Osorio of Practical Action explained, each demonstrates that markets are complex systems.

At the 2013 Making Cents: Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference during the session titled, “Life Skills and Youth Economic Outcomes: Where’s the Proof?” Daniel Oliver, Director of Learning and Evaluation at the International Youth Foundation, posed the central question: “Many of us think life skills are important, but are they worth the investment?

Microlinks partnered with Making Cents International to provide coverage of this year's Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference. Watch video interviews, view photos or read one of the blog post recaps.

On September 10, an incredibly honest and substantive breakout session on empowering adolescent girls through microfranchising was led by Barri Shorey of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Owen Ozier from the World Bank and Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) during Day One of Making Cents’ 2013 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference in Washington, DC.

Microlinks partnered with Making Cents International to provide coverage of the 2013 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference. Watch video interviews, view photos or read one of the blog post recaps.

At the Cracking the Nut Africa conference, the focus will be on discussing challenges surrounding rural livelihoods and food security and finding real solutions.

With only 19.5 banks and microfinance branches for every 100,000 people, there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to increasing access to formal financial services.

On September 17, Microlinks and Tetra Tech sponsored a special presentation by EWB's Amir Allana to speak about the building blocks of learning organizations and how to enable flexible, adaptive development programming.

The conference brought together a small group of policymakers, development practitioners and thought leaders from around the world to explore models of aid that allow for the pursuit of complex, adaptive, flexible program design.

Designers, engineers, and innovators from around the world were challenged to envision fresh, creative designs that could benefit low-income households in developing countries, leading to entries from 13 countries.

New models often face barriers to growth due to a lack of understanding of how, where, or when to grow. These businesses benefit from greater support and funding and often become commercially viable.

Kurt Dassel and Harvey Koh who both presented at the MPEP Seminar titled, "Overcoming Barriers to Scale to Reach the Poor," gave their key takeaways.

On January 24, 2014, Vital Voices Global Partnership hosted Dr. Ruta Aidis for a presentation on and discussion of the Gender GEDI Index.

During the kick-off workshop to launch the Mentoring for Value Chain Impact program, a group of mentors and mentees spent a day in field in rural Rwanda and visited USAID’s Post Harvest Handling and Shortage (PHHS) program.

The goals of the study were to learn how LIFT II could help service providers make efficient, effective, and appropriate referrals to services within the district, and also how to classify clients into categories of household poverty/vulnerability.

The MOSD’s first step was to refine their grants program into a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to meet the needs of its poorest and most vulnerable populations.

Numerous efforts are underway to integrate mobile payment systems in Bangladesh as a way to provide cost-effective access to resources in an effort to reduce poverty.

LEO seeks to support missions and implementers in improving the performance of market systems to generate growth, and to structure that growth in such a way that it is inclusive of women and the extreme poor.

In honor of International Women's Day, and in recognition that gender is one of our largest cross-cutting issues, we're highlighting the most important tools, guidance, and other resources in moving gender equality forward across multiple sectors.

Summary blog post from February MPEP Seminar entitled, “Latest Impact Findings on Financing Africa’s Smallholder Farms,” with John Magnay and Simona Haiduc of Opportunity International.

The Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion, in conjunction with the Smart Campaign and Handicap International has completed an activity under the FIELD-Support LWA to design and test disability inclusive tools and standards.

Brookings Visiting Fellow John W. McArthur delves into this issue and tries to answer the question that impacts in nearly all African countries: How do we increase economic opportunities for our rapidly growing youth population?

Insurance can contribute to a number of public policy objectives, including improving access to health care, increasing food security, and coping with climate change. There is therefore a public policy rationale to invest in the development of efficient insurance markets that provide equitable access to low-income households.