Farewell, Microlinks; Hello, Marketlinks

After more than a decade, Microlinks is saying farewell.

The Microlinks website — its structure, topics, and community members — have grown by leaps and bounds since its 2003 launch. Today, Microlinks has a global reach.

Every month, more than 8,000 unique users come to Microlinks to learn and connect around good practices in inclusive market development. As Wade Channell, USAID’s Economic Growth Specialist for Gender, stated, “Microlinks is USAID's most accessible and robust website. I consider Microlinks an invaluable resource and one that makes me proud of our knowledge management.”

Through its pioneering approach and subsequent success, Microlinks paved the way for a family of community websites. It has built a particularly close partnership with Agrilinks and Learning Lab through the years, ensuring the learning captured on Microlinks is pushed out to an ever-growing audience across the development community.

Microlinks, though, is officially ending. But do not despair! This community that we all depend on to advance our shared desire to use market solutions for development has been reborn as Marketlinks.

One might say that it’s been about markets all along and the name is just catching up.

All the great content you love has been retained and will continue to grow. We cover the same breadth of inclusive market development and economic growth topics for both development and humanitarian response contexts.

So what is changing besides the name? We have a great new look with improved functionality. Easier navigation by topics and a more effective search. And, wait for it… we’re finally mobile friendly!

Hello, Marketlinks. 

Kristin O’Planick is a Market Systems & Enterprise Development Specialist in USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, & Environment. She provides assistance to market systems, enterprise development, and employment programming. She manages the Trade & Competitiveness Activity and Marketlinks. Formerly, she managed Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO). Ms. O’Planick has worked across the globe and in a variety of technical areas. She earned an MBA with distinction from the Johnson School at Cornell University.