Building a Robust and Resilient Digital Economy for the Philippines

Growth prospects for the Philippines’ digital economy are promising; the internet economy grew by 32% from 2015 to 2019 and 93% from 2020 to 2021. However, the Philippines is falling behind regional peers in digital adoption. Longstanding distrust in digital transactions and limited digital infrastructure contributing to unequal access to services delivered via the internet…

Global Digital Development Forum 2023

For the fourth year in a row, we partnered with USAID, TechChange, and other technology and development companies to host this global virtual forum that engaged over 3,000 participants on key areas of digital development – exploring transformative questions, industry-defining discussion, new voices, and creative ideas in the following areas: climate change, locally led development,…

Empowering Young Women to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide

The gender digital divide maintains the dichotomous status quo of the world as women are not able to reap the dividends of participation in the digital world. Empowering youth, and especially young women to meaningfully engage with technology is a critical part of the solution to close the gender digital divide. Besides youth being overall…

Adeeb Mahmood

Adeeb Mahmood has more than a decade of experience working in the areas of IT and cybersecurity risk management across several industries and global organizations. Adeeb is responsible for the Chemonics’ information security program and implementing cybersecurity risk mitigation strategies. Previously, Adeeb led multi-disciplinary teams in advancing business priorities by employing threat-informed methodologies to assess…

News: Colombia Rural Finance Initiative Selected as 2022 Digital Development Award Winner

The Digital Development Awards (“the Digis”) recognize and celebrate USAID projects and activities that support inclusive development through digital technology. This year, the USAID Colombia Rural Finance Initiative (RFI) implemented by Chemonics was selected as one of five Digi recipients for developing a mobile phone-based system for rural smallholders and urban-based, low-income groups to conduct…

Digitalizing Economic Growth

Digital technology is transforming the way people and organizations connect and conduct business, and this transformation’s impacts on the economy are significant. Despite these advances, digital transformation is not reaching people equally around the world. In this technical brief, we present four considerations for advancing the digital economy based on our experiences applying them in three projects in Colombia,…

Making Central Bank Digital Currencies Work for Development

Money is going digital, full steam ahead. Within the past five years, interest around Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) has exploded. Nearly 100 CBDCs are currently in research or development stages, with CBDCs in Nigeria and the Bahamas already launched. Unlike volatile cryptocurrency assets (e.g., bitcoin and stablecoins), CBDCs offer promising development benefits through central…

Final Report: HRH2030 in Indonesia

HRH2030 offered a strategic, comprehensive plan to improve health outcomes by enhancing the availability and use of quality HRH data to strengthen the health workforce.