Eugénie Lund-Simon is a former senior specialist at Chemonics.
With nearly 150,000 hectares of vineyards, the small nation of Moldova has one of the largest densities of vineyards in the world. Here, the wine industry is a cultural touchstone with a history stretching back thousands of years. It forms the backbone of the rural economy, providing income for more than 250,000 people and more…
This post originally appeared on ICTworks. When working in international markets, there is one golden rule to ensure sustainability: make sure your interventions do not distort markets. In small markets, such as Georgia, a country with less than 4 million people, 50 percent of which are self-employed in the agriculture industry, this is especially important. Laying…
What are the barriers to usage of digital financial services? What are the most effective ways to drive uptake? Modern financial solutions, spurred by internet and mobile access, present an important opportunity to make transactions more efficient. These digital innovations can save time and transportation costs for bank and client alike while building credit history…
Back in 2015 while designing our approach for USAID’s Colombia Rural Finance Initiative (RFI), a Colombian colleague and I visited a sugar smallholder who had settled in the Meta department, fleeing the civil war. On his adobe walls hung a photograph of the farmer smiling proudly next to Colombia’s President Santos, who had visited their…
Innovations in technology have enhanced development impact across all sectors — from agriculture to education to health. From May 8 to 10, public, private, and civil society organizations from around the world will convene for the 2018 Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) Conference in Lusaka, Zambia. Now in its 10th year, the conference…
Have you ever asked yourself “did the person who built this software system ever even remotely talk to anyone that has to use it?” I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you (like me) have. Digital transformation efforts are littered with cautionary tales of designing tone-deaf systems that don’t meet the…
Which digital tools show the greatest promise to maximize development impact around the world? How can organizations and governments make sure that these tools are part of an inclusive approach to development? These are the kinds of questions that participants will discuss at the Digital Development Forum: The Next 10 Years event, hosted by USAID…
To improve access to high-quality health products worldwide, the USAID Global Health Supply Chain – Procurement and Supply Management project employs cutting-edge technologies and industry best practices to make global health supply chains more efficient and reach more people.
After decades of war, Afghanistan continues to raise headlines questioning the effectiveness and value of providing development assistance in such a conflict-prone country. It is easy to focus on the negative headlines and criticisms. Yet while there are challenges, there are also successes that prove why these investments matter. The Afghanistan Trade and Revenue (ATAR)…
Malaria continues to impose enormous social and economic costs on communities and businesses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Of the country’s 70 million residents, 97 percent live and work in areas where the disease is endemic. About 180,000 lives are lost to malaria every year, with pregnant women and children under the age…