Case Study: Climate Smart Agriculture

Youth entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector can provide direct career opportunities for young innovators while also promoting a cascade of positive economic outcomes for other young people along the agricultural value chain and reducing the carbon footprint of food production.

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…

Sustaining the Legacy of Holistic Education in Malawi

Malawi has benefitted from successful reading projects that provide learners with foundational reading and literacy skills to support the country’s continued development. USAID’s NextGen Early Grade Reading Activity builds on that progress by partnering with the Ministry of Education to support early literacy, improve classroom instruction, and build systemic capacity. The activity provides high-quality reading…

Bolstering Jordan’s Water Sector Governance

Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. Experts predict the country will experience extreme water poverty by 2025 unless the water sector prioritizes governance strengthening, improved financial performance, and sustainable management of water supplies. USAID/Jordan’s Water Governance Activity (WGA) works with Jordan’s Ministry of Water and Irrigation to promote sustainable water…

Reducing Crime and Restoring Trust in Mexico

In Mexico, crimes such as assaults, muggings, public disturbances, and robberies are frequent. Because local authorities often do not address these crimes, citizens lose trust in government and become reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement. This dynamic weakens the ability of the justice system to successfully investigate and prosecute crimes. The Violence Prevention and Reduction…

Generating Jobs and Growth in Tunisia

In Tunisia, high unemployment — particularly among college-educated youth — has been an ongoing source of sociopolitical tension and has left some Tunisian youth more susceptible to recruitment by extremist political groups. This is especially true in Tunisia’s rural regions, which are economically disadvantaged. For Tunisia to succeed politically and economically, it must focus on…

Audrey Spencer

Audrey Spencer has 15 years of experience as an international education professional specializing in programming and training for literacy, numeracy, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), teacher support and healthy youth practices that are grounded in inclusive and gender-equitable foundations. Audrey is the Global Practice Lead for Education and Youth and has provided technical assistance and…

Chemonics’ Youth Development Philosophy

To strengthen their impact, Chemonics relies on a set of cornerstones to anchor their approach to youth development around the world. The cornerstones of our approach run in tandem with USAID’s “Youth in Development Policy”3 and Positive Youth Development. Both a philosophy and an approach, Positive Youth Development ensures that youth — along with their…

Stop, Look, and Listen! Preventing Recruitment of Youth into Illicit Activities in Southern Colombia

This post originally appeared on Harvard’s Center for International Development’s Building State Capability program’s blog. The authors successfully completed the 15-week Practice of Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation online course. This is their story. As development practitioners, we tend to rush in with solutions to deal with complex problems. We impose so-called best practices without digging…

Moldovan Youth Promote Country’s Tourism Potential

The Moldova Competitiveness Project (MCP) invested in a multi-channel digital marketing campaign, #BeOurGuest, which focused on attracting visitors to Moldova’s rural areas. More visitors result in more jobs in hospitality, providing a valuable alternative to migration for the thousands of rural women who leave the country each year. The project created a campaign inviting youth…