Chemonics recognizes the key role gender equality in leadership plays in achieving development impact, and understands that for women to achieve leadership roles equally with their male peers, the systemic barriers for women must be addressed, such as supporting workplaces free of harassment and ensuring pay equity. Research suggests that if women played an identical…
Chemonics’ systems and practices are designed intentionally to include diverse abilities, which also means representation in decision-making and resource allocation and designing programs so that persons with disabilities can fully participate. There are six principles Chemonics uses to promote inclusion in all their work, which range from partnering with Disabled People’s Organizations to targeted outreach…
White Ribbon Alliance launched the global What Women Want campaign in 2018. The alliance asked 1.2 million women and girls from 114 countries, “What is your one request for quality reproductive and maternal healthcare services?” Their answers surprised many. Second only to respectful and dignified care, women asked for improved access to water, sanitation, and…
Photo courtesy of USAID Colombia Human Rights Activity. This post originally appeared on Devex. When everyone is struggling to recover from violent conflict, singling out one community for assistance among many ethnic and religious identities can actually make matters worse. Yet, to heal the inter-community rifts that set the stage for conflict, targeted outreach to…
Rapid urbanization in developing countries is shifting demand for agricultural goods. Meanwhile, the digitization of value chains is generating more transparent information on the pricing and movement of goods. These changes within food systems open windows of opportunity for agripreneurship — that is, entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector — both on the farm and beyond…
To reach 50,000 farmers — 70 percent of them women — in 4.5 years, USAID’s Feed the Future Tajikistan Agriculture and Water Activity (TAWA) developed the nutrition-sensitive Farm to Fork capacity building program. The program, based in the Khatlon province of Tajikistan, particularly targeted women farmers of reproductive age or those with children under age…
Globally, new momentum is building for the private sector’s participation in alleviating migration crises worldwide and supporting migrants’ and refugees’ integration. From investing in migrant-owned businesses to engaging a migrant workforce or securing resources for optimal basic service delivery for migrants and host communities, private sector engagement offers unique avenues for helping to solve migration…
On a recent visit to a rural village in Dioila district, part of the Koulikoro region in Mali, I met with the local women’s group to discuss how to promote family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) and how to increase access to these services in their community. There, surrounded by more than 100 volunteers who…
When the government of Bangladesh, a country with high rates of maternal mortality, invested in midwifery training programs in 2015, many of the newly minted midwives from the first cohort headed to Cox’s Bazar to provide services to thousands of Rohingya refugees fleeing deadly violence in Myanmar. Though female community health workers (FCHWs) operate in…
Audrey Spencer has over 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 has provided technical assistance and thought…
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…
Political developments since the Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” give Ukraine the opportunity to create an open and competitive economy that can sustain growth over time, withstand systemic shocks, and provide economic opportunities to all Ukrainians. The USAID Competitive Economy Program (CEP) promotes a strong, diverse, and open economy by enhancing the business environment for small…