The signing of the Paris Climate Agreement today, on Earth Day, represents a global consensus that climate change has, and will continue, to fundamentally alter our natural systems and challenge our way of life unless we take collective and measured steps towards a carbon neutral path. Significantly, it comes on the heels of another monumental international agreement…
As Sharon van Pelt argued in her recent blog post, politics are an inescapable reality for any international development project and must be factored into project design and implementation. The “thinking and working politically” concept is catching on, and more development practitioners are using political economy analysis to understand national-level politics in the countries where…
This post was originally published by the Alliance for Peacebuilding and is cross-posted with permission. Chemonics is honored to be an Alliance for Peacebuilding member organization. The escalation of violence in Côte d’Ivoire after the disputed 2010 presidential election led to the worst humanitarian crisis in the country’s history. Violence devastated families, with an estimated…
All changes and reforms are driven by interests and incentives. We generally understand this and, therefore, we try through our projects to foster positive incentives and collective interests that lead to the change we want to see. Sounds fairly straightforward, but clearly we know it is not, regardless of if we work in agriculture, climate…
According to USAID’s recently released “Guide to the Use of Digital Financial Services in Agriculture,” there are an estimated 1.5 billion smallholder farmers worldwide producing approximately 80 percent of the global food supply, who together face an estimated $430 billion shortfall in critical financial services that are needed to support production. In Uganda, where smallholder…
Is business just for adults? In many countries, the business community’s involvement in education is limited to the secondary or post-secondary levels. Under USAID’s Georgia Primary Education (G-PriEd) program, however, we are trying another approach: engaging local businesses in primary education (Grades 1-6) with the goal of equipping children with basic business skills that will…
Nearly all jobs are related to water. The UN emphasizes that sustainable development is contingent on adequate quality and quantity for public health and agricultural and economic development. Climate change strategies depend on the thousands of people who work in water to help transform societies by properly managing and operating utilities. While safe drinking water,…
This post was originally published by the Better Than Cash Alliance and is cross-posted with permission. Chemonics is a proud member of the alliance. Many Ivoirians were concerned that the 2015 presidential elections would lead to renewed conflict, particularly after the violence surrounding the elections of 2010. One successful peace-promoting initiative in the country used…
The timing, approach, and pace of land reform and collective farm restructuring throughout the former Soviet republics has varied dramatically – and in many places is still ongoing. Whether government chose to privatize land, guarantee land use rights, or keep the status quo of state ownership, land and access to it remains critical for millions…
This week, hundreds of the world’s leading land rights scholars, practitioners, and governors will convene in our nation’s capital for the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference. The theme of this year’s conference is “Scaling up Responsible Land Governance,” and conference-goers will join forces to develop clear pathways for “working at scale, mainstreaming innovations, and…
Coaching is a welcomed response to the need for active and continuous teacher professional development, which is linked to student achievement gains. Coaching provides significant short-term impact on instruction, but comes with potential long-term sustainability issues due to its high price tag and possible lack of local ownership. Teacher learning circles (TLCs) can serve as…
Education is a fundamental building block for human development and a vital precursor for a country’s overall growth and advancement. When countries prioritize the provision of high-quality primary education, they experience long-term positive correlations in workforce development, economic growth, life expectancy, and democracy and governance processes. USAID’s Education Strategy reflects this fact through a strong…