2015 is a significant year for the future of international development. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are not only expiring, but also consultations for the incoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are rapidly taking place. The SDGs are continuing the MDGs with 17 proposed goals, to be hashed out at the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly…
Some people still talk about climate change as if it is a future threat, rather than something we are facing now. Is this a challenge in your work in Mozambique? We deal with this every day—there is this absence of urgency about what’s going on. There’s still a confusion about disaster risk reduction and climate…
When I first started my career in public health and supply chain management back in the early 90s, HIV/AIDS was practically a death sentence. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) was still in its early stages, and weak supply chains across the developing world meant that existing drugs for HIV and opportunistic infections were beyond reach for millions…
Earlier this year, Chemonics joined the SEEP Network—a global network of international development organizations dedicated to fighting poverty by promoting inclusive markets and financial systems. SEEP is active in 170 countries and reaches nearly 90 million households around the world. For years, we have been attending the annual conference and working side-by-side with SEEP Network members…
Chemonics launched its first development project in 1975, just five years after the first Earth Day rallies in 1970 sparked the modern environmental movement. Since then, the company has implemented more than 200 projects in biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, climate change adaptation, and related areas. Certainly, Chemonics’ commitment to building healthier human-nature interactions was…
Internet connectivity is to us what the internal combustion engine, the printing press, or the compass were to previous generations. It continues to revolutionize our world at an astonishing rate. For the 75 million unemployed youth between the ages of 15 and 24, it offers a means to prosperity and a better life through provision…
UNNES is a university partner of USAID’s Higher Education Leadership and Management (HELM), implemented by Chemonics. Since 2012, HELM has worked since 2012 with twenty-five higher education institutions to use action research to address challenges unique to each institution. Action research uses research to address an immediate problem, mobilizing a team to solve the problem…
This year’s International Women’s Day falls on a Sunday. For many people in the United States, it is a typical day off but in many other countries such as those in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, International Women’s Day it is an official holiday each year. I used to be a skeptic of days like…
The World Bank Doing Business report is a tool that is used by the public and private sectors to determine the opportunities and challenges of doing business in various countries. The 10 key indicators tracked by the report comprise one of the measurement tools used by Chemonics projects seeking to improve the business enabling environment…
Off one plane came firemen from Miami. Off another, volunteers from France. The stream of aid workers and supplies seemed endless as they flooded the Toussaint Louverture airport in Port-au-Prince, where I had come to evacuate some consultants who had worked with the USAID watershed management project I was leading in my native country of…
“Whose gonna stand up to the big machine?” Stand up to fossil fuels. End fracking now! Who’s gonna stand up and save the earth?” This was the final refrain of the youth delegation at the World Parks Congress. It was sung in front of several thousand odd people, to by and large a strong ovation.…
Every year the annual SEEP conference provides economic development practitioners with opportunities to learn about and discuss innovations and successes from projects around the world. While the annual conference is always full of new ideas and trend-setting professionals, the 2014 conference stands out for bringing the idea of “big data” to development in a way…