Anne Spahr is the chief of party of the USAID-funded Asia and Middle East Economic Growth (AMEG) Best Practices Project. She is a micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) finance and business development specialist with more than 10 years of experience working with farmers, fishers, and small business owners in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and…
What makes personal identification documents so important? For most people, government-issued identification cards are not something we think about often. IDs and passports are simply items we carry to verify that we are who we say we are. But what if those documents are wrong? What if they don’t reflect how we identify ourselves? For…
Human traffickers prey on those who do not have access to viable economic opportunities or the means to pursue a better future. Exclusion from social opportunities and protections creates a cloak of invisibility for those who are forced into mining blood diamonds in Democratic Republic of the Congo, toiling in garment sweat shops in Bangladesh,…
Learn more about how e-payments promote economic growth in a Mert Tangonan’s video interview. Electronic payments go beyond mobile money, and include electronic funds transfers, credit card transactions, and more. What everyday challenges does the Philippines experience considering that only 2 percent of transactions fall under the umbrella of e-payments? What many people don’t realize is…
As governments all over the world attempt to address global issues, youth bring an important ability to challenge leaders to look at issues from a different perspective. Youth often bring innovative angles towards addressing social and economic challenges. One of these challenges that continues to persist in both Southeast Asian and European nations is gender…
Open government is critical to enhancing essential services, opening civic space, and making government more accountable to citizens. Sustainable Development Goal 16 asks the international community to aim toward building more effective, responsive, and inclusive institutions, which evidence shows lead to better development outcomes for citizens. Recently, at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit…
Access to information is a fundamental right. More than 100 countries worldwide have adopted right to information (RTI) legislation, which are laws regulating public access to information, particularly from public institutions (sometimes referred to as access to information or freedom of information laws). These countries are increasingly recognizing the connection between good governance, accountability, and freedom of…
During the internship year of my medical training, Peru was affected by a severe El Niño. At that time, millions of people living in the poor peri-urban belt of Lima lacked access to clean water and sanitation services. These factors were a recipe for a massive outbreak of diarrheal diseases in children. The pediatric services…