In early 2018, drought-stricken Cape Town narrowly averted its “Day Zero,” the day when taps in the city would have run dry. Reservoirs filled up just enough to avert an all-out water crisis, and “Day Zero” has now been pushed to 2019. Meanwhile, in 2016, 2017, and 2018, floods in South Asia, Africa, Europe, and…
What are the barriers to usage of digital financial services? What are the most effective ways to drive uptake? Modern financial solutions, spurred by internet and mobile access, present an important opportunity to make transactions more efficient. These digital innovations can save time and transportation costs for bank and client alike while building credit history…
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Asia and Middle East Economic Growth Best Practices (AMEG) project in 2013. A five-year initiative with a shared ceiling of $69 million, AMEG enabled technical support teams in USAID’s Asia and Middle East bureaus to collaborate with USAID missions and operating units to identify and…
Back in 2015 while designing our approach for USAID’s Colombia Rural Finance Initiative (RFI), a Colombian colleague and I visited a sugar smallholder who had settled in the Meta department, fleeing the civil war. On his adobe walls hung a photograph of the farmer smiling proudly next to Colombia’s President Santos, who had visited their…
This post originally appeared on Agrilinks. Farming is a risky livelihood throughout the world. But for smallholder farmers in particular, productivity and food security are defined by risk. “Good years” are defined by adequate rains, and “bad years” by drought. In Uganda, where 70 percent of the population is employed in the agricultural sector, the…
This activity was one of four winners of Chemonics’ recent Market Systems and Youth Enterprise Development Innovation Contest within the youth enterprise track. This post originally appeared on Marketlinks. When thousands of youth are migrating abroad to seek better employment opportunities, how do you provide a viable economic alternative to encourage them to stay, develop their skills,…
Innovations in technology have enhanced development impact across all sectors — from agriculture to education to health. From May 8 to 10, public, private, and civil society organizations from around the world will convene for the 2018 Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) Conference in Lusaka, Zambia. Now in its 10th year, the conference…
This post originally appeared on Marketlinks. Development practitioners are often innovating, piloting, and problem-solving — but sometimes these initiatives have a hard time getting disseminated past the project annual report. At Chemonics, the Economic Growth and Trade Practice and the Education and Youth Practice joined forces to kick off 2018 with the launch of our…
On April 19, representatives from our Feed the Future Uganda Youth Leadership for Agriculture (YLA) activity, along with partner Equator Seeds Limited, joined USAID for an event entitled “USAID Youth-Led Innovations: The Journey to Self-Reliance.” The event, held in Washington, D.C., and hosted by USAID, YouthCorps, and the Global Development Lab, brought together partners, donors,…
In March 2017, Timor-Leste enacted its national tourism policy, which calls for sustainable environmental development while increasing tourist visits and improving local and national economic opportunities. Through USAID’s Tourism for All Project (“USAID nia Projetu Turizmu Ba Ema Hotu”), Timor-Leste realized its goal of becoming a tourist destination that brings 200,000 foreign tourists annually by…
MARKETS II supported the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative, the government of Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA), and its succeeding Agriculture Promotion Policy 2016 – 2020 (also known as the Green Alternative). Through a market-demand value chain orientation, the project focused on the large population of smallholders with between 1 to 5 hectares of…
A few basic facts: there were 1.2 billion youth aged 15 to 24 years globally in 2015, accounting for one out of every six people worldwide. By 2030, the target date for achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the number of youth is projected to grow by 7 percent, to nearly 1.3 billion. Given…