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…
This chapter was written by Chemonics employees Enrique Betancourt and Todd Diamond as part of an anthology published by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) entitled “Sharpening Our Efforts: The Role of International Development in Countering Violent Extremism.” It proposes five principles aimed at countering and preventing violent extremism: adapting to the unstable…
For 18-year-old Marco* and his peers, adolescence in Colombia has been a precarious time. For more than 50 years, the nation experienced conflict involving its government’s military, paramilitary groups, and guerilla groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). There have been more than 8 million civilian victims as a result of the…
Through the Financial Sector (FS) Share task order, the USAID Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade (EGAT) and Chemonics proactively collaborated with missions to identify financial sector priorities and develop strategies and programs to grow the financial sector. This primer was prepared by Caroline Averch and J. Mauricio Gutierrez of Chemonics with support from USAID EGAT and The U.S. Treasury International Affairs Office of Technical…
The Financial Sector Knowledge Sharing (FS Share) project was designed by the USAID Bureau of Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade (EGAT, now known as E3) as a vehicle to test innovative approaches to financial-sector development and facilitate the collection, analysis, and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned through implementation. Through these activities, FS Share’s…
Nearly half of Latin American countries rank among the nations with the highest impunity scores worldwide, suggesting that criminal justice systems lack resources to prosecute and try crimes effectively in a context of widespread crime and violence. Yet, Latin America has the partners, the resources, and the interest to tap one promising solution to the…
Ariana Szepesi-Colmenares, a citizen security and governance specialist with over 13 years of international development experience, serves as Chemonics’ Senior Director for New Business Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, overseeing business development across a wide array of technical sectors, including rule of law, citizen security, environmental conservation, economic growth, youth and women empowerment.…
For decades, the international development community has struggled to prove its effectiveness by ensuring that programs deliver politically viable solutions that respond to locally led processes. Guaranteeing these principles is a shared responsibility between donors and implementers. While donors need to shed the straitjackets of untested theories of change, pre-established project activities, and onerous reporting…
We’d like you to meet Dzenita Kolja! Dzenita serves as managing director of the Audit Preparedness Unit within Chemonics’ Global Health Supply Chain Office. Once an aid beneficiary herself, she shares her development journey from Bosnia to the U.S. and what draws her to this work. Dzenita is one reason #DevelopmentWorksHere. 1. Can you tell…
Stop, Look, and Listen! Preventing Recruitment of Youth into Illicit Activities in Southern Colombia
This post originally appeared on Harvard’s Center for International Development’s Building State Capability program’s blog. The authors successfully completed the 15-week Practice of Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation online course. This is their story. As development practitioners, we tend to rush in with solutions to deal with complex problems. We impose so-called best practices without digging…
For the past decade, Mexico has faced a serious human rights crisis. More than 35,000 people have gone missing since 2006, their whereabouts still unknown. The National Commission of Human Rights has documented several alarming, unlawful killings of civilians by Mexican security forces without any authorities being charged. And torture continues to be a common…
Manisha Aryal is a development practitioner with more than 25 years of experience in designing and implementing ICT-enabled programs globally. In her current role as the Global Practice Lead for Digital Development, she spearheads the company’s digital development strategy, providing thought leadership and hands-on support to projects and programs that innovate with technology solutions. Manisha also…