Zoltan Milic is an experienced economist with over 17 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation, data and complex systems modeling and analyses, change management, and internal auditing. Zoltan is currently the director of Monitoring and Evaluation, for Chemonics’ US Government Business Line. In his prior role, he served as the monitoring and impact evaluation…
Science shows that honey, rich in antioxidants, can lower a person’s cholesterol and promote healing. As a commodity, it can also transform entire communities. Just ask Zoraida Silgado Escobar, legal representative for the Carbebias Honey Producer Association (Asocabebias), in Northern Colombia. Before beekeeping helped to change her community, her father and neighbors earned their livelihood…
The full implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are yet to be determined, but it has disrupted nearly every aspect of socioeconomic activity at a breadth and scale not seen in modern memory. Now activities that once seemed routine — school, work, travel, errands, and social gatherings —present serious health risks, and the resulting lockdown is…
Emerging economies such as Colombia, Philippines, and South Africa offer sophisticated financial sectors that historically failed to reach marginalized groups. In Colombia specifically, this left rural areas largely unbanked and excluded from the broader economy, after decades of war. In four years, USAID/Colombia’s Rural Finance Initiative (RFI) — implemented by Chemonics — has linked more…
Despite advances in rebuilding Lebanon’s physical, social, and economic infrastructure, many Lebanese citizens experience inadequate access to public services and economic opportunities. The Syrian conflict has placed additional strain on communities, reducing cross-border trade and bringing an estimated 1.5 million refugees to Lebanon. Host-community fatigue and tensions over resources and livelihoods are mounting. In response,…
In the Philippines, economic progress is constrained by weak competitiveness and non-inclusive growth. However, recent high-level economic reform directives, like the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program and the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program, present opportunities to transform the country’s economic trajectory. The USAID Delivering Effective Government for Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth (DELIVER) project promotes economic competitiveness…
The ACCELERE!1 (A!1) project improved educational outcomes for girls and boys through enhanced teaching in national languages and French, reduced barriers to education, and increased transparency of school governance structures. This was accomplished by A!1’s income-generating activities and community savings groups approach, which helped parents secure a more affordable education for their children.
In Vietnam, economic growth is transforming urban provinces into hubs of innovation. Meanwhile, rural provinces have yet to catch up. To bridge this gap, local government officials must have the ideas, skills, and resources needed to lead their own economies into the future. The USAID Strengthening Provincial Capacity activity equips three Vietnamese institutions from the…
This post originally appeared on Devex. Donor agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, have made private sector engagement, or PSE, a key element of their development strategies. Being more intentional about including the private sector in development is good news. Over the years,…