This brief describes how projects in Mali and Haiti applied of the Innovation Adoption Measurement Approach, developed by Chemonics expert Dr. Tom Fattori, to support adaptive management on resilience-focused projects. This approach takes the findings from an innovation adoption assessment and identifies specific and actionable recommendations for targeting and improving the adoption of practices that…
This brief focuses on three key lessons learned — the importance of social capital for resilience, leveraging social capital to establish community buy-in, and linking resilience activities to specific shocks. The USAID Reforestation project team applied this learning to implement a refined reforestation approach, which may be relevant to other projects incorporating components of resilience-building,…
The Mali Climate Change Adaptation Activity (MCAA) built resilience to climate change by helping individuals, households, organizations, and the government of Mali adapt to shocks and stresses that come with climate change. The final report covers MCCAA’s project impact towards its key objectives, as and discusses the project’s gender and youth inclusion work, security environment…
Biodiversity loss is one of Central America’s most pressing challenges. The five-year, $13.9 million USAID Regional Program for the Management of Aquatic Resources and Economic Alternatives, implemented by Chemonics International, was developed to strengthen coastal-marine resource management and biodiversity conservation while improving the livelihoods of local populations. Population growth in coastal marine areas, climate change,…
As chief of party for the USAID Digital Liberia and e-Government project, Vicki Cooper led efforts to strengthen Liberia’s health, education, and economic growth sectors through enhanced information, communication, and technology capabilities in the aftermath of the Ebola epidemic. 1. How can the global development community use lessons learned from the Ebola crisis in Liberia…
While most development projects use some form of remote management — U.S.-based home offices oversee project offices, main offices in capitals oversee satellite offices, and teams are distributed across multiple countries (e.g., FEWS NET) — the COVID-19 pandemic presents uncharted territories for many in the global development sector. Travel and movement restrictions, work from home…
Photo courtesy of USAID Colombia Human Rights Activity. This post originally appeared on Devex. When everyone is struggling to recover from violent conflict, singling out one community for assistance among many ethnic and religious identities can actually make matters worse. Yet, to heal the inter-community rifts that set the stage for conflict, targeted outreach to…
Aflatoxin is a poison produced by a soil fungus that can infect crops, threatening food security, health, and trade in many developing countries; contaminating the food value chain; and costing hundreds of millions of dollars each year in export opportunities. In Africa specifically, aflatoxin causes stunting in children and an estimated 30 percent of all…
The Mara River Basin (MRB) is home to more than 1.28 million people in Kenya and Tanzania and supports a number of critically important wildlife areas. However, pressures such as population growth and land use change threaten water resources, and the threat to water resources in turn threatens development of key economic sectors such as…
As international development professionals, we strive for sustainable project results and an evidence base for our approaches. But the truth is we don’t always know what happens to our efforts after a project closes. Chemonics recently conducted a self-financed ex-post study of a former agriculture project to fill that information gap. While the team did…
To strengthen Mozambique’s ability to build resilience to climate change challenges, especially in vulnerable coastal communities, USAID launched the $19.9 million Coastal City Adaptation Project (CCAP) in 2013. Over a five-year period, CCAP worked with municipal governments to increase understanding of urban adaptation issues and increase the application of management options for urban adaptation, particularly…
On Wednesday, February 13, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted a panel discussion on U.S.-led global food security featuring Chemonics Senior Vice President Philip DeCosse. The event, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and hosted at CSIS headquarters in Washington, D.C., marked the launch of CSIS’s newest report: Risk and…