The USAID Strengthening Educational Performance-Up (STEP-Up) Zambia project began in December 2011. This report describes how the project team’s first challenge was to understand why the primary education system in Zambia, which once performed well, had in recent years (circa 2012) struggled to deliver quality education and produce students who succeed in higher education. STEP-Up’s…
The Productive Development Project (PDP) was created to help reduce poverty through economic growth in the Northern Zone of El Salvador. To spur economic activity that would boost incomes and demand for labor through productive initiatives and services tailored to rural settings, the PDP team identified three core areas for its work: technical assistance and…
Through upgrades in data gathering, knowledge creation, and information sharing, MIND strengthened early warning systems for floods and cyclones and helped improve disaster management and contingency planning. In the process, MIND fostered networking and built Mozambican capacity to unprecedented levels. MIND combined a spectrum of tools — from high-tech, satellite-derived rainfall estimations to multicolored cyclone…
Final Report: Paraguay Threshold Country Program: Focus Area II Formalization of Economic Activities
According to the Central Bank of Paraguay’s (BCP) preliminary figures for 2007, the private sector—defined as “economic activities not produced by the public sector”—accounted for 85% of GDP. Formalization enables this critical sector for economic development to become better organized and more stable. This report describes the results of the improvements implemented and their impact…