DEVELOPMENTS
USAID’s Partnership Approach Leaves Philippines’ Wildlife in Safer Hands
Approximately three-fourths the size of California, the Philippines is brimming with biodiversity. It is among the world’s 17 megadiverse countries that host more than 70 percent of the world’s plant and animal species. However, systems and local capacity to conserve, protect, and channel rich biodiversity and ecosystems toward sustainable development are underdeveloped—leaving the country’s more than 700 threatened species and their habitats at high risk to unchecked resource extraction, poaching, and illegal trade.
In 2014, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Biodiversity Policy addressed the very issues facing the Philippines. By 2016, the agency launched the DAI-led Protect Wildlife activity to align conservation policy with on-the-ground wildlife management and enforcement in the Philippines. The activity worked in target landscapes and seascapes to reduce threats to biodiversity, reduce poaching and use of illegally harvested wildlife species and byproducts, and improve ecosystem goods and services for human wellbeing.
Q&A: Innovative Storage Solutions to Improve Energy Access in Emerging Markets
As global economies turn toward renewable energy generation, energy storage solutions are becoming a critical part of the conversation. For Sub-Saharan Africa, which faces the largest energy access deficit globally, and where 600 million people lack access to electricity, innovations in energy technology are critical.
Battery technology has the potential to play a significant role in growing the sustainable energy supplies that can fuel economic growth. The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) estimates that 25.9 GW of new wind and solar capacity will be installed in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2025, despite challenges around enabling environment, access to financing, and project development.
Our Sustainable Business Group (SBG)’s William McKenzie and Monique St Jarre sat down with Bushveld Energy co-founder and energy expert, Mikhail Nikomarov, to discuss the future of batteries as a sustainable and competitive solution for emerging market economies. Launched in 2016 by Bushveld Minerals, a vanadium producer in South Africa, Bushveld Energy is an energy storage investor, component manufacturer, and project developer focused on energy storage systems called Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB).
Power Grabbing in the Post-Pandemic Era Demands Targeted, Locally Driven Responses
In times of crisis—a natural disaster, political upheaval, or a global pandemic, for example—the social contract is often threatened. Governments must respond immediately despite operating with limited data, external groups with unknown agendas may choose to intervene, and vulnerable groups face greater risk of exploitation. “Power grabs” in times of upheaval can range from domestic oligarchs protecting the status quo, to informal gangs seeking economic profit, to insurgent groups hoping to provoke disorder.
Well-intentioned actors can also affect power dynamics in destabilized environments, for good or ill. Following the fall of Al Bashir in Sudan, new political alliances have sought to fill gaps and address unmet social needs. In post-earthquake Haiti, international organizations jockeyed counter-productively for funding injected into the local economy. But equally, as the example of Tunisia shows, the answer is rarely a hands-off approach that tolerates governance failures and leaves power vacuums to deteriorate.
EU Forest Project in Liberia Tackles Deforestation and Paves the Way for Stability
Liberia is home to half of the remaining rainforest in West Africa. Covering more than 60 percent of the nation’s land surface, forests are the fourth-largest contributor to Liberia’s economy and an important source of income for one-third of its 4.5 million people. They also make Liberia one of the world’s hotspots for biological diversity, hosting more than 2,200 species of flora and nearly 900 fauna. However, the forests face pressing challenges due to illegal logging and other drivers of deforestation.
Early Warning and Response System Increases School Enrollment and Retention
In the years leading up to 2020, school enrollment in Honduras suffered a steady decline. In 2018, 81,000 students (4.06 percent) dropped out. In 2019, some 105,000 students (or 5.39 percent of the total) abandoned their education to seek work, join gangs, or migrate without documents to the United States. Approaching the opening of the new school year in February 2021, education officials realized that they would face an even greater crisis during a pandemic and in the wake of hurricanes Eta and Iota. Already, school-aged children were migrating north.
In response, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Asegurando la Educación (Securing Education) project launched the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS), a mechanism that helps educators identify students on the brink of dropping out and keep them in school. Asegurando—a project designed to reduce school-based violence and improve access to education, academic performance, and retention in Honduras—designed the EWRS around an existing Ministry of Education system that helps enroll returning migrant children.
USAID Projects Work Together to Bolster Trade between Pakistan and Central Asia
Despite their proximity, South and Central Asia are among the least economically integrated regions. Intraregional trade is estimated to be between 0.2 and 4 percent of their total trade to all destinations—significantly below regional trade in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Most of the countries in the two regions have traditionally focused on economic relationships with North America and Europe. Studies show that if these regions—which are rich in natural resources—boosted intraregional trade, the total value could potentially double, benefitting both regional economies.
World Bank Project Aims to Rebuild Gaza Solar Facility in Wake of Conflict
In the course of the latest conflict between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza, one of the Gaza Strip’s brightest beacons of promise was almost extinguished. The $11.2 million GIE Solar Energy Project—funded by the World Bank Group and financed through the Palestinian Ministry of Finance’s Finance for Jobs (F4J) program—lost approximately 5,000 of its 21,000 solar panels to Israeli bombing and suffered damage estimated at up to $5 million. But the F4J team remains committed to supporting economic resilience in Palestine.
New Senior Advisor to High Council for Women Looks Ahead to the Afghan Peace Process
With the departure of U.S. forces from Afghanistan scheduled for this fall, all eyes are turning to the peace process, and in particular the place of women’s rights in those negotiations. With those rights in mind, we spoke to Sara Seerat, a leading women’s rights activist recently appointed by presidential decree as Senior Advisor to the High Council of Women in Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
In recent years, Seerat has worked closely with Musharikat, a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded project that has built a cadre of more than 7,000 activists and 370 civil society organizations across all 34 provinces of Afghanistan to advance women’s equality and empowerment. Musharikat works through its coalitions for Women in the Peace Process, Women in the Political Process, and Gender-Based Violence.
Health Equity is Key to Global Health Security Goals: Learning from COVID-19
We’ve all heard the adage that “disease does not discriminate.” The reality is very different. The current pandemic has, in fact, shone a light on stark health inequalities around the world. The consequences of COVID-19 are experienced differently by people depending on their circumstances, whether they are in North America, Europe, Asia, or in sub-Saharan Africa, where our Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa (TDDA) programme operates.
STEAM Education Goes Online with Launch of Stemazone Platform in Oman
The stemazone initiative for Omani youth, funded by Eshraqa and designed and implemented by DAI, has launched in Oman. The innovative educational initiative is focused on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) for Omanis aged 7 to 15. Through the Sustainable Business Group and Center for Digital Acceleration, DAI partnered with Eshraqa—the social development of arm of Khimji Ramdas, one of the Sultanate’s leading business conglomerates—to deliver stemazone as its flagship corporate social responsibility program.
Zimbabwe Agriculture Project Finds Ways to Engage Smallholder Farmers, Despite COVID-19
March 30 marked one year since the Government of Zimbabwe declared the country’s first nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. The strict lockdown and enforcement measures have caused significant hardship for most citizens, but particularly for informal traders in poorer urban areas and communities that depend on agriculture for their incomes.
Agriculture is one of many sectors worldwide hit hard by pandemic restrictions and by associated disruptions in value chains. In Zimbabwe, agriculture is not only crucial for the food supply—it provides livelihoods for 70 percent of the population and makes up 40 percent of exports.
As the pandemic took hold, Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Resettlement designated agriculture as an essential service. Producers were instructed to remain open to ensure minimal disruption of household and national food and nutrition security, as well as public and animal health. Yet farmers have struggled to access needed supplies and move their produce to distribution hubs, markets, and, ultimately, the homes of consumers under lockdown. The pandemic has also reduced consumers’ income and constrained their ability to travel and purchase products.
The European Union-funded Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP) works to strengthen local institutions and build capacity across the livestock sector through six projects and our technical assistance.
Reaching the Needs of All Citizens in a More Democratic Pakistan
A government that citizens can trust with their hard-earned wages. A government that ensures its citizens feel their voices are heard. A government whose priorities reflect its citizens’ aspirations. Such a government is the bedrock of any nation. Yet far too many governments fall short of this goal.
Seeking to support good governance specifically in Pakistan, the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in 2016 launched the Consolidating Democracy in Pakistan (CDIP) programme, just ahead of the 2018 General Election. The results have been impressive.
Q&A with Donald Lunan, Head of DAI’s New Climate Business Unit
Donald Lunan, DAI’s new Global Director for Climate, has worked at DAI since 2005. As head of the Climate and Environment team in the United Kingdom, he worked with governments, the private sector, and civil society to address climate and natural resource challenges. More recently, he led the Delivery Team for the U.K. Business Unit, overseeing the implementation of projects across clients and technical areas, including in economic growth, education, governance, and resilience. We spoke to Donald about DAI’s new Climate business unit.
Good News: Dasgupta Just Raised the Bar for Your Company
The way we measure the success of a company has to change—and is changing. That was the message of the Dasgupta Review, a landmark study that confirms the paradigm shift we have all suspected for some time.
The 600-page Dasgupta Review (the Review)—led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta and commissioned, tellingly, not by an environmental agency but by the U.K. Treasury Department—is an extensive investigation into The Economics of Biodiversity. Just as the British government’s Stern Review set the terms of debate around The Economics of Climate Change in 2006, so the Review promises to be a seminal document in the world of corporate sustainability.
2030: The Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy Must be Swift—and Fair
The next 10 years are make-or-break for our climate. To limit the rise in global temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius, we must achieve significant progress on emissions reductions by 2030. At the same time, as a global community, we must ensure that the expedited transition to a low-carbon economy is not only rapid but fair, with no one left behind. Perversely, the communities and nations most vulnerable to climate change are often those least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and least equipped to adapt and respond. They need our support.
Opening the Tap: A Coordinated Approach to Facilitating Green Finance for SMEs in Frontier and Emerging Markets
We can bemoan the amount of finance committed to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the developing world. But the sobering truth is that even the funding we currently have in the pipeline is not getting from upstream lenders and funders to downstream users where it really matters—that is, to the small enterprises, agribusinesses, and manufacturers whose behaviors, choices, and capital investments could really make a difference to reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades.
Unlocking finance for small enterprises to access green or climate-smart technologies also supports a broader energy transition.
When “Business as Usual” is not Good for Business: Afghanistan-Pakistan Trade in the COVID-19 Era
Through a combination of laser-focused tactical interventions and support for rapid trade policy reform, the Afghanistan Value Chains-High Value Crops (AVC-HVC) project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is enabling the Afghan government to address longstanding trade policy and trade logistics challenges, which for decades have limited the country’s export competitiveness.
Empowering Nurses to Strengthen the Mexican Health System
Mexico is facing numerous challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and, simultaneously, a historically high burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including some of the highest prevalence rates of hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. People with underlying chronic health conditions have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms or dying of COVID-19. The pandemic has put the issue of health inequities and access to high-quality care into sharp relief, as NCDs tend to be more prevalent in less advantaged socioeconomic groups.
In this context of uncontrolled risk factors and scarce doctors, having a well-trained and appropriately sized nursing workforce is crucial. So the UKaid-funded Better Health Programme Mexico (BHPMx) designed a comprehensive strategy to foster an advanced nursing practice in Mexico.
Building Bridges to a Better Future for Vulnerable Young Salvadorans
With 16- to 29-year-olds making up a quarter of El Salvador’s population, young people have the potential to play a transformative role in the country’s labor market and contribute to economic prosperity in this Central American country, where economic growth has exceeded 3 percent only twice this century. Yet many young Salvadorans—confronted by gang coercion, a limited job market, and pressures to undertake costly and dangerous migration—face difficult life choices.
To give young Salvadorans positive options for supporting themselves and their families, within their home country, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Bridges to Employment project in 2015. The idea was to increase and improve employment opportunities for vulnerable youth, including young parents, people with disabilities, returned migrants, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community—with a focus on El Salvador’s highest-crime municipalities.
Keeping Essential Food Businesses Open During the COVID-19 Crisis in Afghanistan
COVID-19 has disrupted the way industries operate globally. Remaining commercially viable in the face of supply and demand shocks, while safeguarding workers, has been challenging for all businesses. In the low- and middle-income countries where DAI operates, the situation is even more severe because the reach of public emergency support to businesses—in the form of loans, credits, tax relief, and financial support to pay wages—is often limited.
In Afghanistan, where DAI implements the Regional Agricultural Development Program in the East (RADP-East) project, food businesses are facing liquidity shortages and laying off workers. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-commissioned COVID-19 Business Pulse Survey, conducted by the International Finance Corporation and World Bank, the average business in Afghanistan signaled, in September 2020, that it may struggle to operate beyond two more months.
Considering these trends, keeping essential businesses open while mitigating transmission risks at the workplace is a priority task for governments and donors alike. At the onset of the pandemic, RADP-East took on this task and swiftly commissioned COVID-19 mitigation training videos that were informed by science-based content and industry-specific best practices to help firms reduce transmission risk in the workplace. In close collaboration with Afghan food processing firms, the project adapted industry best practices, example measures from other businesses, to company scale and local context, packaging tailored videos in easily digestible and virtual forms to help small business owners modify their operations and safeguard workers and clients.
Below, we present the steps taken to develop these training videos and the important lessons learned along the way.
Supporting Women’s Inclusion Through Community Development in Pakistan
Since the early 2000s, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), home to more than 30 million citizens in northwest Pakistan, has suffered from the effects of militancy and natural disasters. Taliban attacks from neighbouring Afghanistan and severe droughts and floods have displaced people, increased poverty, hindered access to basic services, and sown distrust in government.
To tackle these issues, the Government of KP launched a Community-Driven Local Development (CDLD) policy in 2013, providing people with the opportunity to access public funds and use these resources to address their local development needs. For more than six years, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District Governance and Community Development Programme (KP-CDLD), fueled by budget support provided by the European Union (EU), helped to implement this policy, working to restore citizen trust and generate livelihood opportunities while at the same time promoting women’s inclusion in this highly traditional and patriarchal society.
DAI hosts ANDE West Africa Workshop: How Incubators & Accelerators Can Build Corporate Partnerships
Many donors, governments, and corporations have recognized the need to assist small businesses and entrepreneurs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, but another group—entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs), which help those same small firms—are also suffering from a lull in funding and assistance.
In recognition of this knowledge and funding gap, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) West Africa Chapter recently hosted a workshop on Building Corporate Partnerships During and Post COVID-19. This 90-minute session was the most recent in ANDE’s series of capacity-building workshops for intermediary entities—primarily ESOs—designed to continue supporting entrepreneurs during the global pandemic and its associated macroeconomic uncertainty.
Market System Lens Pays Dividends for Northern Haiti’s Cacao Sector
Once a major agricultural exporter with robust export industries in coffee and sugarcane, Haiti now accounts for a minuscule share of global exports for virtually all agricultural commodities—around 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent. Yet, strengthening agricultural exports—including cacao, the seed from which cocoa products are made—has long been held up as a pathway to economic growth and poverty reduction in this Caribbean nation. Over the past two decades, international development efforts have sought to bolster the cacao value chain and boost output and exports.
Among DAI’s agricultural initiatives in Haiti over the past two decades, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Appui a la Valorisation du potentiel Agricole du Nord, pour la Sécurité Economique et Environnementale (AVANSE) project stands out as yielding the most encouraging results to date. The credit for that is largely attributable to AVANSE’s application of a market systems development approach in the cacao export sector.
Strengthening the COVID-19 Response and Protecting Health Services in Uganda
COVID-19 infections in Uganda are rising fast. The country recorded its first case of the coronavirus in March 2020 and in the early stages of the pandemic most cases were identified at the borders, among people travelling from other countries. Since then, however, the country has seen a rapid increase in community transmission and clusters of infection nationwide. As of January 20, Uganda’s Ministry of Health had recorded 38,806 cases and 316 deaths—almost certainly an underestimate of the true prevalence and impact, given the challenges of detection and reporting.
The Ugandan government has worked hard to develop plans to protect its population, but implementation has been hampered by a lack of resources and expertise. The efforts required to contain COVID-19 are straining an already overstretched health system. As Uganda’s hospitals experience an influx of patients, there is an increasing risk of hospital-acquired infection and infection of health staff. Indeed, the high number of new infections is making it extremely difficult for the health system to care for both COVID and non-COVID patients, let alone execute critical activities such as case investigation, contact tracing, and laboratory testing.
Fiscal Decentralization Builds Citizen Trust, Positions Ukraine for European Future
Sharing borders with four European Union (EU) member states—Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia—Ukraine is now a participant in the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership, and thus a priority partner of the EU. Yet the ratification of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, begun in 2012 and concluded five years later, turned out to be a fraught process. Indeed, the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, or Euromaidan, started when pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovytch suspended it.
Later that year, with the Yanukovytch government removed from power, Ukraine committed to modernize its administration and institution, signed the political and economic components of the Association Agreement, and joined an International Monetary Fund Extended Fund Facility to restore macroeconomic stability and spur growth.
Decentralization was a flagship initiative in Ukraine’s reform program. The country set out to simplify its multi-level governance structure, and fiscal decentralization—ultimately enabling local governments to plan and efficiently spend budgets—was a key element of this reform and of Ukraine’s participation in the European Neighbourhood Policy.
Why Aligning with the SDGs Helps Energy Companies Position for Growth, and How to Do It
Companies are increasingly required to demonstrate the socioeconomic value of projects to gain operating approval from national governments, secure capital from investors and financiers, or uphold their brands in the court of public and consumer opinion. These requirements are only intensifying as many countries face unprecedented economic and development challenges, particularly in low-income countries that were already struggling to meet basic needs and are now being hammered by COVID-19.
Companies focused on oil and gas extraction, in particular, face escalating pressure from investors, governments, and activists to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as part of this broader demand for good corporate citizenship. Against this backdrop, the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a viable and universally recognized framework for energy companies to use in taking up the challenge. This article offers some concrete suggestions for how to go about doing so.
Trade in the Time of COVID-19—Risk or Opportunity?
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a transformational impact on trade. The World Trade Organisation predicts trade will shrink by 9.2 percent in 2020 compared with 2019, while the International Monetary Fund has said that the pandemic “is the worst crisis since the Great Depression and that it will take significant innovation on the policy front, at both the national and international levels to recover from this calamity.”
To some extent, COVID-19 has only accentuated adverse changes—growing nationalism, trade disputes, sovereignty concerns, and weak global leadership—already underway in the global trading system. But in the wake of the pandemic-induced lockdown, borders have been closed, domestic concerns about the supply of essential items have led to export bans, and market-distorting state aid has increased dramatically. Where once policymakers were focused on making global value chains more open and inclusive, now the rhetoric is about “reshoring production.” Such trends could exacerbate global inequality over the medium term.
Oman’s Journey to In-Country Value: An Approach to Local Content that Works for Government and the Private Sector
For resource-rich countries looking to derive value from their extractive industries beyond tax revenues and production-sharing arrangements, promoting “local content” has become a mainstay of domestic policy in the past few decades. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, governments have adopted more than 340 localization measures—including at least 145 local content requirements—since the 2008 financial crisis.
In many countries, local content policies and regulations stipulate targets that are unrealistic or at best inflexible. But when Oman developed its local content strategy for the oil and gas sector in 2012, the country took a different approach. Rather than setting specific targets or implementing regulations, the Ministry of Oil and Gas led a collaborative process to create a holistic approach to In-Country Value (ICV)—one that works both for government and for oil and gas operators. While local content is typically associated with the energy sector, many countries, Oman included, are looking to these types of policies for other industries as well.
Empowering Women: Lessons from COVID-19 and Beyond
COVID-19 and its associated lockdowns have seriously disrupted economic activity, affecting at least 80 percent of the global workforce, according to the International Labour Organization. While such instability threatens livelihoods across the board, women are disproportionately harmed by the pandemic because it exacerbates existing inequalities, presents new challenges, and sets back recent achievements. But there are practical steps we can take to strengthen women’s economic position in the COVID-19 era—and beyond.
Q&A with Jeffrey Mecaskey: How Community Engagement, Regulations, and Incentives Build a Path to Improved Healthcare
Jeffrey Mecaskey is the Team Leader of the Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa (TDDA) programme, a project designed to strengthen health security in Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Uganda. TDDA is funded by UK Aid and led by DAI Global Health.
We recently sat with Jeffrey to discuss measures to strengthen primary healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries. An article he co-authored for the Bulletin of the World Health Organization analyses data from 20 low- and middle-income countries to identify common deficiencies in primary healthcare provision. The article argues that primary healthcare is an accessible way to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) and makes practical, evidence-based recommendations for policy and practice.
A Digital Tool to Get the World Moving Again
This week’s news from Pfizer and Moderna about the efficacy of their COVID-19 vaccines offers a tantalizing glimmer of hope for all of us longing to get back to our lives and our work. But even if these and other vaccines are as good as advertised, global authorities will need a comprehensive and universally trusted system to confirm COVID-19 testing and vaccination status if we are to safely reopen borders, restore mobility, and reanimate our global economy in the wake of the pandemic.
A Shift in Mindset: Distance Learning during COVID-19 Boosts Participation in Honduras
Like many countries, Honduras was forced to close its schools by COVID-19. As a result, the Asegurando la Educación (Securing Education) project—a U.S. Agency for International Development project to support safe schools—was forced to give up its face-to-face interaction with educators, students, and parents. But necessity is the mother of invention and, in this case, expansion. Today, by means of webinars, videos, and a digital awareness campaign, we are reaching record numbers of beneficiaries. Transitioning to remote learning has not only forced us to rethink our strategies for reaching students—it is prompting us to rethink how we reach beneficiaries more effectively.
Gender-Based Violence on the Rise in the COVID-19 Era
A Liberian mother choked back tears as she recounted how a police commander refused to accept her report about a neighbor who raped and impregnated her 13-year-old daughter. The officer didn’t believe her.
This is just one recent example of gender-based violence gleaned from DAI’s project work, but unfortunately, it is all too common, and—for multiple colliding reasons—the prevalence of such violence appears to have been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Commercializing Agricultural Innovations in the Age of COVID-19
As the coronavirus pandemic stretches on, Sub-Saharan African countries have been gradually reopening thanks to largely successful efforts to combat the spread of the virus. Though scientists don’t fully understand why the continent has had low incidence and fatality rates compared to the rest of the world, most agree that quick action on the part of governments to enact social distancing restrictions has been a key factor. Unfortunately, as in the rest of the world, these social distancing and lockdown measures have also led to challenges for the private sector, particularly for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Though many SMEs have contracted or closed, some have succeeded by adapting their business models to the current environment and taking advantage of new commercial opportunities.
Development During Quarantine: Lessons from Four USAID Projects
Mobility is fundamental to global development work. People, materials, and information must reach areas that can be geographically remote or underserved by communication infrastructures. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed an industry that can no longer rely on access to travel and face-to-face engagement. With COVID-19 a global reality for the foreseeable future, how can development projects continue to have strong impact when travel restrictions, social distancing, and remote work requirements are the new normal?
Mobilizing the Haitian Diaspora to Invest “Back Home”
In Haiti, more than 60 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day; in 2019, approximately 14 percent of Haitians were unemployed. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle to access the capital they need to grow, create jobs, and offer valuable products and services.
“If you go to Haiti, you realize that one of the country’s fundamental problems is the lack of employment. People want to work, but there exist few opportunities for them to do so,” said finance expert Jean-Marc Cuvilly, who lived in Haiti until he moved to the United States for college. Cuvilly serves as the Platform Lead for Haiti INVEST, part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) INVEST project that assists Haiti’s SMEs in accessing financing.
“To combat the lack of employment, you have to find a way to support small and medium businesses because they are the backbone of employment,” said Cuvilly. “Unfortunately, it’s an uphill battle to mobilize investment into any place that’s facing instability.”
Stay the Course: A Decade of Focus on Economic Reforms Pays off in Ukraine
Few countries have experienced as much change in the past 30 years as Ukraine: independence, a switch to a market-based economy, the Euromaidan Revolution, foreign occupation of its territory, and a heavy currency devaluation, to name just a few of the events that have characterized this unsettling era.
How Donor-Funded Economic Growth Projects are Adapting to the Challenges of COVID-19
Around the world, the advent of COVID-19 has been transformational for market systems-focused development projects. Many of the countries in which DAI works have implemented shelter-in-place orders, creating countless operational challenges as staff reduce or cease in-person interaction with partner firms, households, and other staff members. In addition to operational obstacles, the pandemic has brought about systemic changes to supply chains and transaction processes. Economic slowdowns and health concerns combine to transform consumer demand, shaping preferences and behaviors. As businesses navigate these new realities, they simultaneously struggle to mitigate the risks of infection to their staff, customers, and suppliers.
How High-impact Businesses in Emerging Markets Are Pivoting in the COVID-19 Crisis
INVEST talks with advisors from USAID partner network members about the short and long-term needs of SMEs in emerging markets as these businesses attempt to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. This post originally appeared in Impact Alpha.
Local and National, Public and Private: Resilient Education Systems in the COVID-19 Era
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of global education systems, as many schools have temporarily ceased in-person instruction and left students with unequal, inconsistent access to learning opportunities at home. Traditional education provision may not be possible for the foreseeable future. This crisis—and the threat of potential future crisis—underscores an urgent need to develop resilient education systems that can withstand disruption and accommodate risk.
How Can Digital Financial Services be Utilised in Response to COVID-19?
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly disrupted the provision of financial services worldwide, with many regular practices now impossible. Consumer banks have closed as part of lockdown measures, and where banks are still operational, distancing measures have constrained services and diminished provider contact. Travel restrictions in many countries have also limited people’s and businesses’ access to financial service providers.
In recent years, consumer preferences and expectations have shifted toward digital financial services (DFS), and providers have responded accordingly. Donors, too, have followed this trend, seeing DFS as powerful tools to reach the most vulnerable and better include currently unbanked or underbanked populations.
How Knowledge Management Helps Make Remote Work, Work
COVID-19 has transformed the global workforce. Many organizations, including DAI, have transitioned to almost wholly remote working. And while collaborating across locations has always been necessary at DAI—we work in more than 100 countries—the scale of remote collaboration, with so many staff working from home, has never been this great.
How a Place-based Approach Built Climate Resilience in Indonesia
Indonesia knows climate and disaster risk: a vast archipelago of more than 18,000 islands and 230 million people, the country faces earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, drought, and rising sea level. Climate change is exacerbating these risks and compounding the vulnerabilities of the Indonesian people. As recently as 2019, for example, 11 southern provinces went more than seven months without rain. Indonesia’s low-lying islands face increasing flooding—ranging from tidal inundations to storm surges—demonstrating the need for active management of sea level rise.
It’s Getting Easier to Do Business in Nigeria: How DFID’s Award-Winning Policy Development Facility Supported Reform
Nigeria has Africa’s largest economy and population. But as recently as 2016, the country ranked near the bottom of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index, which measures business regulations and their enforcement worldwide. Nigeria’s low ranking that year—169 out of 190 countries—reflected the difficulty businesses faced in dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, paying taxes, and trading across borders.
How EuropeAid’s Pakistan BRACE Programme is Engaging Communities in the COVID-19 Era
At a time when social distancing and other restrictive measures are forcing almost all of our interactions to take place virtually, the European Union (EU)-funded Balochistan Rural Development and Community Empowerment (BRACE) programme in Pakistan is harvesting responsiveness from already established networks to stop the spread of COVID-19. The partnerships with communities, developed prior to the crisis, are now being used to scale-up efforts of the District Government to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the province.
USAID-Supported Enterprise in Ukraine Repairs Lung Ventilators for Use in COVID-19 Crisis
At the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, Vasyl Mazurin, an entrepreneur from Druzhkivka in eastern Ukraine, approached city doctors with an offer to help repair equipment that could aid patients suffering with COVID-19. Medical staff took him up on the proposal and presented him with their old, non-functioning lung ventilators.
“It was our initiative, and we weren’t sure we would cope. We’d seen these lung ventilators only on TV in the news,” said Mazurin. “But here at Kontact, we have production facilities, designers, and modern machines with computerized numerical control. We’d never repaired medical equipment, but we wanted to help—and we succeeded.”
COVID-19: Public Financial Management Solutions for the Immediate and Longer Term
Any effective government response to crises such as COVID-19 will rely on good public financial management (PFM). As the International Monetary Fund makes clear, PFM systems will play an important role in tackling the immediate challenges posed by the pandemic, which include estimating and finding the financial resources needed to confront the disease, disbursing funds to the appropriate delivery units, accounting for and reporting on the resources deployed, and ensuring continuity of operations even as most government staff are absent or working from home.
Here’s How We Push Ahead with Inclusive Education
Since discussions began around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the global community has agreed that education is the right of every child, regardless of socio-economic status, religion, ability, culture, or geography. Yet even as the idea of inclusive education garners support, we struggle to move beyond talk to action. DAI hosted a panel on inclusive education in 2019 to ask two fundamental questions: What are the key policies needed to support inclusive education? And what aspects of project design and implementation are essential to achieve inclusive education?
In a recent white paper, our Inclusive Education team makes the following recommendations for policy makers and implementers.
Curbing Irregular Migration: Shifting Focus from the American Dream to the Honduran Reality
Honduran parents often pull their young children out of school to accompany them on the perilous journey to the United States because of rumors suggesting that the presence of youngsters will ensure visas for families. Older students, seeking what they perceive as a safer or more prosperous future, drop out on their own to undertake the journey. Many educators feel like they were fighting a losing battle. “They even organized caravans out in front of the school,” said Miguel Mejia, Principal of Miguel Paz Barahona in La Ceiba.
In response to an upsurge in irregular migration from Honduras in late 2018 and early 2019, Asegurando la Educación—a U.S. Agency for International Development project to support safe schools—launched an awareness campaign in May 2019. Over the past year, the campaign has equipped decision makers (parents, caretakers, and older students) with information on the long-term impacts associated with irregular out-migration, on the one hand, and kindled students’ career aspirations in Honduras, on the other. The campaign makes the case that young people’s safest, most promising future lies not in the American Dream, but in the Honduran Reality, which is remaining in school, graduating, and securing a rewarding career.
How Can We Support the Private Sector in Vulnerable and Developing Economies Following COVID-19?
While the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on developing countries continues to unfold, it seems clear that the public health response of lockdowns and business closures is having a profound effect on developing economies. In the face of dwindling revenue, private companies with limited working capital reserves are forced to lay off staff and close their doors. The impact on the economy and poverty levels will be acute and is likely to reverberate for years to come.
Yet just as government policies have mitigated the health impact of the pandemic, so effective policies toward the private sector can mitigate its economic impact.
Avoiding Credit Risk Contagion in Frontier and Emerging Economies
COVID-19 has hit economies around the world, with devastating effects on businesses. Businesses in frontier and emerging economies may face the worst debt crisis since the early 1980s. Since the advent of COVID-19, more than US$100 billion in capital has flowed out of these markets—three times as much as in the first two months of the 2008 global financial crisis. Remittances are poised to fall by an additional $100 billion this year alone.
Transitioning a Supply Base from Offshore Oil and Gas to Marine Renewables
The past few decades have seen an intense effort to encourage investment in forward-looking renewable energy technologies, principally in onshore solar and wind generation. Over this time, a global supply chain that involves both large businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has emerged to service these onshore projects. More recently, new technology is expanding our ability to harness offshore, marine-based renewables—specifically, offshore wind and tidal. In January 2020, the Hornsea 1 wind farm, 170 kilometers off the British North Sea coast, became the world’s largest offshore wind generator, with a capacity of 1,218 megawatts. In 2018, DAI’s research for Marine Renewables Canada found that places like the United Kingdom, South Korea, France, Indonesia, and the northeastern United States are home to marine renewable investments exceeding $500 billion.
Q&A: A Conversation with Jenny Baker, DAI Global Health Senior Vice President
Jenny Baker was appointed to lead DAI’s Global Health business in March of this year. Given all that has happened in the health arena since then, it has taken us longer than usual to catch up with the incoming Senior Vice President. Here we get her perspective on health and development challenges in the era of COVID-19.
USAID Local Governance Activity Supports Health Systems to Prevent Spread of COVID-19 in Honduras
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Honduras Local Governance Activity (HLG), is supporting the prevention and early detection of COVID-19 in 41 municipalities, 8 municipal associations, 18 nongovernment-managed health centers, 6 hospitals, 4 shelters for victims of gender-based violence, and 7 youth groups in this Central American country of 9.6 million people.
“Now More than Ever”—Safeguarding in a Time of Crisis
Crisis or no crisis, gender-based violence—including sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH)—takes place where there is a combination of opportunity, rationalisation, motivation, and power imbalance. But crises tend to exacerbate the inequalities that favour these conditions. Depending on the nature of the crisis, we may see different trends in gender-based violence: the well documented increase in domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, or an uptick in sexual exploitation during humanitarian crises, or of child marriage during forced displacement.
How COVID-19 is Highlighting Inequality, and the Role for Social Protection
Alongside priorities of healthcare and slowing the rate of infection, almost all governments have identified a range of fiscal and monetary instruments to mitigate the economic impacts of the virus.
USAID Projects Assisting Small Firms Affected by COVID-19
Even the strongest economies are struggling to cope with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. China saw its first drop in gross domestic product since 1992 and Germany, Europe’s largest economy, could contract by up to 5.4 percent this year. While it’s too soon to predict how less developed countries will fare, all indicators point to severe challenges.
The fate of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a particular concern, given that they account for more than half of total employment in developing nations.
In Somalia, Ensuring Social Protection During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Food Security Crisis
After many years of conflict, recurrent natural disasters, and humanitarian crisis, Somalia is highly susceptible to poverty and food insecurity, and its health indicators are among the worst in the world. Against this backdrop, the COVID-19 pandemic is a palpable threat to the country’s healthcare system, food security, and already fragile economy.
The European Union-funded Technical Assistance Facility is working with key government departments—led by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA)—to mobilise implementing agencies, engage donors, and coordinate social protection activities in the country. It is particularly focused on ensuring that public health measures are complemented by attention to social and economic factors, especially because Somalia is simultaneously in the throes of a historic desert locust infestation.
COVID-19: Low-Cost Solutions to Maintain Engagement with Local Partners in the Supply Chain
Local content practitioners—particularly those working in the sustainability, contracts, procurement, and supply chain departments of large companies—face enormous pressure from two sides: on one side, the pressing need to reduce costs in light of cratering economic activity across the board, and particularly in the energy sector; on the other side, the need—and increasingly the obligation—to engage with their local partners and carry them through this crisis. The challenge, by no means insuperable, is how to reconcile these two imperatives.
COVID-19: This Pandemic Offers a Lesson We Must Learn Before the Next
This blog originally appeared in Science Speaks.
When the sickness and deaths subside, when ventilators and face masks are back in storerooms, when health workers don’t fear for their lives as they work, and when families and friends gather once again, what will be the lesson we have learned?
How Statistics Can Transform Governance: A Q&A with Economist and Statistician Jean-Paul Zoyem
Statistics are of paramount importance for governance. High-quality data inform policy making and the public debate: They help assess and design policies and hold governments accountable. However, as the World Bank reported in 2017, Africa’s statistical capacity lags behind most of the developed world. Absent adequate statistics, policy makers are hard pressed to conduct proper monitoring of poverty, inequality, or service delivery, to take just a few examples. Even though money has been invested to build African capacity in this regard, the political incentives needed to build and sustain reliable, independent national statistics systems are too often lacking. This shortcoming is all the more apparent under authoritarian regimes.
COVID-19 Demands New Thinking on Local Content in Oil, Gas, and Mining
In upending the supply chain world order, the pandemic will redefine how we source goods and labor
Even in the throes of what is perhaps the most severe economic shock in a century, there is little doubt that the crisis will bequeath a “new world order” when it comes to supply chain management. For policy makers, corporate leaders, and supply chain managers, the key will be to ensure that we neither over-react nor return to the status quo. Getting that balance right will be the difference between winning and losing the war against COVID-19 for many countries and companies.
Transforming Social Protection: Taking a Gender Lens to Nepal’s Social Security Allowance
Nepal is in the midst of a demographic shift. Over the past three decades, its fertility rate has declined and population growth has stalled. The country has quickly moved from a high-mortality, high-fertility society to a low-mortality, low-fertility society. Although this shift is an encouraging indicator of development, the changing demography means new challenges for the people and their government as Nepal navigates a rapid transition to an “aging” and then an “aged” society (defined as more than 14 percent of the population being 65 years and older).
In Guatemala, New Research on Gender Equality Shapes Government and USAID Investments in Taxation
In the United States, widely available tools enable Americans to register and file taxes from home, and paying Uncle Sam has never been easier or cheaper. But in places such as Guatemala—where electronic governance is just now taking root and literacy, language, and gender present hurdles—the high burden of tax compliance can cause involuntary exclusion from the formal economy.
Restoring Trust: Toward a People-Centric Security Sector in The Gambia
It’s hard to imagine that The Gambia emerged only recently from 22 years of authoritarian rule: first impressions are of a vibrant and happy nation. Surrounded by Senegal to the north, east, and south, The Gambia is known as the “smiling coast of Africa” because Gambians are said to possess a knack for putting people at ease.
Now three years into a new era of democracy, the people of The Gambia appear determined not to allow those two dark decades to taint their broader inheritance. A European Union project—the State Building Contract 1 Supplementary Support (SBC1)—is helping them repair some of the damage of the Yahya Jammeh regime and adhere to their deeper cultural traditions of tolerance and trust, with a particular focus on the security sector.
Extending Education Access to Vulnerable Young Salvadorans
“From better health to increased wealth, education is the catalyst of a better future for millions of children, youth, and adults. No country has ever climbed the socioeconomic development ladder without steady investments in education.”—Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO
An effective education system is one of the most critical contributors to creating a safe, socially cohesive, economically empowered population and country. Across the developing world, government investment in education—in the form of policy reform, budget allocation, support to human capacity, and commitment to technical quality—has been steadily increasing, as governments recognize the positive correlation between better education and improved economic and social indicators. Education empowers the child and the family, while also directly improving the country’s outputs, as a whole.
In short, education engages, equips, and empowers the next generation.
It’s Not Too Late to Prepare for COVID-19
A disease spillover event, when a virus moves from animal to human hosts, can cause significant human illness. The coronavirus (COVID-19) seems to have spilled over sometime in late 2019, at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China, leading to more than 40,000 confirmed cases and at least 910 reported deaths by the latest count—in China and at least 25 other countries. The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a public health event of international concern, reflecting an escalating sense of urgency at the global level.
How should the public health community react, especially public health policy makers in developing nations?
Blended Finance Tools Offer a New Approach to an Old Problem
If the world were represented by 10 people in a room, seven would be of working age and six would have jobs. In Palestine, six people would be of working age and only three would have jobs. If the room were only women and girls in Palestine, only one woman in the room would have a job outside the home.
Decent work is one of the Sustainable Development Goals because of its importance for sustainable and equitable growth, providing a broad spectrum of benefits to individuals, families, communities, and economies. For the private sector, more and better paying jobs means more consumers and increased sales, leading firms to hire more people. For governments, it means more people paying taxes and fewer receiving benefits. As noted in The Economist, studies show more jobs also means less violence and crime in societies, and that “having a job gives people a sense of purpose which is also good for all sorts of social outcomes, including mental and physical health.”
Blended Finance Case Study: Gaza Industrial Estate Solar Energy Rooftop
The Gaza Industrial Estate was built to accommodate 100 industrial and commercial businesses and 5,000 workers, providing water, electricity, sewage, and so on. It has consistently operated at half capacity, in part because of a failure to maintain power. The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, the sole electricity distributor in Gaza, faces sustained energy shortages, largely due to its electricity supply from Israel. Political and security issues impede agreement on this link, making the supply of energy unreliable and unpredictable. Enterprises in the industrial area must either shut down their operations during electricity blackouts or generate their own electricity via cost-prohibitive private (mostly diesel) generators.
Q&A: Ehat Miftaraj, Anti-Corruption Expert, on the Prospect for Rule-of-Law Reform in Kosovo
A relatively young nation, Kosovo has implemented significant reforms in its justice sector, including in legislative drafting, institution building, and the training of justice sector personnel. But according to the European Commission’s Kosovo Progress Report of 2018, most Kosovars still see the judiciary in Kosovo as compromised by corruption and justice institutions as unprepared to serve people’s needs.
To address these challenges, Kosovo launched the Functional Review of the Justice Sector (FRRLS), a process intended to analyze the rule-of-law sector and develop a national strategy to enhance it. The process is led by Kosovo’s Ministry of Justice, with a steering committee made up of representatives from key rule-of-law institutions, including the international donor community.
Social Protection in Somalia Can Bridge Short- and Long-Term Solutions
DAI has been working in the fragile country of Somalia since 2017 to foster a government-owned social protection system that is underpinned by donor coherence, leadership, and coordination capacities.
There is an established consensus that humanitarian relief and development programming need to better coordinate and reinforce each other’s impact. Underlying all the buzzwords and debates around the “humanitarian-development nexus” is the belief that things must be done differently, in a more integrated manner, to ensure positive outcomes.
New Research Offers Alternatives for Frontier Market Venture Capital and Private Equity
In many emerging countries, the capital markets are nascent and borrowing by government and state-owned enterprises crowds out private entities and disincentivizes banks from lending to the real economy.
The funding gap is enormous. The IFC estimates that nearly 30 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face an aggregate funding gap of more than $4 trillion. In its research on private credit solutions in emerging markets, EMPEA identified only $57 billion in capital raised since 2006—less than 2 percent of that gap.
Adopting a Private Sector-led Approach to Advance Digital Startups in Cambodia
Years of working side-by-side with Cambodians in the civic technology sector taught us many things about the country’s startup scene. Its denizens are smart and passionate about their work. Many have their finger on the pulse of what communities want and need. So, what’s missing? Why aren’t there more internationally known Cambodian tech firms and startups such as Codingate and Joonaak?
The answer is that firms in Cambodia often lack support during their growth stage and struggle to rise out of the startup phase to become vibrant, growing businesses. Strengthening the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Cambodia is critical to enable these startups to grow into job- and wealth-creating businesses.
To Go Where We’re Going, We Need to Meet Investors Where They Live
We recently attended SOCAP19, the impact investing conference held in San Francisco every October since 2008.
Like many development professionals, we’re sold on the idea of engaging the private sector and catalyzing private investment in high-impact development opportunities. But we still struggle with how best to leverage our expertise, instruments, and footprint to drive capital at scale into emerging and frontier markets.
SOCAP reminded us that we have much to learn and much to gain by meeting seasoned impact investors where they live—in this case, on the West Coast.
Investing in the Underdogs: Boosting Local Leadership in Burma
One of the best ways to ensure a nascent democracy remains stable and becomes increasingly responsive to its people’s needs, according to the U.S. Integrated Country Strategy, is to invest “across a wider spectrum of society” to identify and cultivate leaders who will drive progress.
Paving the Way for Green Energy Financing in the Mediterranean
In the face of a gathering climate crisis, “The world must quickly implement massive energy efficiency and conservation practices,” declared more than 11,000 climate scientists in a statement issued November 5. Their warning lends added urgency to a program that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has been running for more than a decade, and which is now poised to expand in North Africa.
Investments in Off-Grid Energy Businesses Are Bringing Electricity to Hundreds of Thousands in Kenya
On New Year’s Eve, 1879, approximately 3,000 people traveled to Menlo Park, New Jersey, to witness an extraordinary sight: an entire street lit by electric lamps. Only three months after prototyping what would become his most well-known invention, Thomas Edison introduced his light bulb to the public by illuminating his laboratory and a neighboring street with 60 carbon-filament bulbs. When one visitor inquired about the cost of powering the lamps, Edison quipped, “After the electric light goes into general use, none but the extravagant will burn tallow candles.”
Unfortunately, 140 years later, Edison’s vision of affordable and accessible electricity remains unrealized for much of the globe.
Safe Learning Spaces in Honduras Curb Undocumented Migration
It is no coincidence that the cities and neighborhoods in Honduras with the highest incidence of violence are also those with the highest migration rates. In the case of Choloma, for instance, the city’s homicide rate was 77 per 100,000 people in 2018—which is high even by the standards of cities such as Tegucigalpa, Tela, and La Ceiba, where crime and violence are also unremitting. From October 2018 to March 2019, Choloma’s homicide rate was 37 per 100,000—on pace to meet or exceed last year’s rate. School principals in the area report that record numbers of young people dropped out of school to migrate north during that period.
Can the Development Community Adopt Agile?
In “The Age of Agile,” Steve Denning argues that agile management is superior to traditional, hierarchical management styles. Companies that adopt agile outperform the rest, and will continue to do so. Agile is catching on, and not only in the software development sector that popularized it.
Supporting a Human-Centered Home Health System in Jordan
Jordan’s healthcare system is considered one of the more modern in the Middle East, and many patients travel from neighboring countries to access its medical offerings. However, Jordan struggles with rising healthcare costs, an aging population with a changing disease burden, and meeting high demand from around the region.
Expanding home healthcare options is a promising solution to these challenges. Patients can save time and money by taking care of routine procedures and check-ups at home, and those receiving palliative care can benefit from receiving services in a comfortable, familiar environment. Hospitals, in turn, free up space and resources for additional patients.
All Systems Go: USAID’s Private Sector-Led Approach Pays Dividends in Bangladesh
The Southern Delta of Bangladesh is home to 28 million people, many of whom struggle with food insecurity. Despite the presence of high-tech agriculture companies and a huge farming industry, the region’s agriculture sector is not working for everyone.
Q&A: DAI Global Health’s Chris LeGrand on the Launch of His New Book
Chris LeGrand is the President of DAI Global Health. His new book, The Complete Business Leader, published in August, lays out a framework for business leadership, drawing on 30 years of experience in health, development, and technology consulting. LeGrand guides the reader through seven dimensions of leadership—individual wisdom, relationship management, thought leadership, business growth, people leadership, project management, and business management—while steadily making the case that the key to enduring impact lies in pulling those dimensions together.
We sat down with Chris to get his thoughts on the launch of his first book.
Through the Looking Glass: The Many Ways to Invest in Greater Gender Equity
“Where shall I begin,” asked the White Rabbit. “Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”—from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
We often hear the same question when it comes to gender-lens or gender-smart investing. Businesses and investors have varying levels of knowledge, interest, and commitment to making the private sector more equitable for women. In the United States, a 2018 report on impact investing trends identified $868 billion in institutional investor assets under management that take gender-lens issues into consideration, more than double the $397 billion identified in 2016. Others find the phrase gender-lens investing confusing or intimidating and, like the White Rabbit, wonder where to begin. Our answer is less prescriptive than the King’s: We believe that there are many ways businesses and investors can begin to enhance gender equity, according to what works for them.
Hot Enough for You? Four Steps to Help the World Keep Its Cool
Four people died in the recent heat wave in the Washington, D.C., area, and 4,600 people lost power. The combination suggests that access to electricity and air conditioning (AC) will not allow us to avoid the consequences of global warming. Climate change will result in higher peak temperatures and an increased number of days over 100 degrees.
Ushering in 21st Century Agricultural Growth to Northern Afghanistan
Drought and conflict in recent decades sent Afghanistan’s wheat production into sharp decline. Irrigation systems and farm equipment fell into disrepair and farmers were forced to abandon their land. In a country where bread is a substantive part of the rural diet, the decline of its fundamental farm crop resulted in lost livelihoods and stability. Formerly productive communities came to depend on imported wheat and flour.
Using a Market Systems Approach to Curb Human Trafficking and Irregular Migration in Nigeria
Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery, a global scourge where people are illegally traded for exploitation and commercial gain. Globally, more than $150 billion is generated from forced economic exploitation of people for commercial sex, domestic work, or other economic activities. In July 2018, the Global Slavery Index reported that 40.3 million victims of modern slavery exist worldwide and that 71 percent are women and 25 percent are children.
EU Investment Guarantees Begin to Deliver on the Promise of Development Finance
The first risk-sharing finance facility under the €3.7 billion European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) recently opened in Jordan, marking a milestone in the European Union (EU)’s plan to spark investment in some of the world’s most investment-starved markets.
Improving Safety Net Programmes to Include Those Most Vulnerable to Climate Change
Tanzania’s population of 60 million is projected to double by 2050. As with many low-income countries, Tanzania’s livelihoods and food supply largely depend on livestock and rain-fed agriculture and fisheries. The climate supporting these conditions is projected to change through the 2050s with warmer temperatures, longer droughts and heat waves, and increased frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events.
In Guatemala, Assisting Municipalities to Improve Governance, Services, and Self-Reliance
Communities in Guatemala’s Western Highlands have struggled for decades under persistent exclusion. This exclusion has limited local governments’ capacity to serve residents and caused over-reliance on central government funds. Many of this region’s 2.3 million residents have lacked for food security and public services such as water and sanitation, schools, and citizen safety. These and other conditions have exacerbated the main drivers that influence migration to the United States: namely, poverty and insecurity. In 2018, more than 60,000 migrants were returned to Guatemala, many to the Western Highlands.
Hard-Fought Wins Reaffirm the Value of Working with Palestine’s Private Sector
Businesses in the West Bank and Gaza for decades have overcome political instability, regional violence, and economic blockades, maintaining a resilient focus on commerce.
Mark Your Calendar, It’s May 21
Every year on this day, May 21, the United Nations celebrates what it calls the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.
“Cultural diversity,” says the UN, “is a driving force of development, not only with respect to economic growth, but also as a means of leading a more fulfilling intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual life.”
Lebanon’s Cornucopia: Value Chain Project Unleashes Potential of 10 Sectors
Six years ago, a DAI-led team went to Lebanon to learn everything there is to know about the country’s apples, avocados, cherries, grapes, honey, olive oil, processed foods, oregano, pine nuts, and rural tourism sectors. They recorded their findings—from identifying existing and new potential target markets, how many farmers grow the produce, which varieties they grow and how they market it, to what type of packaging they use. They also analyzed the barriers keeping these products from being sufficiently competitive and profitable in local and export markets: regional political instability affecting market access and making for unreliable export partners, the outdated varieties, generally poor reputation of Lebanese produce, inadequate planning for how to mitigate losses due to climate change and pests, no authoritative source of best practices, a lack of collective farmer associations to share those best practices and advocate for agricultural interests, and a pervasive hesitancy to invest in new technologies.
Armed with this assessment, DAI began work on the Lebanon Industry Value Chain Development (LIVCD) project, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Feed the Future initiative. Three of the value chains we targeted exemplify how the USAID project tackled these market barriers and created value for Lebanese farmers and food producers.
Building a Bridge to the New Era of USAID Assistance
In 2004, and for the first time, more money flowed into developing countries through direct investment, philanthropy, and remittances than through official development assistance. That trend has only accelerated in the years since.
Partnering for Social Good: What’s in It for (All of) Us?
Half the world’s 7 billion people lack access to essential health services. That’s a terrible number, and yet an enormous market opportunity. The kind of opportunity that might pique the interest of mobile tech entrepreneurs who note that while many of these underserved people lack healthcare, they nonetheless tend to have mobile phones and some internet access—even those who live in remote locales.
IntraHealth International created the SwitchPoint conference to juxtapose and address opportunities like these. An eclectic, two-day gathering—primarily but not exclusively of global health and digital practitioners—the eighth annual SwitchPoint went off last week. Some 400 attendees brought to the Saxapahaw, North Carolina festival a deep reservoir experience, fresh ideas, and no little energy. But they would be the first to admit that none has the total package of resources required to address market opportunities at scale in health services delivery.
Hold the Charcoal: Diverting Sub-Saharan Africa’s Demand for a Destructive Energy Source
Charcoal and other solid biomass fuels are still used in 70 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa, killing more than 4 million people annually and depleting forests, in turn reducing rainfall and contributing to climate change and other impacts. Luckily, it is not too late for Sub-Saharan Africa to avert a charcoal-induced public health and environmental catastrophe and in the process strengthen its energy independence and economic growth.
DAI Global Health Partner THINKMD Embarks on New Projects in Kenya and Indonesia with Save the Children
In July 2017, following three years of development and validation testing, THINKMD implemented its frontline clinical assessment and data analytics technology in Bangladesh with Save the Children. We focused our work on the Rayer Bazar settlement in Dhaka, an overpopulated informal settlement where maternal and child mortality and morbidity are high—especially from pneumonia, diarrhea, and dehydration—and where access to healthcare professionals is very limited.
Three Ways to Make Hiring More Inclusive of Vulnerable Youth: Lessons from El Salvador
Salvadorans have a reputation as entrepreneurial, hard-working, and committed. In fact, El Salvador was ranked first on employee engagement among Latin American countries in Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report. At the same time, too many young Salvadorans do not get an opportunity to work hard in their first job and demonstrate their talent because employers hesitate to hire employees with no previous work experience.
In El Salvador, Shifting Employer Perceptions While Getting Youth Work-Ready
It’s not easy being a young job-seeker when adults tend to stereotype millennials as unreliable or entitled. El Salvador is no exception. In a 2017 opinion poll of 2,000 individuals (ages 16 to 60) conducted by the USAID Bridges to Employment project across 15 high-crime municipalities, most respondents said poor work ethic and lack of motivation are the main reasons youth cannot find jobs. One young man explained that “employers think we are lazy, do drugs, and hang out on the street all day just because we have not worked before.”
In El Salvador, Outsourcing Remote Programming Jobs to Youth Outside the Capital
Jobs in computer programming can help level the playing field for talented young people. While being young is often a disadvantage in other industries, youthfulness is an advantage in the technology sector where youth are digitally savvy and have an aptitude for new technologies. Working remotely on IT projects allows greater flexibility for workers with tattoos or body piercing, which can be a hiring barrier in other industries, even for talented youth.
Getting Creative with Transportation for El Salvador’s Young Job-Seekers
An estimated 80 percent of El Salvador’s formal jobs are concentrated in greater San Salvador, according to the USAID Bridges to Employment labor market assessment. Yet close to two-thirds of the Salvadoran population lives outside of that metropolitan area.
Now More Competitive, Jordan’s Pharmaceuticals See Healthy Jump in Exports
Six Jordanian pharmaceutical companies have reported an additional US$55.6 million in exports since installing the electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) system in December 2016. The installation allows the companies to register their drugs in foreign markets using internationally recognized standards, enabling faster and more competitive delivery. Representing sales through the eCDT, this increase is additional to pre-eCDT projections.
How to Ensure Voluntary Sustainability Standards are More Effective in Promoting Gender Equality in Global Value Chains
Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) are guidelines that industry producers, traders, manufacturers, retailers, or service providers are asked to meet that encourage respect for basic human rights, worker health and safety, environmental impacts, community relations, land-use planning, and more. The standards include certification and ethical branding—such as organic, forest friendly or fairtrade—as well as corporate, ethical, or sustainability standards suppliers are required to meet.
VSS have proliferated over the last two decades and increasingly shape global value chains. While most standards are not designed to ensure gender equality, there is an increasing number of gender-focused VSS that are being developed and used by businesses.
INVEST: On the Frontier of Gender-Lens Investing
Gender-lens investing is gaining momentum and for good reason.
In the United States, most gender-lens investors target companies with significant numbers of female leaders and board members. Investing in these companies makes financial sense because they have proven potential to outperform the market: Numerous researchers have demonstrated lower volatility and higher returns.
In Uganda, Local Hearings Show Accountability in Action
Audits, oversight procedures, compliance protocols—the language of public accountability can seem bureaucratic and dry. The reality in Uganda is anything but.
Improving Livestock Markets to Generate Economic Growth and Resilience in East Africa
East Africa’s immense livestock resources represent the largest proportion of Africa’s livestock population. Many millions of people depend on the sector for food, income, and employment, and it contributes greatly to the region’s gross domestic product and foreign currency earnings. Strategically located near the livestock markets of the Arabian Gulf, the East Africa region is Africa’s largest exporter of live animals, generating income for producers, traders, and governments.
Will Feminized Parliaments Mean More Gender-Friendly Policies?
On January 3, 2019, a new U.S. House of Representatives was sworn in with 102 women members—a record number for the United States. All told, 127 women are serving between House and Senate, a 20 percent increase in the number of women over the previous Congress.
In Afghanistan, Women Step Up to Fill Need for Frontline Healthcare Workers
Communities across Afghanistan—especially the dispersed populations in rural areas—have long endured a lack of basic health services due to low numbers of trained health workers and chronic security issues. But this situation is improving. Today, a program to bolster women’s inclusion in Afghanistan’s mainstream economy is also serving to fill high-priority needs in maternal and infant care, vaccination, skilled nursing, and other health services.
Building Inclusivity into Inclusive Education
Since the Millennium Development Goals were established in 2000, the number of out-of-school children in the world has dropped from nearly 100 million to 65 million, and in most countries, girls have achieved equal attendance in primary schools through hard-fought wins. At the same time, however, we are still not reaching millions of out-of-school children, nor are we helping all of those we do reach.
Why the Time is Right for Access for All
Following is DAI CEO Jim Boomgard’s Foreword to Access for All, Brigit Helms’ new book on economic inclusion:
For the first time in my career as a development professional—a career that goes back to the early 1980s—informed observers are talking in credible terms about ending extreme poverty, not just within our lifetimes but within the foreseeable future. These aspirations are reflected, to take just one example, in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Four Steps to Advocate for Government Investment in Public Health
In Nigeria, as in many countries, the government faces practical hurdles to funding health systems adequately and preventing sickness and disease among its most susceptible citizens. As Health Systems Advisor for DAI Global Health on the Integrated Approach to Neglected Tropical Diseases (UNITED) programme, I advocate for increased, cost-effective health funding in Nigeria so more people can benefit from health services.
Can Online Dispute Resolution Change the Way Global MSMEs Do Business?
As a grad student in London in the 1990s, I earned a bit of extra money sourcing and exporting handcrafted furniture from India to the United States for interior designers. My U.S. customers were small businesses, but I was even smaller, so if I wanted to sell to them I had to take on most of the risk. On school breaks I would travel to India, find what my customers were looking for, purchase it, accompany it to the port, and—when I could—watch as it was loaded onto a ship.
Women and Girls Advocate for Their Place in Afghanistan’s Social and Political Mainstream
Girls and women in Afghanistan are transitioning away from Taliban-era oppression to attend school, get jobs, and fully participate in mainstream life. Afghan leaders and politicians have enacted national laws to support this movement, but the reality in Afghanistan’s 34 provinces is another matter. Girls and women in too many locales routinely endure child/forced marriage, domestic assault, and injustice, and female leaders become targeted for reprisals. In the space between the national law and local reality, various groups are working to preserve hard-earned gains and advocate for Afghan women. This is the space where the Musharikat program works.
Baseline Study Prompts School Officials to Counter Violence in Honduras
Too often, in our experience as development professionals, baseline surveys can seem like proforma exercises—dry, mechanical constructs conducted at the beginning of a project, shelved almost as soon as they are done, then dusted off for the midline survey. By the time we conduct the endline, the project is closing. Baseline findings don’t drive programming.
That is far from the case with Asegurando la Educación’s baseline survey of school-based violence in Honduras.
How Can Developing Countries Identify and Allocate Resources to Pay for Health Services?
Governments in many low- and middle-income countries have committed to provide affordable and high-quality health services to their citizens. To make good on these promises, they need to identify more money for health expenditure and need to invest it more wisely. Our recent policy paper—Financial Management Mechanisms to Support Increased Government Spending on Health—provides some guidance on how they might do that.
Demand for Private Capital Draws USAID Units to INVEST Program
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) units around the world are increasingly asking for specialized support to mobilize private capital—requests now being met by the agency’s new INVEST program. In less than one year, USAID missions, bureaus, and other operating units have hired the INVEST team to support 17 initiatives to develop market opportunities. These initiatives—to address demand for energy, food, health care, water, and other global needs—are under way or already completed in Afghanistan, Asia, Haiti, India, and North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Afghan Women Re-Enter the Economy as Workers, Business Owners
As Afghanistan transitions toward a market-driven economy and away from one supported by foreign assistance, jobs will inevitably be lost. The Afghan Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyred, and Disabled predicts that 4 million jobs will be needed over the next five years to replace lost jobs and absorb the rising generation of graduates.
Jordan Embraces Renewables to Fuel its Economy
Jordan needs to grow its economy. More than 700,000 of its young people—39 percent of the available labor force ages 15 to 24—are without a job. Many have good educations and are holding out for high-quality employment. Jordan is also hosting an enormous influx of Syrian refugees, which has helped swell its population from 7.5 million in 2011 to 10 million today. Many of these newcomers are also seeking work. But Jordan is almost completely reliant on imported oil and gas for its energy, limiting its ability to grow the economy and create jobs.
Keep Up the Fight for High-Quality Education for All in Pakistan
After more than five years of campaigning for the right of every Pakistani child to receive a quality education, Alif Ailaan ended on August 31. Before we go, we should explain why the campaign is ending, and more importantly, we should thank the people that made this campaign as effective as it was.
Placing Women at the Center of Water Supply Management in Kenya
As Christine Kanini checks water meters on her weekly rounds, she recalls that 18 months earlier she could not aspire to this job. “We had mainly male meter readers,” Kanini said. “Then I was promoted to this position from gate keeping. I am happy with the work.” Over the past year, the Wote Water and Sewerage Company (WOWASCO), which serves the small city of Wote in south-central Kenya, has opened up opportunities for women such as Kanini in fields that were previously deemed suited for men only.
Using Market-Driven Strategies to Reduce Poverty and Human Trafficking in Nigeria
Despite having the largest economy in Africa, around half of Nigeria’s population still lives in extreme poverty. A few hundred miles east of the new skyscrapers and shopping malls of Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, the Niger Delta—made up of nine oil-producing states and home to more than 31 million people—defines the country’s stark contrast in living conditions. Even though it is a major oil-producing region, much of the Delta’s population lives in remote villages and survives on subsistence farming. Exacerbating this poverty is a lack of modern agricultural equipment and supplies that farmers need to improve crop yields, as well as limited access to markets in which to sell their harvests.
Health System in Haiti Takes Key Step by Launching National Tuberculosis Tracker
Haiti’s government this year launched a national electronic platform for reporting and tracking tuberculosis (TB), a key step in its efforts to capture, monitor, and report all patient-level data across the country. Information on cases of TB—a contagious and often deadly disease plaguing the Caribbean nation—is being prepared for aggregation into the System d’Information Sanitaire Nationale Unique, or SISNU, which uses the DHIS2 open-source software platform for reporting, analyzing, and disseminating national health data.
Collaboration is Essential to Improving Maternal and Newborn Health in Indonesia
This opinion piece was first published in the Jakarta Post on August 15, 2018.
As Indonesia celebrates its 73rd year of independence, most people are aware of the country’s impressive economic development over the past few years. But perhaps fewer are aware that, every hour, across this massive archipelago, two mothers and eight newborns die.
Agriculture Finance with a Climate Lens Takes Off in Kenya
The effects of climate change in the already arid lands of Kenya are particularly tough on its economy. Think: tourism, arable agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, and livestock—all vulnerable to extreme changes in weather.
Zambia Pilot Demonstrates How to Save Lives, Scale Relief for Children Suffering from Malaria
Thousands of infants and children in rural Zambia suffer or die unnecessarily from malaria each year because they lack access to high-quality medicines and proper medical care. But a recent pilot program shows how trained local volunteers administering crucial medicine can keep a child well enough to be transported to a health care facility for further, potentially lifesaving treatment.
DFID Programme Helps Establish Business Equipment Leasing in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Largest Country
Leasing equipment—instead of finding the cash to buy it—is fundamental to the growth of small and growing businesses, yet small-business owners in Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest nation have been unable to do so, because the regulatory framework that underpins leasing transactions didn’t exist. Until now.
Liberia Launches Mobile Tax Payments, Opening Doors to Increased Revenue for Domestic Development
Imagine if you could pay taxes only by traveling to the capital and paying in person—or, by paying in cash at a tax office to a “middleman.” Until recently, this is how taxes were paid in Liberia. Additionally, due to failures by the internet, power supply, or information technology systems, taxpayers often required four trips on average to tax offices to fulfill their obligations. Even basic transactions such as paying for a birth certificate required making a trip to the capital, Monrovia. As a result, many citizens and businesses simply did not comply, depriving the government of revenues needed for services as well as of valuable data.
Africa Trading: Five Takeaways on Trade-Based Solutions for Food Security
When we harness market forces in developing countries, great things can happen—such as countries with surplus food selling to countries that need food. Over the past 15 months, teams from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) East Africa and Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hubs together facilitated three regional trade forums—in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zambia. This convening of sellers and buyers generated impressive results: signed contracts to sell 1.21 million metric tons of staple grains, with an estimated value of $402 million. When delivered, the grains will be enough to feed 14.4 million people for 12 months.
Global Health and Tech Thinkers Come Together at SwitchPoint
At SwitchPoint, a two-day conference organized by Intrahealth International—a DAI strategic affiliate—400 global health and technology devotees came together in the North Carolina countryside to share ideas and seed partnerships for solving global health challenges, especially by using technology. The seventh annual event, held April 26–27, featured 30-plus stage speakers and 20-plus microlabs.
Four Recommendations for Strengthening Seed Systems
Most people living in rural communities in developing countries depend on crops. While donor-funded seed development programs for staple crops have improved the capacity of seed companies, as well as their market connections and distribution systems, high-quality seeds of improved varieties are simply not reaching enough smallholder farmers.
New Generation of EC Framework Contracts Offers Agile Programming for European Development Aid
We are proud to announce that DAI has once again been named one of the main implementing partners for the European Commission (EC) 2018–2022 Frameworks contracts for international development assistance.
The Frameworks represent an agile development programming tool that enables the EC to quickly source and execute short-term research and pilot projects around the world. Unlike typical multiyear, donor-funded projects that work in a particular country or region—and can take more than a year to plan, bid, and launch—EC Frameworks contracts are capable of being designed, awarded, and deployed in a matter of weeks and can dispatch project teams to any country receiving development aid from the Commission.
Addressing Jordan’s Youth Unemployment Bubble: USAID Program Aligns Workforce with Emerging Opportunities
Jordan is a relative bastion of stability in the Middle East but is struggling with an unemployment problem. More than 700,000 of its young people—36 percent of the available labor force ages 15–24—are without a job. This percentage is double that of Afghanistan and triple that of Bangladesh, even though those countries register poverty levels far worse than Jordan’s. The problem has intensified since 2011 with the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees following the Syrian crisis.
Can We Keep the Promise? Mobilizing Business on the Refugee Frontline in Jordan
In recent years, lower- and middle-income countries have borne the brunt of the global refugee crisis, currently hosting more than 80 percent of the world’s refugees. But some host countries, like Jordan, are taking important steps to seize what opportunities they can in this situation, supporting refugee self-reliance and at the same time boosting their own economy by issuing work permits to refugees and connecting multinational companies to business opportunities with local firms and displaced people.
With U.K. Aid, Lebanon’s Social Enterprises Pilot a New Model of Development
The influx of refugees from across the Syrian border is straining Lebanon’s economy and host communities. Since 2011, Lebanon’s population has increased 30 percent to around 6 million as a result of this influx, and its young people are increasingly anxious to enter the workforce. Many even wish to start or join social enterprises to help address the country’s challenges, including problems stemming from the refugee crisis. But until recently there were few avenues for pursuing this work.
New DFID Guidance Aims to Improve Emergency Schooling for Millions of Displaced Children
An estimated 75 million children cannot go to school because they have been driven from their homes by war, crisis, and natural disaster. This deprivation in turn destabilizes vulnerable regions because uneducated children grow into at-risk teenagers and young adults.
Blended Finance in Action—How USAID Leveraged $100 Million in East Africa
Earlier this spring, the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub achieved a major milestone by surpassing the $100-million mark in commercial investment catalyzed into the region. This investment would not have found its way to these markets without the approximately $4 million nudge offered by the Hub, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative implemented by DAI. Given the potential impact of the investee companies, this project shows how a donor like USAID can leverage its relatively scarce capital to crowd in more plentiful commercial funds—a process known as blended finance. The leverage factor is almost 25x.
How Can Nigeria Fulfill its Broad Economic Potential?
Nigeria is the economic heavyweight of West Africa, but it faces challenges. Approximately two-thirds of its people live in poverty and its economy suffers from low productivity and an uneven climate for trade and investment. Until recently, oil-rich Nigeria has not been a good place to make products or grow crops because it didn’t have to be—the country simply imported what it needed. But times are changing for Africa’s most populous nation.
Ethiopia Stands Poised to Lead an African Industrial Revolution
Just over 100 years ago, Henry Ford and other industrialists revolutionised manufacturing by introducing the assembly line. They built consumer goods at unprecedented scale and cost, creating millions of jobs and bringing down the price of goods to levels that workers could afford. It was so productive that Ford could double the minimum wage and shorten the working day for his workers.
Young Rural Women are Crucial to Advancing Universal Health Coverage in Northern Nigeria
This year’s World Health Day theme is Universal Health Coverage. It’s an apt rallying cry, particularly for those working in our Women for Health (W4H) programme in Northern Nigeria, where a 2013 study showed that 94 percent of live births lacked any medical personnel presence, resulting in one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
$36 Million Investment Partnership Finances Warehouses in Malawi to Improve Food Security
Malawi has suffered from poor food production for decades—its 17 million people are mostly smallholder or subsistence farmers who have struggled to overcome drought, pests, and outdated farming practices. Even successful harvests are diminished because they have few options to process and store their crops for sale, resulting in post-harvest losses that cut deeply into already small profits. But development assistance from the United States and European Union is helping Malawi address its shortage of warehousing.
In Nigeria, Governance Champions Can Transform Resource Wealth into Development Results
Nigeria is well known for its glaring inequalities, particularly the disparity between the impoverished northern states and its oil-rich south. This disparity covers more than just wealth and economic growth, as large segments of the country’s 185 million people want for simple stability and basic public services. But just as Nigeria’s economy is powered by more than oil, so the country’s inequities stem from more than just the so-called “resource curse.”
EC Helps Position the Southern Africa Development Community for 21st Century Success
Launched in 1992, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) was based more on ideals than economics. Born of the anti-Apartheid movement, the SADC aimed to help Southern Africa countries build economic ties and reduce dependence on the Republic of South Africa. As the region changed, the SADC’s membership grew and the organization adopted lofty goals. But the SADC’s outmoded inner workings did not meet the needs of its escalating staff and ambitions.
New Zealand Aid Helps Rwandan Smallholders Enter Fortified Foods Supply Chain
Small-scale farmers in Rwanda struggle to capture the full value of their maize harvests. Farmers typically process their maize manually or using basic tools. With limited infrastructure available for threshing, cleaning, and drying, the full harvest and post-harvest process takes six weeks, on average. Apart from being burdensome for farm families, the lengthy process exposes their maize to rotting, pest infestation, and mould. As a result, the farmers lose an estimated 30 percent of their yields, and traders capture much of the profit generated.
Afghan Cities Assisted by USAID Project Achieve Highest Ratings in Citizen Survey
In a citizen assessment of government services in nine Afghan municipalities, the four that ranked the highest—Chaharikar, Hirat, Mazar-e-Sharif, and Jalalabad—are all partners with a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) project working to improve the capacity of Afghan municipal officials to meet citizen priorities and service delivery needs.
Philippines’ New Tax Bill Promises More Revenue for Social Programs, Infrastructure
It has been more than 15 years since the Government of the Philippines undertook its last comprehensive tax policy reform. Over that period, tax revenues have seen a steady decline, from a high of nearly 17 percent of GDP in 1997 to only 13.6 percent in 2016. This decline can be attributed to both domestic and external factors. On the international front, the Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998 and the global recession of 2008–2009 certainly contributed to sharp drop-offs. But the Government of the Philippines’ limited ability to enforce fiscal discipline also was a factor, allowing special interests to introduce loopholes, weaken tax laws, and chip away at previous reforms. These factors were compounded by lower import duties (motivated by the prospect of improving trade) and flaws in the 1997 excise tax reform.
With Elections Looming, Can Pakistan Fulfill Its Education Promise to Unschooled Children?
More than 23 million children in Pakistan do not attend school. More than half of children who start at government schools drop out before completing primary school. These stark facts are harming a rising generation of Pakistanis already vulnerable to unemployment, instability, and extremism. And while upper-class Pakistanis enjoy excellent private schools and universities, much of the rest of the country has become resigned to derelict classrooms and substandard government-provided education.
Until recently, that is.
Liberia Moves to Reduce Donor Dependence by Improving its Ability to Invest in Itself
Liberia has endured much turmoil in recent decades. Civil wars in the 1990s and 2000s saw the mass destruction of dams, bridges, power lines, and other infrastructure. Many of Liberia’s best and brightest citizens emigrated. Suffering from a large budget deficit, its government developed a deeper dependence on foreign aid. Furthermore, the Ebola virus epidemic of 2014–2015 killed more than 4,800 Liberians and terrified the country.
Yet, after all this, people today in Liberia generally look forward with hope.
Gathering the Evidence to Mobilize Domestic Resources for Health Care
Two key areas of development assistance have been merging quickly: health care and domestic resource mobilization. The goal is to help developing countries afford to invest in their national health systems and institutions and do so wisely. Many countries want to do more to fund their own development, and donors are on board to assist. But there is little evidence on how to do so effectively in the pursuit of greater health security.
To Realize the Promise of Renewables, Address the Concerns of Local People
In 2009, in rural Pennsylvania, as head of the Renewable Energy Center, I attended a community meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers about a proposed wind farm in Ogletown, in Somerset County. I was told that previous meetings on the topic had been heated enough that a police presence was necessary—and welcomed.
New Orangutan Species Discovered in Forest Supported by USAID Conservation Program
More than eight years ago, DAI staff tromped through the Batang Toru forest of North Sumatra, Indonesia, counting nests, observing behavior, and collecting field evidence on one of the oldest members of the great ape family—the orangutan. What they did not realize was that this group of orangutans was an entirely unrecognized species—the Tapanuli orangutan—that we now know is endemic to 475 square miles of upland forest in the Batang Toru Ecosystem south of Lake Toba.
EU Funds Totaling €4.1 Billion Aim to Boost Investment, Private Sector Engagement in Africa and European Neighbourhood Countries
Nowhere do entrepreneurs and investors face more risk than in fragile states where jobs and economic growth are most needed. To mitigate this risk, the EU is launching the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD), part of the External Investment Plan (EIP). The EFSD brings together €2.6 billion from the existing blended-finance operations in Africa and the European Neighbourhood region and the new guarantee for €1.5 billion. The EIP will be formally announced at the 6th African-EU Business Forum 27–28 November in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
Q&A with DAI’s Susan Scribner: Preparedness, Response, and Global Health Security
Pandemics begin with a single case but don’t stay that way: since 2000, avian influenza has killed 440 people in 14 countries, Ebola more than 11,000 people in 10 countries, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) 770 people in 37 countries. The first deaths were reported locally in Hong Kong (1997), Guinea (2013), and China (2002), respectively. HIV/AIDS was first contracted by a human from a primate in West Africa—since 1981, AIDS has killed 35 million people, including 675,000 in the United States.
Sourcing the Wadi: How Palestinian Workers Are Filling Niche Needs in Israel’s IT Sector
The Middle East hosts one of the fastest-growing high-tech industries in the world: Israel’s Silicon Wadi. But the very speed of this growth means Israel’s tech sector also faces a shortage of skilled engineers. To deal with this shortage, Israel has turned largely to Eastern Europe as a source for IT workers. Though there is plenty of talent in Eastern Europe, the time difference is not ideal for collaborating and that talent is becoming costlier as global demand increases. This combination of circumstances means opportunities for Palestinians.
Turning Restrictive Social Norms in the Middle East into Job Opportunities for Women
When deep-rooted social norms appear to limit the roles of women, one of the best tactics we can take in development assistance is to look for opportunities to turn those norms to women’s advantage.
Helping Eastern Partnership Countries Meet Their Commitments to Address Climate Change
The economies of Eastern Europe have grown in recent decades largely on the backs of heavy industry, mechanisation, and agriculture. In many countries, this has led to significant greenhouse gas emissions, a reliance on inefficient technologies, and a policy environment that did not support green growth. As part of their commitments to global climate change agreements, signatory countries pledged to reduce emissions. After committing to cleaner ways, however, these countries faced a common challenge: where to start?
Messe Frankfurt’s Purchase of Source Africa Trade Show Exemplifies the Potential of Market Systems Development
Seven years ago, DAI began implementing the value chain portion of Southern Africa Trade Hub (SATH), a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). SATH’s goal was to promote economic growth by fostering intraregional trade between select member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Q&A: Unlocking Inclusive Economic Growth for Mozambicans by Building a Market for Digital Financial Inclusion
While Mozambique’s economy is emerging—notably through the extractives sector—most Mozambicans remain very poor. Eighty percent still make a living from subsistence farming. One cause for their marginalization is that most have no connection to the wider economy or to basic financial services such as saving, borrowing, and electronic payments. This limits the ability of Mozambique’s 12 million rural poor to grow their livelihoods and perpetuates their isolation and poverty.
More Than Developing Apps: USAID Program Propels Cambodian Girls Into Global Technology Finals
Women are far underrepresented in the tech world globally from bottom to top. The all-encompassing industry is looking into the mirror and seeing men and boys dominating technology jobs, classrooms, and expert panels, a bias now widely noticed.
Q&A: Barry Finette on the Hopes and Challenges for THINKMD’s Life-Saving mHealth Platform
DAI and THINKMD connected in 2016 through DAI’s Innovation into Action Challenge. Our strategic partnership will leverage DAI’s international development network to bring THINKMD’s digital health products to new markets, while THINKMD’s technology will enhance DAI’s global health toolkit. As part of this partnership, DAI led THINKMD’s latest financing round.
Founded in 2014, THINKMD soon introduced its first product, MEDSINC—a mobile health platform that enables non-healthcare professionals in marginalized locales lacking doctors, nurses, and clinics—to perform clinical assessment, triage, early treatment, and follow-up, especially on infants and young children. THINKMD’s second product, DATASINC, aggregates and analyzes public health and epidemiology data for a variety of uses.
Cold Storage Expansion Drives Market Development in Uzbekistan
We were amazed to see a packed audience in 2010 when our team from the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) traveled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Our Uzbek trainees came from many backgrounds—teachers, builders, businessmen—eager to learn about this vital link in the agricultural value chain. Most did not have experience in the cold chain, let alone a refrigeration facility to manage, yet they soon formed the foundation for the country’s remarkable cold chain development.
Using Development Assistance to Catalyze Sound Investments in Emerging and Developing Markets
Investment opportunities in manufacturing, agriculture, and health are as abundant globally as the capital to fund them, but investors in these and other sectors are rightly cautious about entering new countries and taking risks on small and growing businesses and productive infrastructure. Fortunately, there are many examples in these teeming markets of how capital supported by local development expertise and entrepreneurial energy has generated both financial returns and development results.
PolSEFF’s Legacy: Lower Energy Bills for Businesses Across Poland; a Financing Model to Scale and Replicate
While Poland’s private sector grew steadily in the post-Soviet era, its reliance on old energy equipment and poorly insulated facilities contributed to the country becoming one of the highest energy consumers in Europe. In 2010, when the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) launched the Polish Sustainable Energy Financing Facility (PolSEFF), few business owners had invested in energy efficiency measures compared with the European Union average, and Polish lending institutions were not prepared to finance these types of upgrades. As a result, business owners continued to pay unnecessarily high energy bills and emit unnecessarily high amounts of carbon.
Philippines Increases Tax Collections by $1.1 Billion Year Over Year—Without Raising Rates
What would you do with an extra $1.1 billion? That amount represents the additional taxes collected by the Philippines government during the first quarter of 2017 versus the same period in 2016. This 12.2 percent increase—during the country’s tax-collecting season—followed the rapid adoption by taxpayers of an electronic tax-filing system introduced by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Facilitating Public Investment (FPI) program, implemented by DAI.
Generation Rising: Young, Educated Afghan Women Enter the Workforce
It is hard to believe in the wake of the past few decades that 1960s and ’70s Afghanistan was relatively progressive for women, with many women and girls freely attending school, working professionally, and dressing fashionably. Since the 1990s, warlords and, later, the conquering Taliban subjugated females—forbidding girls from going to school and women from working.
$93 Million Grain Deal Between East African Countries Demonstrates How the Region Can Feed Itself
If East Africa grows enough food to feed itself, which it generally does, why are so many of its people going hungry? This question lies at the nexus of two of Africa’s key development challenges—food security and trade—where a recent milestone event may signal a massive change in fortunes for one of the most food insecure regions of the world.
The Whole Spectrum: A Holistic Approach to Climate Resilience
Climate change is a growing threat to global stability and national security. Decades of fossil fuel combustion and unsustainable land use have contributed to carbon dioxide levels in the planet’s atmosphere that are higher than in the past 4 million years. With so much carbon dioxide trapping heat in the atmosphere, the planet is getting warmer. Last year—2016—was the hottest year on record and seas around the world have already risen an average of nearly 3 inches. We are already experiencing increased impacts from extreme events, such as floods and drought: while it is difficult to attribute any one event to the broader phenomenon of climate change, Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines caused 6,100 deaths, displaced 4 million people, and damaged 1.1 million houses in 2013, with an estimated financial cost exceeding US$7 billion.
How Tax and Budget Assistance Helps Developing Countries Help Themselves
In the United States, April brings warm weather, budding flowers, baseball season and … Tax Day. While not a joyful occasion for most, it is an opportune moment to reaffirm the value of assisting developing countries to improve their tax systems.
Despite Regional Instability, Lebanon’s Honey Sector Reaches New Heights
Even before more than 1 million Syrian refugees crossed into Lebanon, the nation’s agriculture sector was struggling to serve its 4.5 million citizens.
Unlocking Capital: How USAID Pushed the Frontier of Financial Services and Built a Foundation for Economic Growth in Kenya
In 2010, as part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) designed the Kenya Financial Inclusion for Rural Microenterprises (FIRM) project. FIRM aimed to push the frontier of financial services into the agricultural sector where smallholder farmers—the bulk of Kenya’s 45 million people—were mired in poverty.
Big Gains in Access to Safe Drinking Water: How Four African Countries Did It … and How Others Can, Too
In 1990, the East African nation of Ethiopia stood among the nations in most dire need of water development. Seventeen years of war had left its government and systems in disarray. Only 11 percent of its more than 48 million people had access to piped or other improved water sources; the rest used unimproved sources such as unprotected wells and carted drums. Predictably, Ethiopia and countries in similar straits suffered through high rates of communicable, pandemic, and vector-borne disease, child mortality, and other challenges tied to water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Afghan Municipalities Raise More Revenues, Deliver Better Services, Enhance Stability
The long-running conflicts in Afghanistan have threatened to reduce its municipalities to mere clusters of people rather than organized cities operating for the local good. But this is changing. Many municipalities are now gaining strength, establishing financial systems, increasing revenues, and improving service delivery by virtue of technical assistance funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Six Ways to Mitigate Instability in Central America
Some people might be surprised to know that most of the migrants trying to cross the U.S. southern border come not from Mexico but from countries to Mexico’s south.
Eighty percent of the unaccompanied child migrants detained at the border in the year ending September 2016—roughly 47,000 out of 59,000—came from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Migration from these “Northern Triangle” countries has spiked since 2013, with many migrants forced from their homes because their families are impoverished, their communities overrun by gangs, and their countries’ governments ill-equipped to fix such problems.
Sexual Harassment Law Passes Afghan Houses
Harassment in the workplace in Afghanistan is a major deterrent to women’s participation. In the private sector, women regularly suffer verbal and physical abuse, blackmail, and the use of authority to coerce sex. But this treatment extends beyond the private sector.
We Need More Women on the Frontlines of the War on Hunger
In developing countries, something is missing in the war on hunger: an equal voice for women.
Onshore Fish Farms Flourish in Gaza
In less than a year, an onshore fish farm in Gaza has more than tripled the amount of fish it grows and sells by applying technology and assistance from The Compete Project (Compete), a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) program implemented by DAI.
Simple Solutions: Nutrition and Garden Training in Afghanistan Improves Food Security for Thousands
As in many developing countries, mothers and children in rural Afghanistan suffer from chronic undernutrition, often because they lack knowledge. Thousands of families in northern Afghanistan are now enjoying improved nutrition and food security thanks to work by a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) economic growth program.
Market Systems Development Boosts Farming, Nutrition in Bangladesh’s Southern Delta
Bangladesh’s Southern Delta—home to 30 million people—is afflicted by inefficient farming, persistent poverty, and poor nutrition. But a market systems approach applied by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Agricultural Value Chains Program (AVC), a Feed the Future initiative, is beginning to show great promise for the region.
Establishing a Model at the Local Level for Science-Driven Climate Adaptation
Countries in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB)—Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam—are home to rural populations that are chronically poor or vulnerable. Many of these families still produce much of their own food and are acutely sensitive to weather events such as floods, droughts, and extreme storms that cause crop failures and serious hardships. In recent years, rural communities in the LMB have experienced their share of extreme weather.
National Governments Hold the Key to Sustainable Local Climate Change Adaptation in the Mekong Basin
Over the past few years, farmers in the Lower Mekong Basin have had to change how they win their livelihoods: diversifying crops, reconfiguring livestock husbandry practices, addressing water quality and quantity, even moving their planting schedules. Utilizing local knowledge and experience, these farmers and communities are adapting to the changing climate; they also mark the beginning of a movement.
Chevron’s Nigerian Initiative Found to Decrease Business Risk, Attract Local Investment, and "Bring Hope"
When Chevron launched the Niger Delta Partnership Initiatives (NDPI) Foundation in 2010, it knew there were no easy solutions to the instability felt by Nigeria’s youth, poor, and unemployed. Ethnic and religious conflicts had long festered and flared, including in the Niger Delta, where Chevron has extensive oil and gas operations. Taking a regional approach while still complementing other Chevron Nigeria social investments such as the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMOU), the company sought to address the fundamental issues confronting local communities: the struggle for economic opportunity, the sources of the underlying conflict, and the capacity shortfalls constraining the Delta’s development.
Unveiling a New Methodology for Measuring Market Systems and Their Impact on Local Development
When the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) was launched with Chevron’s backing in 2010, it also meant that a time would come to assess whether the team was achieving its goals—primarily, to open doors for broad-based economic opportunity in the conflict-affected Delta.
New Opportunities Emerge to Support Meaningful Democratic Reform in Sri Lanka
By 2014, DAI was winding down the Reintegration and Stabilization in the East and North (RISEN) program in Sri Lanka on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Office of Transition Initiatives. Over more than four years of operations, the program worked locally with people in civil society and government, implementing grants totaling $14 million to restore communities and support reconciliation between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamil populations following 26 years of destructive war.
Agriculture Goes Prime Time: Enthralling a TV Audience of Future Farmers
Each Wednesday night, up to 11 million viewers tune into Makutano Junction, a hit TV series that airs on Citizen Television in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. It is the most-watched locally produced program in Kenya, but Makutano Junction is not just any soap opera. Africa Lead II, a Feed the Future program of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is helping fund production and craft scripts that deliver a much-needed message: agriculture is cool.
Domestic Resource Mobilization Takes Root in El Salvador ... and Beyond?
An encouraging trend in development is gaining speed: more countries want to do more to fund their own development, and donors are on board. At the July 2015 Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, attended by more than 110 heads of state, ministers, and officials from 38 countries, donors pledged a doubling of assistance by 2020 for programs to increase domestic resource mobilization.
Plugging In to Jordan’s Rising Demand for Electric Cars
Just shy of Amman’s “7th Circle” on Zahran Street stands a car showroom featuring a different kind of sedan. Take one walk around the Renault Zoe and you will spot the difference. This 88-horsepower super-mini features all the design elements of a car twice its size, except one: a gas tank.
Zika and the Americas—A Call to Action for Surveillance and Preparedness
More than 30 countries in the Americas have reported Zika virus infections, with up to 4 million people projected to be infected in 2016. The mosquito-borne virus has now also been linked to sexual transmission, causing public health experts to predict that the virus could spread locally in the United States and elsewhere. U.S. agencies are responding quickly, prompted by the Level 1 alert issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s emergency control unit.
USAID-Backed Fellow Inspires Malaysian Renewable Energy Policy
When people think of solar energy, they often envision banks of solar panels producing electricity that powers lights and household appliances. While the use of photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity can contribute to reducing carbon emissions, another important and simpler use of the sun’s rays often goes overlooked: the generation of usable heat.
Clean Water for All by 2030. No, Really.
The audacity of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 6—to ensure clean water and sanitation for all by 2030—is balanced by a few encouraging realities: there are myriad ways to attack the goal collectively, there is real clout behind global water initiatives, and—most promisingly—the world has already achieved notable results in water development. Since 1990, for example, more than 1.9 billion people have gained access to piped drinking water and 2.1 billion to improved sanitation, according to the UN.
SERVIR Demand Activity: A Key Link in Connecting Space to Village
Alerting rural villages to floods, detecting remote forest fires, and monitoring greenhouse gas emissions are some of the capabilities of SERVIR Global, a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). SERVIR integrates imagery and data from Earth-observing satellites and geospatial technologies to give policy makers around the world critical information on climate-sensitive topics such as natural disasters, agriculture, water, ecosystems, and land use. While the technology from space that SERVIR relies on is impressive, its greatest potential might lie in facilitating human connections down on earth.
A Good Use of U.S. Taxpayer Money: Helping Countries Mobilize Domestic Resources
Tax Day—April 18 this year in the United States—is a day that sparks controversy for many constituencies. For tax opponents, it is a reminder of the burdens borne by the taxpayer. For foreign aid skeptics, it is an opportunity to bemoan the sums spent on international development. For aid advocates, it is a moment to point out how tiny those sums are in the big picture of government expenditures.
When Tax Reform Leads to Increased Funding for Health Services
For people across El Salvador, it can be difficult to find medical treatment. Local health facilities in marginalized and rural areas often run short of basic medicines such as antibiotics. A doctor or nurse—if available—might have difficulty locating supplies and tools such as syringes and stethoscopes. But this scenario is brightening.
Energizing the Support Network for People with Disabilities in Vietnam
As in most countries, people with disabilities in Vietnam lead disadvantaged lives. Their plight has been exacerbated by the facts that until recently Vietnam was a very poor country without strong government social services, and the wars from the 1940s through the 1970s left many victims, adding substantially to the disability burden. The legacy of what the Vietnamese call the American War includes large numbers of unexploded ordnance and dioxin contamination where Agent Orange was sprayed or spilled that continue to affect lives and relations between the two countries today. There are an estimated 12 million people and families in Vietnam affected by disabilities.
Positively Mobilizing Urban Communities for WASH
Despite gains elsewhere in the country, urban Indonesia suffers from the lowest rate of access to improved sanitation and the second lowest rate of access to safe water among all ASEAN member nations. Only 32 percent of Indonesia’s urban population has access to piped water and only 73 percent to basic sanitation, which translates into higher rates of waterborne diseases, particularly among the most vulnerable: children and the poor.
Scaling Up Mobile Health Services to Expectant and New Mothers in Cambodia
Working in Cambodia, the Czech organization People in Need (PIN) had already produced a pilot maternal health product. Its mobile phone-based service—named Baby Care Village—was reaching select mothers and caregivers with messages on how to care for newborns. While the new service proved valuable, surveys indicated its messages were meeting just a fraction of the demand.
Engaging Both Men and Women to Link Nutrition to Agriculture
Severe food insecurity and a lack of diversified farming systems present serious challenges to Malawi’s government and development community. One great obstacle is misinformation. Many Malawians hold deep misconceptions about food—for example, that eating oranges or other citrus will shrivel a mother’s breasts. This misinformation works against a population whose rates of malnutrition and stunting—while declining in recent years—remain alarmingly high at nearly 50 percent.
Savings Groups Enabling Hundreds of Smallholders in Mozambique to Buy Certified Seed
Dressed in the splendour of her finest cotton capulana, Angira and her friends sit in the 40-degree heat, shaded by the leafy branches of an old mango tree. Together, they eagerly await the arrival of the village leader so they can proceed to unlock a wooden box containing their seasonal accrual of cash savings.
Spurring the Malawi Judiciary to Re-Hear Death Sentence Cases, Free Prisoners Unjustly Held
In the 2007 case of Kafantayeni and Others v. Attorney General, the Malawi High Court invalidated the mandatory death penalty and ruled that all prisoners given these sentences were entitled to a new sentence hearing. In November 2010, the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal confirmed this right. But by 2013, none of the affected death-row prisoners—188 men and four women—had received their hearing.
How Savings Groups Assist the Poor and Support Broader Development Goals
In November, DAI inclusive economic growth specialists Colleen Green and Kirsten Weeks attended the SG2015 Savings Groups Conference in Lusaka, Zambia, where approximately 350 practitioners from 44 countries shared experiences and opinions. Green and Weeks recently discussed savings groups and how DAI uses them across its programming with John Jepsen, DAI’s Global Practice Lead for financial services.
DAI’s Newest Collaboration: The Innovation into Action Challenge
Innovation has been a core DAI principle since our founding 45 years ago. The firm’s very name, Development Alternatives, speaks to the company’s fundamental aspiration to provide customers with solutions that push the boundaries of the discipline. At DAI, we define innovation as the combination of products, services, processes, and business models that collectively create a new growth trajectory for the company. For DAI, innovation must yield value.
Feed the Future Project Builds Freekeh Industry in Lebanon
Quinoa can be hard to pronounce but has won the hearts of health-conscious consumers in international food markets. Supporters hope one day to say the same for the middle-eastern grain, freekeh. This ancient whole grain is made from green wheat that is then roasted. In foodie circles, it is gaining in popularity alongside millet, farro, and others.
For Thailand’s Civil Society, Capacity Building Now Begins at Home
Well functioning democracies typically rest on three pillars: the state, the market economy, and civil society. Although nongovernmental organizations have existed in Thailand since the Vietnam War, management in the country’s civil society sector has lagged. During Thailand’s modernization and rapid growth, the state and private sectors have dominated development, with universities limited to preparing Thai people for employment in these sectors. Until recently, there were no university programs dedicated to nonprofit management.
Discovering Pathways to Economic Growth in Somalia, Discreetly
Somalis have suffered through a generation of conflict and political instability, with no formal national government since the outbreak of civil war in 1991. An estimated 500,000 Somalis died during the conflict, which left Somalia unable to support its people and an economy in dire straits. Yet following the formation in 2012 of the first federal national government since the war began, signs of progress have begun to emerge. A more settled political landscape and improving security—thanks to continuing action against Al-Shabaab—have seen Somalia graduate from a failed to a fragile state.
Improving Nutrition While Easing the Workload on Women
When the villagers of Makhoyo in southern Malawi were introduced to the concept of backyard gardens, few of them gave it much thought. Residents had farmed soy and groundnuts for generations in this area. It seemed too simple to be true: to grow vegetables easily at home, especially during the dry offseason.
The Future of Mobile Money: Traditional Banks, B2B, and the User’s Perspective
Brigit Helms, who leads the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Support Program for Economic and Enterprise Development in Mozambique, is a thought leader on extending financial services to poor households and small businesses in developing countries. Helms recently spoke with John Jepsen, DAI’s Global Practice Leader for Financial Services, about trends and opportunities in digital financial services.
In Vietnam, Creating Opportunities for Children with Disabilities
Even though their right to an education is mandated by law, thousands of school-age children in Vietnam stay at home or sit uninvolved in classrooms because they have disabilities. Helping these children has been a priority of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s disability program in Vietnam, including its Persons with Disabilities Support Program (PDSP), launched in 2012 and led by DAI.
300,000 Downloads and Counting: How I Created a Top Khmer Smartphone App
By 2013, smartphone usage among Cambodia’s young people was booming in urban areas. Many users, however, could not text or express themselves in Khmer, Cambodia’s most widely spoken language. Their smartphone software did not readily support the Khmer alphabet, and the few add-on apps available were hard to use and unreliable.
Nurturing a Culture of Law and Justice in the DRC
Decades of war and political unrest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) left a void of law and justice for Congolese citizens. Too often, security and police forces are part of the problem rather than the solution, operating in a culture of impunity and self-enrichment enabled by the absence of judicial and public oversight. Citizens in the DRC have limited understanding of the role of the police as public servants, or of how police and citizens should interact in a democracy.
Getting Back to Business in Post-Conflict Gaza
When a business is put out of commission by war, it can take only a small investment—done rapidly in a post-conflict environment—to put it back on its feet, creating employment and making sales.
Growing a Global Network of Microfinance Practitioners
The European Commission (EC) is one of the world’s leading exponents of access-to-finance programming, known particularly for initiatives such as mentoring local banks and developing loan programmes for small businesses and green energy investment. Equally noteworthy is an EC programme dedicated to promoting microfinance in developing countries, a programme that recently closed after vitalizing a global network of local microfinance practitioners who in turn reached some 3.5 million people.
Building Community Climate Stories and Adaptation Plans from the Ground Up
A complex web of ecosystems, the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) is acutely sensitive to climate change. More than 60 million people depend on this vast interconnected system to support their livelihoods. While there is an urgent need for these communities to begin adapting to rising temperatures, heavier precipitation, and more frequent flooding, residents of the Basin—mostly people connected to rice, livestock, and fish farming—do not have the knowledge, tools, or resources to better prepare themselves for the future climate.
Training Videographers for Development in Cambodia
When Australian-Cambodian videographer Bunhom Chhorn returned to his native Cambodia in the early 2000s, he found the country nearly stripped of basic video expertise. There were no facilities, instruction, or equipment available to most people. Cambodian media overall had been greatly diminished by years of poverty and instability.
Philippines Experiences Nearly Seven-Fold Increase in Electronic Tax Filing
Despite the Philippines being among the first countries to introduce electronic tax filing opportunities more than 15 years ago, only 8 percent of its tax returns in 2013 were e-filed. By comparison, e-filing rates in peer countries range from 70 to 100 percent. But the Philippines is catching up.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Government in Thailand’s Provinces
Thailand enjoyed strong economic gains through the 1980s and 1990s, but political crises and civil unrest that have escalated since 2005 have damaged the country domestically. The prolonged constitutional crisis—culminating in the May 2014 military coup d’etat—has punished Thailand’s 67 million citizens by diminishing governance and public services. Civic pride, engagement, and trust in government are at historic lows, with ordinary people taking to the streets in protest and riot.
From Desert, Mountain, and Plain: Afghanistan’s First-Ever Nomad Gathering
Known collectively as “Kuchi,” the nomadic peoples of Afghanistan recently convened in Kabul for a historic assembly to address longstanding issues specific to their community.
Interview with Joel Carter, CEO of Afghanistan’s Agricultural Development Fund
For generations, Afghanistan’s commercial farmers and agribusinesses had no way to borrow money to invest in their businesses. In 2010, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with the Afghanistan Ministry for Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock (MAIL), established the Agricultural Development Fund (ADF). USAID’s initial fund contribution of $100 million would be complemented by a technical assistance contract—the Agricultural Credit Enhancement Program—awarded to DAI.
Uniting Tajikistan’s Farmers to Fix Broken Irrigation Systems
Tajikistan’s rugged alpine mountain ranges hold many glaciers; these feed hundreds of streams that flow down to the fertile river valleys, where many people work on farms. Despite this pretty picture, Tajikistan is severely food challenged. The poorest country in Central Asia, Tajikistan imports more than half its food. Many of its most vulnerable families go all day without eating.
In Sierra Leone: Enhancing Traditional Law and Justice Services
Despite significant improvements in the delivery of statutory justice services, most rural people in Sierra Leone lack the time, money, or literacy needed to access formal justice structures such as police, courts, or legal services. Instead, they rely on traditional mechanisms such as the Chiefdom structure, which are perceived as quicker, less expensive (in time and money), and more accessible.
The Birth of a New Credit Culture in Afghanistan
Fifty-four months. That’s how long it took to conceive, launch, and hand over the Agricultural Development Fund (ADF) in Afghanistan. Through the Agricultural Credit Enhancement (ACE) Program, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) established a standalone financial institution to administer the ADF, with a clearly defined governance structure and guided by rigorous policies and procedures.
Building Trust while Rebuilding Somalia
Somalia has one of the most insecure, complicated, and harsh operating environments in the world. Much of the country is in ruins, with conflict between rival clans, continued attacks by Al Shabaab, and violent power struggles amplifying humanitarian disasters such as refugee crises, famine, and poverty. In the past two decades, millions of dollars in international aid directed to Somalia has had mixed results, with many Somalis believing that well intentioned assistance has exacerbated conflict and increased corruption.
Invigorating Business Reform in Resource-Rich Mozambique
When the Support Program for Economic and Enterprise Development (SPEED) was launched, Mozambique was at a crossroads: it was one of the poorest countries in the world, but about to realize a multibillion-dollar boom from oil and natural gas.
Serving the Missing Middle
Not long ago, Aynalem Gebryes had nowhere to turn to borrow money, despite having a steady income from fattening cattle, producing milk, growing potatoes, and selling directly to local hotels and restaurants.
This changed in January 2014, when the 56-year-old widowed mother of three from Addis Ababa became the first woman to receive a loan through the Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WEDP). Gebryes used her $7,500 loan to add two cows to her operation and build a government-backed biogas unit, from which she plans to sell any fuel she doesn’t use herself.
Fiscal Reform and the Struggle for Stability in Jordan
Much ink has been spilt by academics, analysts, diplomats, and the military regarding the causes of instability. But a broad consensus holds that environments with scant economic opportunities are fertile grounds for recruiting alienated and aggrieved young people to the cause of violent extremism. Taking that as a premise, it makes sense to pursue programming that bolsters economic resilience as part of an integrated strategy to counter extremism. In Jordan, we have an example where macroeconomic assistance—in particular, fiscal reform—has played an important role in sustaining the stability of a country at the heart of one of the world’s most volatile regions.
Working Together? We’re Working On It
For DAI, one of the great advantages of implementing an extensive and diverse group of projects is the opportunity it affords us to learn and collaborate across a multiclient portfolio—to bring insights from U.K Department for International Development (DFID) programming into our U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) work, for example, and vice versa; or to coordinate mutually beneficial activities that cross project and client lines.
Improved Pig Pens Help Northern Thailand Communities Brace for Effects of Climate Change
For villagers in northern Thailand’s Hae Ko hill tribe community, raising pigs is an integral part of their lives. Not only do the livestock serve as a critical protein source for the community and provide supplementary income, they are also culturally important as ceremonial gifts.
Women in Development: An Inside View
In international development, one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that increasing women’s engagement in society has diverse and wide-reaching development benefits. Many people are familiar with some version of the adage: “If you educate a boy, you train a man. If you educate a girl, you train a village.” Expanding opportunities for women’s education, access to health services, economic participation, and leadership can have ripple effects that spur economic growth, promote political stability and peace, and improve public health.
Women in Development: Intissar Hemim
Editor’s Note: This interview is part of a series on Women in Development highlighting the role women play in DAI’s work around the globe. The Q&A was conducted by DAI Communications Specialist Sara Lehman.
Women in Development: Endah Agustiana
Editor’s Note: This interview is part of a series on Women in Development highlighting the role women play in DAI’s work around the globe. The Q&A was conducted by DAI Communications Specialist Sara Lehman.
Women in Development: Ruba Al’Zubi
Editor’s Note: This interview is part of a series on Women in Development highlighting the role women play in DAI’s work around the globe. The Q&A was conducted by DAI Communications Specialist Sara Lehman.
Women in Development: Jessica Heinzelman
Editor’s Note: This interview is part of a series on Women in Development highlighting the role women play in DAI’s work around the globe. The Q&A was conducted by DAI Communications Specialist Sara Lehman.
Women in Development: Alia Afshar-Gandhi
Editor’s Note: This interview is part of a series on Women in Development highlighting the role women play in DAI’s work around the globe. The Q&A was conducted by DAI Communications Specialist Sara Lehman.
How Banks Can Help Businesses Reduce Their Energy Costs
Energy consumption can account for up to half the cost of doing business for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These businesses of 250 or fewer employees make up 95 percent of enterprises across the world; they also account for approximately 60 percent of all private sector employment. Globally, there is great potential to reduce their energy costs and carbon emissions.
Mutually Profitable Bonding of Suppliers and Farmers via SMS
For prevention of weeds (Shen Guli), cut stems of weeds before producing seeds and put salty solution on cut stems. Abdul, Jalalabad, 0700555555
This is what marketing looks like in rural Afghanistan.
Better Data Transfer Reinforces Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net, Enables Emergency Payments
The traditional pastoralists of northern Kenya are increasingly challenged by the changing climate.
Most of the land they inhabit is classified arid or semi-arid and prone to droughts which, in recent years, have become almost annual. Seventy-four percent of the people—much higher than the national average—live below the national poverty line, with poverty rates highest in the most arid counties of Wajir, Mandera, Marsabit, and Turkana. The struggles for those in Wajir and Mandera are compounded by the effects of insecurity from neighboring Somalia.
Sustaining the Facebook Revolution
The nexus of social media, Internet access, and smartphone technology has spawned a revolution in political activism. Ordinary people using new technology and digital media platforms—people whose voices would otherwise be drowned out by dominant political forces—are now contributing to or joining political debates. And their price for admission is almost zero.
Monitoring Our Assumptions
For many of the world’s poor, usable land is in short supply. In Africa, for example, more than 90 percent of rural land is undocumented and vulnerable to land-grabbing and expropriation. This leaves smallholder farmers and pastoralists—people trying to eke out an existence—vulnerable, especially in countries where land governance is weak.
Group Savings in Tanzania Helping the HIV-Affected Poor
Fifty years after independence, Tanzania still struggles to secure a resilient future. HIV/AIDS compounds the problems caused by poverty and scarcity, creating deep fissures in the national and local economies and leaving HIV-affected households highly vulnerable in the face of rising costs for food, schooling, and medical care.
The Phantom Team Leader
Most industry observers believe the leaders of increasingly complex development projects must combine subject matter expertise with strong executive skills—a rare combination. Do the leaders we are searching for exist?
Stepping Up to the Innovation Challenge
On the morning of October 29, a panel of distinguished judges gathered in Bethesda, Maryland, to hear the final pitches from five DAI projects competing for the title of DAI “Innovation of the Year.”
They heard powerful, impassioned cases made by project staff working to improve education in Pakistan, facilitate land titling in Ethiopia, recognize the land rights of indigenous people in Honduras, and mitigate the effects of climate change in the Pacific Islands.
The proceedings were broadcast live to DAI staff by videoconference, and at a lunch-time celebration the Transforming Education in Pakistan project’s online clearinghouse for education data was named the winner.
The announcement marked the culmination of a five-month Innovation Challenge that is the focal point for this issue of Developments.
DAI’s 2014 Innovation Challenge: Lessons and Legacy
International development donors are increasingly asking their partners for more than just “good development.” Inspired in part by the example of the information and communications technology sector, they want new thinking and better approaches to address global poverty, poor governance, climate change, environmental degradation, and inadequate health care. They want solutions that are transformative (vs. incremental), scalable, more efficient, and cost-effective. They want, in a word, innovation.
Is Everyone Really Innovating?
Innovation seems to be ubiquitous—or, at least, talk about innovation. A 2012 Wall Street Journal review of reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows companies used some form of the word “innovation” 33,528 times in 2011, a 64 percent increase from five years before. At the same time, one doesn’t have to look hard to find growing cynicism regarding over use of the concept.
Innovation’s Missing Link
In the critically acclaimed film, The Spanish Prisoner, Steve Martin plays a confidence man trying to swindle an unsuspecting engineer out of “the process,” a super-secret industrial formula that generates boatloads of cash. Martin and his co-conspirators are sent away in handcuffs with the process safe and sound as the credits roll. What remains mysteriously unresolved is how the process works and what makes it so lucrative.
Can the Development Set Reinvent Itself?
Innovation is “in.” In 2014, the U.S. Agency for International Development and U.K. Department for International Development have both launched sizable initiatives: the U.S. Global Development Lab and the Global Innovation Fund, respectively. Innovation hubs, incubators, and accelerators are popping up like mushrooms. Partnerships—especially with the private sector—are widely seen as essential to the innovation of solutions with scale.
Disruption for Good
Despite the advances in human development in the 20th century, humanitarian aid remains as relevant as ever. While our ability to respond to disaster has improved, factors such as climate change and the burgeoning global population mean that the number and severity of disasters have also increased. Could “big data” help humanitarian relief actors keep up with this escalating challenge?
Humanitarians in the Sky
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) capture images faster, cheaper, and at a far higher resolution than satellite imagery. And as John DeRiggi speculates in “Drones for Development?” these attributes will likely lead to a host of applications in development work. In the humanitarian field that future is already upon us—so we need to take a rights-based approach to advance the discussion, improve coordination of UAV flights, and to promote regulation that will ensure safety while supporting innovation.
Drones for Development?
Recent advances in drone technology have come in tandem with advances in artificial intelligence. These converging technologies will give rise to fully autonomous drones that could play an important role in a host of applications, from commercial delivery systems to municipal governance–and quite possibly in international development activities.
We Need Disruption in Financial Inclusion
Microcredit was a business model disruption in the banking sector. Today, to offer the full range of high-quality financial services required by the majority of the world’s people, we need to find the next major business model to disrupt microcredit.
An Innovation in Governance
Pro Mujer is a nonprofit organisation serving communities in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru. It delivers an integrated package of financial services, business, and empowerment training through its communal banks, which are groups of 20-30 women who receive small business loans through Pro Mujer.
Failing Fast
“Fail fast” is a mantra in Silicon Valley. While the development sector is starting to accept more failure—through “Fail Fairs” and reports centred around learning from failure—it is still far from achieving the speed of failure practiced in, for instance, the tech sector. Most development programmes don’t know if their program is failing months or even years after launch, whereas tech ideas can recognise failure within days. Can the development sector catch up?
Design Thinking and Development
DAI’s Jessica Heinzelman recently sat down with Mike Rios of 17 Triggers to discuss how we can make development projects more 'delightful'.
Big Data for Big Impact
Food-related conversations on Twitter have shown strong correlations with food price inflation. Patterns of mobile phone usage are being analysed to predict the magnitude of a disease outbreak. When airtime top-off amounts shrink in a certain region, it tends to indicate a loss of income in that population.
Made in Africa
As the current Ebola outbreak vividly illustrates, the ability of developing countries to detect and contain outbreaks of infectious disease is a matter of concern to us all. That ability depends upon capacities across a wide variety of areas. Among these is the capacity of laboratories to quickly and accurately perform modern diagnostic tests — and that requires equipment.
DIY Development
Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, many Japanese people were concerned about radioactive contamination in their environment. Radiation data from the government and the private sector were out of date and widely viewed with skepticism. Were citizens safe in their homes, schools, and offices? Was the clean up effort effective?
Timorese Farmers Take Advantage of Demand for High-Value Produce
In 2007, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) invested in a hydroponic greenhouse facility that enabled 20 Timorese farmers to grow high-value vegetables such as capsicum and tomatoes. These high-quality products for local supermarkets replaced vegetables that previously had to be imported, jumpstarting production in Timor-Leste’s Aileu District and increasing cash income for its farmers. Since then, the Developing Agricultural Communities, or Dezenvolve Agricultura Comunitária (DAC, 2010–2015) project and its predecessor Dezenvolve Setor Privadu (2006–2010) have engaged more than 400 farmers in greenhouse and outdoor vegetable production and helped build a stronger fresh produce value chain.
Supporting the Transition to Peace in Sri Lanka
When armed conflict in eastern Sri Lanka ended in 2007, the Government of Sri Lanka was afforded an opportunity to begin repairing the damage. Two years later when the government captured the last-remaining stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the north, the 26-year civil war finally ended, promising better days ahead and the hope for lasting peace. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Reintegration and Stabilization in the East (RISE) project to prepare communities in the most conflict-affected areas in the east for the changes peace would bring, including the eventual reintegration of former combatants back into their villages.
Supporting Active Citizenship Across Pakistan
Danish Bibi was to be married off illiterate and homebound to a husband not of her choosing. Usman Ghani saw neighborhood children routinely die for lack of health services. Brothers Ishaq and Saleem feuded for years over the same plot of land.
DAI Solutions: Thinking Outside the Organizational Box
In January 2013, DAI launched a new corporate structure designed to optimize the firm’s deployment of technical and operational expertise across the world. The restructured organization includes a new Solutions team, led by Jim Packard Winkler and staffed by 40 of the firm’s leading technical specialists. A former Chief of Party for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) projects based in Bangkok, Hanoi, Jerusalem, and Zagreb, Jim was tapped to lead Solutions following five years at the helm of the USAID/Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative. Developments asked Jim to discuss the thinking behind Solutions and the lessons learned in its first year or so of work.
Reforming Business Policy in Mozambique from the Inside
Mozambique’s recent discoveries of coal and gas make it a resource-rich country and potential world player. But it remains one of the world’s poorest countries as reflected by global indices such as the UN Human Development Index.
Innovative Fund Enables Philippine Water Utilities to Invest, Deliver Safe Water to New Customers
More than a decade ago, the Philippine Government committed to achieving Millennium Development Goals for water supply by expanding access to safe water to 16 million Filipinos—about one-fifth of the country’s population. This expansion would require an annual investment of PhP6-7 billion (US$150-$175 million); however, public sector financing remained stuck at PhP3-4 billion per year with no increase in sight. The only way to achieve the goal would be to mobilize private sector financing and investment. But how?
Poverty, Partnership, and the Pursuit of Innovation
In February of this year, I had the honor of being appointed to the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid. ACVFA was established after World War II as a link between the U.S. Government and private organizations active in humanitarian and development work overseas.
Calculating the Fiscal Cost to Jordan of the Syrian Refugee Crisis
Since 2011, the Syrian conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and destroyed countless homes and businesses, forcing Syrians by the thousands to seek refuge in the region. Jordan generously opened its borders to these refugees, who settled in camps established by the United Nations and in northern cities such as Irbid, Ramtha, and Mafraq, resulting in a rapid, nearly 10 percent increase in the population.
Fertilizing Method Delivers Results for Liberian Rice Farmers
When the 300 farmers at the Fuamah District Multipurpose Cooperative reviewed results from the rice farm’s trials using a new fertilization method, the farmers sang and danced in celebration. Plots using this method—where briquettes of fertilizer are buried in the ground next to rice seedlings—returned 17 percent higher rice yields than simply throwing fertilizer granules onto the field and 30 percent higher yields than sites using no fertilizer at all.
Going Social on Avian Influenza
In March 2013, mobile phone subscriptions in Indonesia—a country of approximately 245 million people—topped 285 million. That’s a penetration rate of 117 percent—higher than in China, India, or even Japan. As the cost of phones and service plans dropped, social networks and community media grew enormously, fueled by texting and phone-enabled video.
The Partnership Fund
Prior to the fall of Siad Barre’s dictatorship in Somalia, all banks were owned by the state. When Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991, the nascent government did not prioritize the establishment of a banking sector or regulatory environment to develop financial services. Today, Somaliland remains one of the few places in the world with no established commercial banking sector—resulting in a lack of access to capital that constrains the private sector.
DFID Project Assists Local Groups in Sending Thousands of Pakistani Boys and Girls to School
In Pakistan, the constitution makes education for all children age 5-16 compulsory and requires that the state provide that education for free. Yet more than 9 million Pakistani boys and girls do not go to school. Even though this crisis feeds unemployment, poverty, and extremism, the Pakistani government is not giving it due attention.
Natural Resource Conservation through Electronic Hotel Reservations
When Gabriel Lopez rented out two rooms in his apartment in 2004 to earn income while working on his MBA, he never intended to become a small-business owner.
Fiscal Project Helps Jordan Issue $1.25 Billion Bond, Saving Millions for Development
On October 31, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan closed on its offering of a $1.25 billion sovereign bond issuance guaranteed by the United States.
Incentive for Moroccan Farmers to Conserve Water? Increased Incomes
While the full implications of global climate change on rainfall and the world’s water supply are still largely speculative, the day that demand for water outstrips supply has already arrived in Morocco.
Mining for Answers: Mozambique Weighs Options for a Practical, Profitable Local Content Policy
Mozambique finds itself at a critical juncture in its economic development. New gas deposits found offshore could bring the country significant revenue through natural gas extraction and export. This discovery will add to the ongoing heavy investments from abroad aimed at extracting and exporting Mozambique’s coal and other precious metals.
Facilitating e-Banking in the Philippines
Most Filipino households and small businesses operate in a cash economy. Because many lack access to banks or formal financial services, they face a major barrier to economic advancement.
After Typhoon Haiyan: How Do We Build Back Better?
On November 7, typhoon Haiyan tore through the central Philippines. While rescue and relief personnel have worked valiantly to meet the most urgent needs of the estimated 4.3 million people displaced, full recovery will take years and test the substance of the Philippines national and local governments and the international development community. The estimated impacts of this storm are huge, particularly in Leyte Province:
Evidence Kits Turning the Tide on Sexual Violence
The rape kit–or forensic evidence collection kit, to use its sanitized title–is something people in the West might take for granted. Not so in Sri Lanka where, until the advent of the sexual assault forensic examination (SAFE) program, there were no readily available rape kits. Instead, perpetrators of sexual violence acted with impunity.
To Unlock Job Growth in Egypt, Fix the “Micro-BEE”
Political crisis or no, Egypt’s government cannot afford to keep ignoring the issues that sparked two popular revolts in as many years. Issue number one for most Egyptians, especially young Egyptians, is employment. To meet the need for jobs, policy makers must do more to improve Egypt’s business enabling environment (BEE), not only at the national level, but also in the local administration trenches.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, It’s Time to Recognize Customary Land Rights
Delivering on the promises of economic, social, and cultural rights set out in international covenants is difficult for many developing countries given their lack of wealth and high levels of poverty.
Bottom-Up Decentralization: New Local Autonomy Kickstarts Community Governing in the DRC
When the new constitution for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was written, its main aim was to resolve the conflicts between warring factions that had brought the country to its knees. In the peace talks of 2002 and 2003, convened to assuage the demands of multiple interest and ethnic groups, it was agreed that the DRC would adopt something approaching a federal model. Each province would have its own government, elected assembly, revenue-raising powers, and a governor appointed by the provincial assembly. The existing 11 provinces were to be subdivided to make 26. These agreements were all incorporated in the final constitution of 2006.
Ensuring that Forest Communities Own REDD+ Projects — Not the Other Way Around
Forests and climate change have never been more closely entwined in global climate policy discussions, and for good reason: the more forest, the less climate disruption. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation + Conservation (REDD+) initiatives aim to reward communities in and around forests for not converting forests to other land uses, and millions of dollars have been invested to this end. Done well, REDD+ projects can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the clearing or burning of forests, promote development in communities around forests, strengthen land tenure, conserve carbon-storing forests, and safeguard biodiversity. Done poorly, these projects can increase emissions through meaningless offsets, boost deforestation in adjacent areas, and displace indigenous people.
Three Things That Really Mattered to Developing the Youth Workforce in Serbia’s Down Economy
Workforce development was a relatively late addition to the $25 million Preparedness, Planning and Economic Security (PPES) project implemented by DAI from 2006 to early 2013. Added to the project by the client, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in mid-2008, the activities eventually became known as the “Youth Support” sub-component and addressed one of the most common issues raised by many small and medium sized enterprises—a dearth of qualified talent in Serbia. When we asked these firms what were some of the key barriers to growth one of the most common answers was: “I can’t find people with the skills I need for my business.”
Foreseeing a “Grave Crisis,” Will India Embrace Greater Water-Use Efficiency?
Long before any popular environmental movement existed, Mahatma Ghandhi said, “The earth, the air, the land, and the water are not an inheritance from our forefathers but on loan from our children.” Today, India faces many challenges, few of them more fundamental to long-term development than fresh water availability. The centrality of water to human health, agriculture, manufacturing, and ecosystems makes it imperative that India’s decision makers improve the stewardship of water resources.
Competitiveness-Driven Growth: CIBER Process Breaks Barriers for Moldovan Entrepreneurs
Moldova used to be the garden of the Soviet Union. It shipped wine, cereals, fruit, and vegetables to the other Soviet Republics. The collapse of the Soviet Union also meant the near-collapse of its agricultural sector, in particular the high-value horticultural segment. The country is now engaged in an intensive effort to reclaim its position as a strong competitor in agricultural exports, both in the traditional markets to the east but also to the European Union. However, Moldovan entrepreneurs and policy makers face hurdles in their quest.
Financial Inclusion: A Wealth of Perspectives
The Financial Inclusion Series—convened by DAI and originally published on the Guardian Development Professionals Network—has explored various themes in the “financial inclusion” agenda, from mobile money and poor people’s financial capabilities to innovative supply models and agricultural finance, among others. The range of subject matter and diversity of authors testify to the breadth of the field and the need to pull from different disciplines and perspectives if we are to meet the challenge of financial inclusion.
Microinsurance: Does it Pay Off for the Poor?
Microinsurance, much like microcredit, seeks to bring financial products and services typically reserved for middle and upper classes to the poor. Its particular promise is to offer low-income consumers protection from financial shocks more effectively than existing coping mechanisms such as credit, savings, pooling of community resources, public sector support, or asset sales.
Mobile Services for the Unbanked: Finding a Viable Commercial Model
Providing mobile financial services to improve financial inclusion is an exciting proposition. Banks and non-banks alike see enormous promise in the ubiquitous mobile phone.
Savings Groups and Financial Inclusion
In villages across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, millions of people are meeting regularly in groups of 10 to 30 people to save and borrow small amounts of money, and provide each other with the moral support needed to meet each member's individual financial goals.
How to Unlock the Potential of Mobile Money
It's hard to imagine a more explosive, transformative, and empowering trend than the growth of the mobile phone sector in Africa. In 1998 there were fewer than 4 million phones on the continent; today there are around 800 million—a whopping 80 percent penetration. Compare this to the meager 24 percent of African adults with bank accounts. Experts expect there will be around 1.1 billion mobile phone subscribers by 2017.
The Service Provider Spectrum: From Microfinance to Financial Inclusion
The microfinance industry has come under withering attack in recent years, pilloried among other things for its high interest rates and its coverage, which is often estimated to reach less than 10 percent of the population. But practitioners, the media, and the public should understand that microfinance is a broad term for a highly differentiated financial sector that is not without its successes. Each type of provider—from banks to savings groups—plays a particular role in providing the continuum of services typically needed to promote "financial inclusion" in underserved areas.
Financial Education: Time for a Re-Think?
Financial education is often touted as being essential for low-income people. But traditional financial education in both poor and rich contexts too often takes a didactic, classroom-based approach to conveying analytical financial concepts such as budgeting, saving, managing debt, and calculating interest rates. We need to re-think the process of financial education to merge it with product marketing, thereby making it more relevant for customers and more cost-effective for financial institutions.
Does Microfinance Work?
Does microfinance work? This question has been intensively researched and hotly debated in the development community over the past few years. The answer depends on what you mean by the words 'microfinance' and 'works.' I'll explain more, but in a nutshell, if your answer is probably not, you're likely using a narrow definition of microfinance and a specific notion of what's meant by 'works.' Getting to yes involves a broader definition of microfinance and a more holistic interpretation of what constitutes success, and you need to draw on several strands of research.
Beyond Financial Inclusion
The term 'financial inclusion' has rapidly entered the mainstream policy discourse in the past seven years. Outside of its natural home in the development community and the financial sector, it now features regularly even in tightly worded G20 Summit communiques.
Benefits of Bringing Mobile Banking to the Unbanked
There is no doubting the growth in popularity of mobile banking. According to Juniper Research, the market for mobile payments is expected to reach more than $600 billon (£393 billion) globally this year–double the figure of February 2011. And many development organisations are riding that telecom wave to reach people who don't have access to financial institutions.
Are the Pacific Islands Ripe for Mobile Money?
Characterised by a young, poor, and isolated population with a strong need for basic financial services and fast-growing usage of mobile phones, the Pacific island countries-14 islands spread over 30 million square kilometres-seemed to be a perfect place to develop mobile financial services when the Pacific Financial Inclusion programme (PFIP) started in 2008. Successive assessments found that:
Agricultural Credit: Delivering the Development Promise in Afghanistan
Economic growth is a necessary condition for long-term stability, especially in conflict-affected environments. In Afghanistan, where more than half of the gross domestic product comes from agriculture and 75 percent of the population lives in rural areas, the growth of the agriculture sector is critical to economic prosperity and social stability.
A New Financial Model: Putting the Individual at the Centre
Ten years ago, a low-income Filipina woman described her life to me as "one long risk." Today, I suspect her life is little different. For all the successes of the microcredit experiment, we have yet to take full account of the individual experience at the center of a life lived in poverty—a life where medical crises, theft, crop losses, or any one of innumerable random shocks can readily erode the hard-won gains of saving, building assets, and participation in the financial system.
A Cash-Lite World: Safe, Cheap, and Convenient Payments for All
In the past two decades, the world's information grid has expanded massively. Digital signals are all around us. In developed markets, many of these digital exchanges involve electronic payments, but most people in developing countries are still stuck moving paper. Financial transactions lie at the heart of doing commerce, selling goods and services, managing a business, and taking care of one's family. Making these transactions safer, cheaper, and more convenient should be on the development agenda of every developing country. Yet building a digital payments fabric linking all citizens and businesses in a country is rarely a development priority, in part because the benefits are intangible and diverse.
Rwandan National Park Project Honored as World’s Best by British Travel Writers
The Nyungwe Nziza project in Rwanda has been named winner of the prestigious British Guild of Travel Writers’ Best Overseas and Best Global Project Awards. At the recent annual awards dinner at the Savoy Hotel in London, Guild Chair Roger Bray said: “Nyungwe Nziza is a model tourism project for developing countries.”
Philippine City Launches Mobile Payment Pilot
The city of Valenzuela, Philippines, has embarked on a program to promote the use of mobile money for payment of government services.
Unleashing Cambodian Technical Knowledge
One of DAI’s most wide-reaching economic growth projects marked its close at the end of 2012 with a remarkable tally of results that speak to the success of an approach based on unleashing the technical knowhow and market linkages already latent in the Cambodian economy.
Using Hard Data to Inform HIV/AIDS Interventions for Economic Strengthening
In Tanzania, the health and development challenges are chronic and widespread. The country has been hit hard by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and 15 million people (one third of the population) live below the poverty line, making them particularly vulnerable. While there are no simple solutions to Tanzania’s problems, a household survey implemented by DAI promises to shed new light on interventions to assist these HIV-vulnerable populations.
Linking Soldiers, Civilians Across West-Central Africa to Increase Stability, Security
Chad’s desert expanse—nearly twice the size of Texas—presents enormous challenges to its government.
Inexpensive Mobile Platform Connects Agribusinesses to Work Together Better
For more than 10 years, DAI has been integrating information, communication, and geospatial technology into our work around the globe.
Great Expectations
In recent years, DAI has made a conscious recommitment to serve the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID). As a result, after a lot of hard work and significant investment, we are beginning to establish ourselves as one of the department’s leading implementing partners. We currently manage 10 major projects on DFID’s behalf, including education initiatives, governance projects covering the spectrum of work from voice and accountability to security sector and justice reform, and several economic growth assignments in Africa.
Development Insights on the Frontlines of Asymmetric Warfare
Since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, perhaps the greatest—and least understood—security threats faced by countries are asymmetric, not force on force.
Business Booms for Farmers Who Solved Supply Problem for Top Regional Business
The hillsides of Gurue District in northern Mozambique should be perfect for farming, but it takes hard work, know-how, and resources to turn land into farmland, farmland into crops, and crops into cash.
Youth Music and Popular Voice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
In many emerging democracies, youth are absent from the political stage and civil society. Last year’s “Arab Spring” proved a promising exception, demonstrating the power of youth to galvanize popular demand and help redefine their political landscape. Sub-Saharan populations, many being immediate neighbors of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, followed these dramatic events with fascination and some envy.
Economic Empowerment Strategies for Afghan Women
It was just a generation ago that many women in Afghanistan thrived in academia and the professional workplace. Their standing in society, like that of less privileged Afghan women, has since been destroyed.
USAID STAR Project Helped Propel Vietnam into the Global Economy
In 2000, Vietnam was anxious to pump life into its economy. Less than a generation removed from a crippling war, the country faced challenges such as reducing poverty and creating enough jobs to absorb some 1.5 million people entering the labor force each year.
Thousands Worldwide Find Environmental Solutions at FRAMEWeb
Biogas projects in Africa have a worthy goal—to cheaply convert waste into fuel—but a discouraging record of failure. Reliable biogas operations require specific conditions and careful maintenance. So when Alvaro Gutierrez from Colombia set out to launch a biogas program in Kenya, he reached out for advice and found it, for free, from colleagues all over the world.
The Case for Supplier Development
Here in South Africa, the recently approved merger between Walmart and local retailer Massmart has made supplier development a hot topic. Opponents of the merger argue that it will hurt small suppliers by denying them access to the combined company’s supply chain. But the sobering truth is that even before the merger, small companies—particularly black companies—had little chance of penetrating the supply chains of most large South African corporates. International consolidation is a red herring; the more pressing problem is the structural exclusion of nearly 6 million small businesses in the local market.
Providing an Afghan Village with Lights and Electricity
Imagine the difference electricity would make to a village where every night the street and homes go dark because there is no choice.
In Arid Jordan, IDARA Motivated Citizens, Government to Conserve Precious Water
Five years ago, the Kingdom of Jordan took a critically important step to conserve its scarce water resources by approving a Water Demand Management (WDM) Policy. While many middle-income and advanced economies have overemphasized supply-side solutions—a costly, myopic, and ultimately inadequate response–water-starved Jordan is beginning to see the benefits of a more balanced strategy.
Herat Economic Corridor Could Catalyze Growth in Western Afghanistan
Doing business in Afghanistan is tough. The last 30 years of conflict aside, private-sector growth is obstructed by perpetual mistrust, poor transportation and energy infrastructure, a lack of market information, and a business disabling environment. Infrastructure has been destroyed, investment discouraged, and industrial capacity depleted. Many professionals have left the country, while labor forces have been displaced or are untrained.
Helping a South African Mining Giant Invest for Results in its Local Communities
The Sishen Iron Ore Company Community Development Trust faced a fabulous opportunity—and a daunting challenge. A beneficiary of mining giant Anglo American’s Kumba Iron Ore Company, the trust recently came into a sooner-than-expected windfall of dividend income. This annuity could continue for 20 years or more, depending on the life of the company assets, efficient operation of the mine, and global demand for iron ore.
DAI Security Chief Discusses Importance of Local Security and Training
Army Special Forces Colonel (Retired) Barry Shapiro joined DAI in 2009 after a distinguished military career specializing in training and liaising with the security forces of Central Asian and Southeast Asian countries. He has extensive experience training local police, special, and military forces in countries such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Thailand. As DAI’s Vice President of Global Security, Barry ensures DAI project teams worldwide can mitigate the risks associated with working in many of our locations and integrates security into all aspects of corporate operations and planning. He recently shared some thoughts with Developments about building the capacity of local security forces.
Why are local security forces important to local people and, ultimately, to their country?
In many places in the developing world, security forces, whether local militia or uniformed police or soldiers, are often the first tangible example of government in action. I have always felt that the average citizen of the world will support the side that is seen as their protector, or at least does the least harm to them and their families. That local security force is the government’s first and lasting chance to make a positive impression.
In developing countries and countries in transition, what kind of capacity building do security forces typically need?
The typical challenge is changing traditional concepts of local militias into security units marked by discipline and teamwork. Bravado and fighting experience are not what make a unit effective. Being able to orchestrate diverse functions during extreme situations is what separates a trained security unit from a bunch of guys with guns.
The concept of performing a dangerous task for the sake of public service is another concept that needs to be developed and maintained.
During your army career, what did you find were some of the main tenets for successful capacity building for local security forces?
The most important thing was to establish the right rapport with our clients. Understanding their cultural perspective is, of course, one aspect of this rapport, but knowing how to use that understanding to your advantage is key. To say it is a nuanced relationship is an understatement. For instance, even though there may be a cultural tendency to show respect to a teacher, we had to also demonstrate we had something worthwhile to teach.
What are some of the common mistakes made in this line of work?
The policies of our government tend to support programs aimed at building “gold-plated” military or police units. By that I mean we create a high-functioning unit for a specific function that requires the type of equipment and expertise that few countries other than the United States can provide. Unfortunately, when we do it that way and finish the job, the host nation often does not have the capacity to maintain that band of excellence, so the unit either disbands or becomes far less effective.
Competitiveness Initiative Simplifies Business in Vietnam
As USAID STAR helped open doors for Vietnam to global trade, another project is helping the country cut red tape across its 63 provinces so its citizens can transact business more smoothly. The USAID Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (USAID VNCI), also implemented by DAI, supports the government’s Project 30 reforms.
Project Improves Business Environment in Morocco in Midst of Political Upheaval
In just three and a half years, the Morocco Economic Competitiveness (MEC) program accomplished an ambitious scope of work: reducing barriers to trade and investment in two rural regions at a time when economic turmoil—particularly in Europe—and political change across the Middle East and North Africa had a profound impact on Morocco.
Project Helps Vietnam Cut Red Tape, Hone Competitiveness, and Boost Economic Growth
A DAI-led project in Vietnam that touched the lives of 60,000 private businesspeople, partnered with five government entities, and many more institutions and groups has come to a close after 10 years.
Haitian Farmers See Increased Income While Better Managing Their Natural Resources
A wide-ranging project aimed at improving Haiti’s natural resource management and the lives of hillside farmers marked its close last month with a number of major successes—including higher incomes for farmers and the formation of a regional forum to carry on improving farm production while protecting natural resources.
Project Brings Together Divergent Ethnic Groups in Sri Lanka
A film documenting an annual pilgrimage in Sri Lanka shows the promise of peace for an island too long torn apart by war. The film was produced by the DAI-led Reintegration and Stabilization in the East and North (RISEN) project, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI).
Market-Driven Approach Delivers Far-Reaching Results in Burundi
At the beginning of the Burundi Agribusiness Program (BAP), women participants would stand in the back of training sessions and remain quiet. But as time went on, they gradually began moving to the front. By the end of the program, they felt empowered to speak on issues without permission from men.
The Re-Greening of Iraq: Restoring Marshlands
Driven from their land by a despot bent on retaliation, the Marsh Arabs of Iraq had little choice but to abandon the wetlands that were once home to billions of birds, a source of fish and dairy products for much of the country, and a natural filter for the waters of the Persian Gulf.