The global demand for male condoms and voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) kits as preventative measures for contracting HIV/AIDS has been steadily increasing. As demand soars, lead times to manufacture and deliver commodities from a limited number of pre-qualified vendors have also been on the rise. With several social marketing campaigns of male condoms and…
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is an important economic activity in many rural areas, with a long tradition in Colombia. High rates of informality undermine governance, security, and legal economies, and cause significant environmental and social impacts. As the government of Colombia consolidates post-conflict conditions, the United States and Switzerland are providing assistance through…
Understanding cultural norms is essential to achieving results in development interventions and preventing interventions from causing unintended negative consequences. However, capturing norms within everyday contexts in ways that can be monitored and evaluated can be expensive and time consuming and is not always feasible. We tested a novel method, the cultural consensus analysis (CCA), in…
The paper’s background section explains why the study focused on these four social groups and explores the diversity that exists across and within them. In addition, the paper examines whether it is effective to use the phrase “vulnerable groups” to refer to the collection of social groups that programming is intended to include. The paper…
Accountability ecosystems are defined as the relationship between multiple levels of government, citizen collective action, civil society advocacy, and institutions, wrapped together by a web of social, political, and cultural factors in a given country context. The relationship between multiple levels of government, citizen collective action, civil society advocacy, and institutions, wrapped together by a…
This chapter was written by Chemonics employees Enrique Betancourt and Todd Diamond as part of an anthology published by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) entitled “Sharpening Our Efforts: The Role of International Development in Countering Violent Extremism.” It proposes five principles aimed at countering and preventing violent extremism: adapting to the unstable…
Through the Financial Sector Knowledge Sharing Project (FS Share), USAID, in collaboration with its Bureau for Economic Growth Agriculture and Trade (EGAT) and Chemonics International, identified financial sector priorities and developed strategies and programs for growing the financial sector. FS Share also identified financial sector best practices and aggregated those best practices through model scopes…
The objective of this deliverable is to help United States government economic growth program designers identify reforms to facilitate the development of efficient government securities markets (GSMs), for the primary market in which government securities (GS) are issued and for the secondary market in which GS are traded. It presents case studies based on recent…
This primer’s objective is to provide U.S. government program designers with a basic technical understanding of branchless banking as a sustainable approach to increase access to financial services. The primer is designed as a practical tool to enable program designers to integrate best practices and lessons learned into effective economic growth programming.
Through the FS Share Task Order, the USAID Bureau for Economic Growth Agriculture and Trade (EGAT) and Chemonics collaboratively identify financial-sector priorities and develop strategies and programs for growing the financial sector. This paper describes the experience of USAID programs in Albania, Georgia, Egypt, and Colombia as they apply to the design and implementation of initiatives…
While considerable progress has been made in establishing a legal and regulatory environment and the institutional infrastructure to support development of a securities market in Azerbaijan, the market remains underdeveloped and slowly developing. Notable constraints to market development include those associated with the market’s organizational and operational infrastructure, corporate governance, the protection of investors’ rights,…
This primer is designed to convert lessons learned and best practices into effective financial systems that enable long-term economic growth and expansion. It provides an overview of the technical background and rationale for secured financing reform, and a detailed description of the components a reform program should include. The diagnostic checklist is a simple tool…