Lebanon is passing through the toughest economic and financial crisis of its history, starting in October 2019 and still ongoing. The country’s GDP has shrunk from $52 billion in 2019 to $22 billion in 2021, due to the combined impacts of regional politics, high levels of public waste and corruption, COVID-19, and the 2020 Beirut…
More than 2 million Venezuelans have migrated to Colombia since 2016, fleeing social, economic, and political hardship in search of employment and essential services. This massive population influx, coupled with sizeable numbers of Colombian returnees displaced by 50 years of armed conflict, has acutely strained public and private services and systems, particularly in urban areas…
With today’s incredible advancements in technology, medicine, and industry, there has never been a better time in history to be alive. Yet universal gaps in income and wellbeing persist to a staggering degree, especially compared to the relative wealth and resources generated by the world economy. According to reporting by the World Economic Forum, the richest…
This post originally appeared in Foreign Policy’s April Issue. Mert Tangonan was stuck. It was 2017, and Tangonan, a native of the Philippines, wanted to persuade the country’s largest banks to accept digital payments. With 99% of the transactions conducted in cash or checks across the nation’s 7,000 islands, the banks had little incentive to…
Flourishing research and innovation systems spur inclusive economic growth and development. The Research and Information Systems in Africa (RISA) Fund aims to expand and reinforce national research and innovation systems in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Tanzania. From strengthening intellectual property systems to turning academic research into technology products and businesses, RISA works…
In the first blog entry in this series, More than Pipes and Pumps: Good Governance Drives Improved WASH, we describe how governance is central to meeting the challenges that rapid urbanization poses for provision of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. In this entry, we focus specifically on how improved WASH governance can enable technological innovations,…
1. Why is Chemonics creating the Center for Private Sector Engagement? Why now and what are its goals? Although the Center for Private Sector Engagement is new, Chemonics has worked with the private sector for over 40 years from empowering entrepreneurs and spurring the growth of local businesses to partnering with multinationals to deliver critical…
This blog post is the second in a series on private sector engagement. Check out our previous blog here. You’re starting up a new project. Perhaps it’s focused on environmental protection, or anticorruption, or at-risk youth. In any case, you know that the private sector will be a critical partner for achieving your objectives sustainably.…
Recently, Chemonics partnered with the University of Notre Dame (one of the partners in the creation of USAID’s Private Sector Engagement Evidence Gap Map) to conduct an in-depth survey of our development programs. The goal was to better understand how our projects are working with the private sector to achieve development impact — and, more…
Author’s Note: We drafted this blog post and scheduled it to publish before the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing protests for justice and reform. Our original intention was to highlight the importance of security sector reform (SSR) work for international development programs. We believe that the recent events in the United States related…
On Monday, October 7, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted a panel discussion on private sector engagement, titled More than a Wallet: The Role of the Private Sector in Development. The panel explored the role of the private sector in development. The event featured Chemonics’ Middle East and North Africa Senior Vice…
Climate variability and change present both current and future risks to human health. The purpose of this report is to: Increase understanding of the influence of climate variability and change, specifically, rising temperatures on malaria exposure of populations in sub-Saharan Africa; and provide public health decision-makers and stakeholder practitioners with information to make decisions about…