How donor grants may unlock billions of investment dollars for impact enterprise.
In 2010, JP Morgan released a figure that shocked the investment industry: the group estimated that the potential capital market for impact investing -- putting dollars into enterprises that would deliver positive social impact -- was between $400 billion and $1 trillion. Buoyed by the success of the microfinance revolution, philanthropists, governments, entrepreneurs and investors began in earnest to see how else they could do well by doing good.
Impact investors have surged forward with capital, ready to support the pioneering entrepreneurs creating fortunes and development gains at the base of the pyramid (BoP). There are now 200 impact investment entities poised to pour billions of dollars into impact enterprises in the next year. They have cast wide nets, but it… more »
On a stifling hot March evening in Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city, I joined Peace Corps volunteers David Kalpakchian and Hannah Braun and Ghanaian volunteers to hand out and hang up insecticide-treated nets (ITN). We know that insecticide-treated nets are a highly effective way to protect people from malaria infection. Because of this, Ghana is working to achieve "universal" coverage, meaning one ITN is available for every two people. This effort is important to the kayayei and other groups whose socioeconomic and transient status make them much less likely to have access to ITNs.
Malaria does not threaten boys and girls in the United States, but in Ghana and across Africa, the lives of could-be future presidents, scientists and nurses are lost prematurely, and their hope for making an impact on the world is greatly diminished. In Ghana, where malaria is a leading… more »
Today the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and several partners including UNICEF launched "Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday". The premise of this awareness-raising campaign is simple: every child should have a chance to reach five. Over 7 million children -- most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia -- didn't reach their 5th birthday last year. That number is equivalent to the entire population of New York City.
At an event this morning at the Kaiser Family Foundation, USAID Administrator Raj Shah talked about his own three children. Dr. Shah mentioned his second child, Amna, who will turn five next year. I celebrated reaching five with a carousel cake and a Smurf-themed… more »
This week, urgently needed food -- 33,700 tons of sorghum from American farmers -- will depart the United States for West Africa, as a part of the U.S. government's response to the drought in the Sahel.
Due to poor harvests, high food prices, and a number of conflicts in the region, a dire humanitarian situation is looming for chronically vulnerable populations across the Sahel region of western Africa.
The food we are shipping this week should arrive by late April, just four to five weeks from now. USAID's speedy contribution complements efforts of the UN World Food Program and other agencies to procure food for the hungry regionally. Because markets in the Sahel are currently stretched to meet the demand for food, internationally sourced assistance is vital to ensure that food prices don't rise even higher. With 7 to 12 million people in need of assistance,… more »
For weeks now, my teenage daughter and her friends have been buzzing about the release of the new film The Hunger Games. I asked her recently about the trilogy -- she'd already read the books -- and I was struck by how much the premise relates to the very heart of what we are trying to address at USAID and through Feed the Future. Among other themes, the book touches on the fundamental right everyone should have: access to food.
As a father, nothing is more important to me than ensuring my daughter has a happy life. Sure, this includes her ability to hang out with friends at the movies (after her homework is done, of course). But more importantly, it means she's healthy enough to go to school and work toward opportunities for a bright future. Kids all over the world deserve the… more »
In the 1960s, during USAID's founding decade, official development assistance represented 70 percent of all capital flows to developing countries. Today, foreign aid makes up just 13 percent, having been replaced over time by trade, investment, and other sources of private capital.
This changing landscape means our impact can be even greater. Rather than using our development dollars to substitute for missing… more »
Though one sounds like a medical contraption and the other a geometry problem, water pans and trapezoidal bunds are actually vital instruments Kenyan herders and farmers can use to collect and preserve rainwater for human and livestock consumption and crop irrigation in areas regularly impacted by droughts.
I recently had the opportunity to visit Kenya, and view a couple of projects run by the World Food Program (WFP) and its cooperating partner, the Kenya Child Fund, near Lodwar in the northeastern district of Turkana. The WFP, which has been working in Kenya for a long time, began a program in 2009 aimed at rebuilding the livelihoods of populations living in the arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya, of which Turkana is one, that have been severely affected by recurring droughts. With this program,… more »
We have seen evidence over and over again that investing in women and girls is one of the most direct and effective ways to produce economic and social progress. We have also seen how information and communication technologies (or ICT) have accelerated the pace of change by introducing efficiencies, opening new markets, and creating technology-related jobs. Now, imagine the tremendous possibilities that can arise from empowering women with ICT. The promise is real, though there are a number of challenges to navigate.
One of the most challenging issues is gender inequity in the access to technology, whether that be a mobile phone or Internet connectivity. Closing the gender gap presents an enormous opportunity for economic development. The GSMA mWomen Program, launched by Secretary… more »
Due to erratic rainfall and failed harvests, high food prices, and rising conflict, more than seven million people across the Sahel region of western Africa are at risk of plunging into crisis when the lean season begins this spring.
We know this as a result of our investments into early warning systems that monitor rainfall, harvests, market prices, climatic conditions and nutritional status.
As a result, on February 15, 2012, I attended an unprecedented event in with Rome that brought together assembled leaders from the United Nations agencies, European Union, and USAID, as well as representatives of affected governments and non-governmental organization.
It was a heartening and remarkable convergence on the need to mobilize for early integrated action in response to the early warnings in the Sahel, with an emphasis on a smart, targeted response… more »
May 23: The State Department, through its office of the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), is pleased to announce $1.5 million in funding to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to support open governance and political participation in the Middle East and North Africa. more »
May 23: Today, Russia was invited to join the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) at a ceremony hosted by its parent body, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. ã more »
![Special Representative for Global Partnerships Kris Balderston introduces U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the first-ever Global Impact Economy Forum at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on April 26, 2012. [State Department photo by Ben Chang/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0426_clinton_balderston_m.jpg)
![A Peace Corps Volunteer works with a hospital in Senegal to grow gardens in order to provide vitamins to patients who cannot afford pills. [Peace Corps photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0426_food_m.jpg)
![Children peek from beneath mosquito netting in sub-Saharan Africa. [Photo Gilbert Awekofua]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2009_0424_mosquito_netting_m.jpg)
![A laborer works at a grain store inside the world food programme (WFP) warehouse in Maradi, Niger, on Aug. 7, 2005. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0330_sahel_wfp_m.jpg)
![A farmer sows wheat at Chunnikhel, Katmandu, Nepal, Nov. 15, 2011. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0322_wheat_farmer_m.jpg)
![Image outlining how the USAID Development Credit Authority works to empower entrepreneurs around the world. [USAID image/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0322_usaid_credit_image_m.jpg)
![Mishing woman talks on a mobile phone as she prepares meat during the Northeast ethnic food festival in Gauhati, India, Jan. 7, 2012. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0226_woman_mobile_phone_m.jpg)
![Following a sandstorm, Nomadic tribal chief walks past the carcass of a cow that he says died of hunger, in Gadabeji, Niger, May 11, 2010. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0220_sandstorm_niger_m.jpg)
