Here’s my latest brain dump, borne from some significant personal and organisational experience in Challenge Funds – some of it will have wider application than just challenge funds.
So, what is a Challenge fund?
Typically, a large institutional donor recognises that a systemic blockage exists in a value chain or an economic ecosystem and presents a CHALLENGE […]
Traditional aid and sustainable development
World Humanitarian day is held annually on the 19th August to pay tribute to humanitarian workers across the globe and to increase public understanding of humanitarian assistance activities. Traditionally (and correctly) the words ‘humanitarian assistance’ evoke images of aid workers delivering immediate and necessary life-saving support to beneficiaries in conflict zones […]
Private sector development – micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) – as envisaged by SDG 8, typically follows a state-led approach, where national agencies conduct a variety of activities in order to i) improve the business environment: including investing infrastructure, establishing apex bodies, and arranging trade deals with foreign partners on behalf of the private […]
Like every other country, the spread of COVID-19 is proving to be a double tragedy with effects on both health and economic well being. Despite taking a while to confirm its first case, which happened on 6th April 2020, the number of cases in South Sudan are growing rapidly with the count reaching 194 cases […]
There will be a number of changes to African trade due to COVID-19, but it is acknowledged that at this stage there is a very high degree of uncertainty around scenarios.
Not just global supply chain disruptions, but changing demand: Supermarkets in the Global North are struggling with changing demand to domestic consumption rather than retail. This […]
INTRODUCTION
The AgriFI Kenya Challenge Fund Initiative aims to support productive and market-integrated smallholder agriculture in Kenya, improving the capacity of farmers to practice environmentally sustainable agricultural businesses in inclusive value chains (VCs). The anticipated impacts of the fund include benefits relating to gender, youth, climate, nutrition and food security. Through their interactions with smallholder farmers […]
COMESA recently held a technical policy dialogue in Nairobi Kenya on implementation of the COMESA Simplified Trade Regime (STR) from the 8th to the 9th of October. Organized by COMESA under the 11 European Development Fund (EDF) Small Scale Cross Border Trade Initiative (SCCBTI), the meeting objective was to discuss policy and technical aspects of […]
Poverty, Growth and Inequality
Poverty reduction is a social imperative that society largely agrees on. From this agreement emerges two starkly divergent schools of thought which dominate news headlines and public discourse. We often hear the term “trickledown economics”, the idea that economic growth within an economy is the best way to reduce poverty and benefit those at […]
The declaration of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 was the realisation of the regional economic integration of the ten economies of the ASEAN Member States, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. The AEC was established to promote free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour […]
BACKGROUND
Despite the country’s economic potential, many in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remain desperately poor. After many years of conflict and instability 69% of the DRC’s population lives in poverty [1]. Economic opportunities, like capitalising on the strong demand for fish, are much needed.
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has embarked on an innovative […]
