"The whitepaper discusses the problem of gender inequity in funding outcomes for women-founded startups, both globally and in India. The research aimed to understand the gender gaps in funding outcomes among investors and identify opportunities for improvement. The study utilized data from the Tracxn database, global benchmarks, and interviews with stakeholders in the investment ecosystem. Key findings include the concentration of funding in a few sectors and cities, the growth of women-founded companies in recent years, and the lack of gender diversity in investment teams. The report also highlights case studies of organizations that practice gender-smart funding and offers recommendations for fostering gender lens investment in India. It emphasizes the need for data tracking, a change in investment processes, and the promotion of gender diversity in firms to improve funding outcomes for women entrepreneurs. The report suggests a targeted approach with a dedicated team and industry-wide engagement to create a sustainable and robust platform for gender lens investment in India."

This Learning Brief offers a clear justification for the role of development assistance organizations like USAID in catalyzing private finance for climate action. It synthesizes lessons learned from a broad set of donor experiences and offers
practical ‘how to’ descriptions of donor-supported activities that lead to additionality and positive climate and human impacts.This is one of three complementary resources that includes a set of case studies that examine various models of blended finance for climate action and a guidance note that provides a framework for understanding the potential for additionality and human impacts for blended finance from USAID’s perspective.

"El estudio identifica las barreras al financiamiento de paisajes sustentables a través de los pequeños productores en México, en específico en la Selva Maya, Yucatán; la Selva Lacandona, Chiapas, y Mascota, Jalisco. Además propone recomendaciones para superar estas barreras.

Incluye tres objetivos secundarios:
(i) entender los instrumentos e iniciativas financieras que existen y que estén enfocados a prácticas productivas sostenibles;
(ii) identifica las barreras al financiamiento para prácticas productivas sostenibles que enfrentan los pequeños productores, y
(iii) desarrolla recomendaciones para superar estas barreras."

"Risk is an inherent feature of agriculture around the globe. The ever-present uncertainties in weather, yields, prices, government policies, global markets, and other factors can cause high volatility in farm income. In developing countries, smallholder farmers (and other small enterprises within the value chain) often do not have access to risk management products such as insurance to protect themselves from shock. Key barriers to the development of insurance markets in developing countries include: lack of awareness and understanding about insurance among households, high overhead costs associated with data collection and claims processing, and the limited availability of insurance products that meet the needs of poor and low-income farmers.

The use of digital tools in agricultural insurance has the potential to facilitate client uptake, reduce transaction costs, improve efficiency of the insurance process, and increase household resilience to respond to external shocks while ensuring stability, growth, and sustainability of agricultural value chains. Technology has its shortcomings, and the use of digital tools alone will not be sufficient to increase access to affordable, quality agricultural insurance for smallholder farmers. However, when strategically and thoughtfully inserted into existing Feed the Future programs, technology has the potential to accelerate and amplify USAID investments in sustainable agriculture and food security."

"Smallholder farmers around the globe are facing unstable productivity due to changing climate and weather patterns. The ways in which the private sector supports these farmers to build resilience to climate change and/or engage in efforts to mitigate climate change can have significant impact on the ability for farmers to make a living, the security of supply of smallholder crops, and the reputation of the private sector actors drawing loyalty of end consumers and investors.

As part of an effort to better engage the private sector in climate smart agriculture activities the Learning Community for Supply Chain Resilience, funded by USAID's Feed the Future program and in support of the Alliance for Resilient Coffee (ARC), interviewed 18 coffee companies to better understand how they think about climate risk and climate smart agriculture, the types of activities in which they engage, and the types of climate information they use and/or need. The results of this study are supplemented by results from a case study of Ugandan coffee companies, illustrating how their use of and need for climate information differs at the national level. The results give insight into the types of information that private sector companies are looking for to be able to design and implement effective climate smart agriculture programs. It also yields some insight on information and tools that would facilitate sector-level strategies."

"USAID's Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship (PACE) initiative aims to catalyze private sector investment into early-stage enterprises and help entrepreneurs bridge the pioneer gap - thus unlocking the potential of thousands of promising enterprises around the world. Working in partnership with more than 40 incubators, accelerators, and seed-stage impact investors, USAID creates public-private partnerships dedicated to testing ways to help entrepreneurs overcome barriers to growth. These partnerships are expected to leverage $145 million1 in combined public and private investments over their lifetime."

"Many of the available developmental evaluation resources focus on theory rather than practical experience. The DEPA-MERL consortium has documented early lessons learned from its experience and is pleased to offer guidance for organizations, managers, and evaluators that seek to implement this approach."

"This assessment was conducted by a mixed international-local team with youth participation, and is the first of a series of labor market assessments to be conducted under the Workforce Connections project. The methodology builds on standard approaches to understanding labor markets used in the past by USAID, other donors, governments, and private organizations, with the addition of a more focused economic analysis which makes it possible to generate deeper insight into the drivers of skills demand. Results from this and the other Workforce Connections assessments, and the tools used to generate them, will be shared and further refined through the project's Community of Practice over the coming year. The assessment also contains a summary of lessons learned about workforce development programming."