Blog

Through Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s initiative to end hunger, and with support from USAID and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Aisha and other farmers on Zanzibar’s Unguja Island are learning to better cope with the effects of climate change on agriculture. As part of a project called Building Capacity for Resilient Food Security, the farmers spent one year using a demonstration plot to learn about resilient agricultural practices and technologies, and a second year adopting the practices on their own land.

• 12/23/2021
• Catherine Njuguna, USAID

USAID established the Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) Program to mobilize enterprise-driven solutions that increase trade and investment and contribute to job creation in Africa.  USAID/Kenya East Africa is currently inviting concepts covering specific priority sectors identified below engaging one or more countries in the region including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

• 12/16/2021
• USAID

To address these challenges, USAID partnered with the Sustainable Ocean Fund (SOF), to make pioneering impact investments into marine and coastal projects and enterprises. The $132 million Fund invests in projects across Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia and the Pacific that aim to build resilience in coastal ecosystems and create sustainable economic growth and livelihoods in the blue economy.

• 11/23/2021
• Jennifer Kane, Sashi Jayatileke

To strengthen communities' access to and management of water and pasture, USAID EKISIL—which means “peace” in the local language of Karamoja—initiated climate risk management (CRM) actions in the Abim, Kaabong, Kotido, and Moroto districts

• 10/13/2021
• Lorine Giangola, Leah Quin

With agriculture driving deforestation, global climate protection and biodiversity conservation goals seem to collide with the drive to produce more food. Researchers warn of an impending “food security-biodiversity-climate” crisis and “looming land scarcity.”

• 10/12/2021
• Daniel Evans

With USAID support, a local traditional chief and his administration are using land resource rights to empower women, protect forests and wildlife, and build a chiefdom for the future.

• 10/07/2021
• Chando Mapoma

Across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), approximately 60% of healthcare facilities are without electricity access. Without such access, healthcare providers face difficult and all-too-often dangerous challenges.

• 09/28/2021
• Amer Barghouth, Alice Brower, Justin Larson, Gordon Shaw

Electrifying health facilities can be accomplished through one of two approaches: connecting to a utility grid or on-site generation. The combination of these two technologies is much cleaner than using diesel generators, the preferred mode of rural clinics for providing off-grid power, and over time is less expensive. Renewable energy solutions such as solar also reduce future greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

• 09/23/2021
• Jacob Brunell, Julia Fonteles, Will Putzier, Nicolette Salazar

Despite the government’s deliberate initiatives to reach more people, Tanzania lags behind in its grid electricity connection targets. Only 24.5% of rural households in Tanzania have access to electricity. To help realize a future where all people enjoy the benefits of modern energy, Pact develops solutions and implements projects to expand access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy and the means to use energy productively.

• 09/16/2021
• Marianna Balampama, Valentina Socias

There is growing momentum in the international community to ramp up climate finance for mitigation and adaptation actions. Undoubtedly, a focus on climate change adaptation in the developing world must be a priority for the financing.

• 09/08/2021
• Mohamed Bakarr

Inside the protected area of Menabe Antimena is Madagascar's largest dry forest--45% of which has disappeared in only the last 10 years due to massive deforestation, fires, migration, illegal maize cultivation, corruption and unscrupulous private interests. Menabe Antimena is one of the many critical ecosystems that the USAID Hay Tao project is working to protect.

• 08/26/2021
• Mihary Randrianarivelo

CGIAR has developed biofortified crop varieties and supportive seed, production and post-harvest technologies that can contribute significantly to meeting humanitarian nutrition interventions in fragile environments.

• 08/12/2021
• Frederick Grant

The ENGIE Acquisition: With USAID Support, an Off-Grid Solar Fenix Rises

• 08/11/2021
• Taha Gaya

In the dairy sector, low-emissions development (LED) often utilizes intensification practices that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase yield. However, LED focuses on technical practices and outcomes, seldom considering the subsequent impacts on women’s and men's social distribution of burdens and benefits.

• 08/04/2021
• Sadie Shelton

Rwanda is among the smallest countries in mainland Africa, roughly the size of Maryland with twice the population. Less land area means harder decisions, such as balancing land allocated for agriculture versus areas designated for forest conservation.

• 07/14/2021
• Phoebe Oduor, Jake Ramthun