Cabo Verde: New venture capital funds key to reenergize the private sector

May 14, 2021

4 min read

The global travel and tourism industry has faced unprecedented challenges since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020. The closure of borders and lockdowns in almost every country put a stop to the movement of people and goods. With entire sectors being shut down—both locally and internationally—travel agencies, tour operators, airlines, hotels, resorts, restaurants, shops and even airports have risked going out of business.

In a service-oriented small economy like Cabo Verde, the impact has been especially severe. Since March 2020, Cabo Verde experienced an estimated 94 percent decrease in tourist arrivals, according to the country’s airport authority. With this sudden decline, 90 percent of hotels closed, causing major layoffs of their respective workforces, and the tourism industry shut down almost completely. Given that tourism represents over 25 percent of Cabo Verde’s GDP and is a major job source for women and youth, such sudden declines can adversely affect the country’s entire economy.

While we do not know the full extent of COVID-19’s impact on the country in 2020, the Central Bank and the Cabo Verde government expected it to shrink 8.1 percent and for the unemployment rate to surpass 20 percent.

Despite these setbacks, Cabo Verde has fared better than many countries in the region. The government’s social and economic safety nets sustained private consumption and are continuing to support businesses during the pandemic. Cabo Verde’s strong social, environmental and economic pillars, coupled with its advantageous geographic location in the middle of four continents, put Cabo Verde in a good position to recovery as travel and tourism resume. According to the International Monetary Fund, Cabo Verde’s real GDP growth is projected to rebound to 5.8 percent in 2021 and to average around 6 percent in the medium term.

Most economists believe that small, open and service-based economies will be the first to profit from the post-pandemic recovery. With vaccinations increasing worldwide, Cabo Verde is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and tourism operators are starting preparations for reopening.

Yet, for sustained recovery from the pandemic, private sector investment is key. Recognizing this, the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment Hub (Trade Hub), which aims to help generate $400 million in new private investment in the region, launched a COVID-19 rapid response program to spur economic recovery through private sector investments.

Since the start of the pandemic, Cabo Verde’s social security system covered an important part of the layoff burden. Banks provided a moratorium on bank loans, while new lines of credit, backed by sovereign guarantees, were put in place for companies. However, low demand and maintenance costs during inactivity drained companies’ liquidity and weakened their balance sheets and capital position. Their ability to resume activity and take advantage of the economic recovery depends highly on their recapitalization.

The Trade Hub believes that venture capital funds targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the best solutions to reinforce equity capital, remove risk from companies and prepare them for financial restructuring to then provide a solid, long-term capital structure.

As a predominantly service-based economy, Cabo Verde provides a huge opportunity for venture capital finance. Two West African impact venture capital firms, for example, are presently in discussions to launch a COVID-19 rapid response impact fund with the support of the Trade Hub and other partners. With a target portfolio of $10 million, this fund will provide working capital and long-term loans to SMEs up to $500,000.

Recently, two fund managers representing the venture capital firms visited Cabo Verde and met with local authorities, companies and start-ups to move forward with the design of the fund platform. During the visit, the fund managers sought to understand Cabo Verde’s current business environment, opportunities and prospects and to assess compliance to applicable laws and regulations. From the visit, it was clear that venture capital finance and the Trade Hub’s COVID-19 rapid response program could not only be instrumental in building resiliency in the tourism sector but other sectors as well.

The fund managers identified several strategies for sectors outside of tourism that have strong growth potential:

Expand the fishing industry by supporting fishermen and fish processing while integrating sustainable practices
Develop industries that have the potential for exports, such as pharmaceutical and light manufacturing, for domestic, regional and U.S. markets
Diversify product offerings within the hospitality business
Partner with the banking sector via a combination of debt and equity financing

The Trade Hub’s COVID-19 rapid response program, paired with future impact funds from venture capital firms, provide favorable momentum for the economic and social recovery of Cabo Verde. Interested companies and financial institutions can see all the opportunities available from the Trade Hub on its Co-Investment webpage.

Frantz Tavares is the Public-Private Partnerships Consultant for the USAID West Africa Trade & Investment Hub in Cabo Verde. The Trade Hub aims to catalyze $400 million in new private investment, create 60,000 jobs and generate $300 million in exports across the West Africa region in partnership with the private sector.

The contents of this blog are the sole responsibility of Creative Associates International and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. Government.

Nigeria – Lake Chad Basin / Early Recovery Initiative

Program

2 min read

Funded and guided by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID/OTI), Nigeria Lake Chad Basin (NLCB) was a quick-response program that supported activities to strengthen and extend stability in the hard-hit states of Kaduna and Plateau, also known as the Middle Belt region.

In September 2020, NLCB – known locally as the Nigeria Early Recovery Initiative (NERI) – focused its efforts on improving community security, recovery of livelihoods and advocacy and peaceful resolution of conflict in the target states. These activities strengthened community resilience and supported conflict prevention mechanism to anticipate, prevent and respond to increasing violence and threats of attacks against civilians.

In close collaboration with community leaders and through small grants to local partners, NLCB/NERI activities supported the ability of displaced individuals to return to their homes and that strengthened the physical security of vulnerable neighborhoods, such as by installing solar streetlights. It developed early warning mechanisms that alerted communities to potential threats. With restored livelihoods as a key priority, NLCB/NERI supported small investments into rehabilitating marketplaces and providing livelihood kits and cash-for-work activities to at-risk community members. 

NLCB/NERI’s activities increased the access to an inclusive space for community led advocacy and platforms for dialogue. Working in target locations, experts built the advocacy skills of grassroots organizations to ensure that community decisions and interventions were locally driven and inclusive of marginalized groups. Because many communities remained traumatized by the effects of violence, NLCB/NERI implemented activities that provide elements of psycho-social support and trauma healing.

By the end of the NLCB/NERI program, vulnerable communities in eight LGAs were equipped with improved community security, resiliency and recovery of livelihoods, as well as increased capacity and access for inclusive advocacy and peacebuilding mechanisms towards a peaceful resolution of conflict in the Middle Belt.

Nigeria – Northeast Connection Program

Program

2 min read

Northeast Connection’s solutions-based approach used a range of activities to address and prevent social conflicts in some of Nigeria’s most vulnerable communities.

Residents in Nigeria’s northeastern states face a host of challenges – from poverty to violent extremist organizations like Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa – that continuously block their path to peace, inclusion and economic prosperity.

With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and in close collaboration with grassroots organizations, the Northeast Connection program took a preventative and holistic approach to addressing the causes of violent conflict in the region.

By targeting localities that are vulnerable to violent extremist infiltration and conflict, but not yet under their influence, the Northeast Connection program strengthened community resilience by improving their ability to respond to emerging threats. This program aimed to mitigate the grievances that may erode social cohesion within and across communities in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, and ultimately created a stronger foundation against violent extremist threats and other conflicts.

Northeast Connection’s solutions-based approach used a range of activities, including the increased involvement of youth in their communities through inter-community exchanges, leadership roles and efforts to address their sense of marginalization, as well as promoting positive roles for them in the community. In the same vein, the program actively engaged internally displaced persons, persons with disabilities and cultural minorities, among others, to increase their social bonds.

Recognizing women as key interlocutors in building community resilience to violent extremist organizations’ influence and infiltration, Northeast Connection designed specific programs to equip women to become vocal, positive leaders for peace and advancement. In addition, the program helped women to develop skills and obtain leadership roles to support survivors of violence and identify people at risk of recruitment into violent extremist organizations.

The project built effective working relationships between the Nigerian government at both the state and local levels and communities through a variety of activities, including forums and platforms that promote dialogue and access to government operations, such as providing input into governments’ development and social welfare activities or collaborating with state and national assembly representatives.

The Northeast Connection program developed opportunities for engagement between communities and security providers that built constructive relationships and productive civilian roles in managing security, working collaboratively in peace and security, early warning and early response efforts.

International Women’s Day 2021

March 8, 2021

8 min read

‘I see women coming out to demand equal rights and to speak about what happened to them, even after being attacked.’ Davita Andow, USAID/OTI Nigeria Early Recovery Initiative

International Women’s Day 2021: Voices from the Field

Rebecca Sewall, Gender Specialist for Creative Associates International:

While the global development community shows a more nuanced understanding of the dynamic relationship between women’s autonomy and their ability to contribute to development efforts, many practitioners continue to see the “value” of promoting women’s advancement only in terms of optimizing their contribution to larger development goals.

This position presumes that what is good for the economy or for “development” is also good for women – a presumption that is not always true. In line with this International Women’s Day theme, I want to #ChooseToChallenge this position, it is time we move away from asking what women can do for development and instead ask ourselves what development can do for women.

There are signals that this perception is starting to change, as the voices of women in Creative’s projects below attest. There are glimmers of hope that paying attention to women and gender in development is not just viewed as a means to an end, but an end in itself. Nearly 50 years after the passage of the Percy Amendment – which required that attention be given to integrating women into national economies to improve their status and to assist the overall development effort – it is time we focus on the other goal it was intended to achieve: Ensuring women are equal beneficiaries of development.

Florinda Puac, Community Facilitator Supervisor

USAID’s Peacebuilding Project, Guatemala

What do you want to see change for women in your context in the coming years?

The reality of women’s participation in community processes is very limited because they are generally invited to meetings or training activities on health, food security, food demonstrations, etc… topics closely linked to the gender roles that society has set for women. While of course these trainings have contributed to improving their health and nutrition, this still places them in a passive or information-gathering role. We saw in some community assessment processes that when people were consulted about women’s participation, it revealed that most people looked to assign women tasks unrelated to community development. These are things that have historically limited the substantive participation of women compared to the active role that men have played.

But the Peacebuilding Project (Tejiendo Paz in Spanish) is designed to change this paradigm because it identifies women as important actors in the analysis, approach and transformation of community conflicts together with other actors traditionally involved in decision-making. We work to give women a seat at the table in all our activities.

Habiba Suleiman, Business Development Manager at WACOT Rice Ltd.

Habiba inspects a rice paddy with a local farmer. Photo by: Rasheed Photography

Partner with the West Africa Trade and Investment Hub, Nigeria

What is your project’s biggest success or most inspirational moment related to gender inclusion?

We conducted preliminary meetings with farmers across the communities to inform them about the project and to seek their support in on-boarding new farmers. A young lady in her early 20s showed up [to our office] and we told her to wait for the interview in the next room, assuming she was there to be interviewed for a field officer role. After the [interview], she walks up to me to say that she came for the farmer meeting, as she was a rice farmer, too. I sat down with her and learned that on her own, she had raised funds and cultivated rice on half a hectare during the last season, and that she had employed laborers to work for her, yielding 25 bags in harvest. Her wit, bravery and commitment were beyond impressive, considering the fact that she was a graduate and could go seek a white collar job instead. I visited her farm and ensured she was on-boarded into the program. She came along with more women rice farmers too! This experience further reinforced for me the fact that women can do it all.

Lydia Onuoha, Deputy Chief of Party

USAID’s Northern Education Initiative Plus, Nigeria

Has there been a moment or experience that hit home for you the reason why more work needs to be done in the ongoing fight for gender equality? 

I came from a very large family with older uncles and cousins. Whenever there are events, everyone contributes some amount of money, usually prorated: the oldest pay more, regardless of gender. But when there are properties to be shared, women are left out and do not get a share of the family inheritance. I have never been given any share of my father’s property, but my younger brothers get very large shares. Land can never be distributed to women and this tradition has lasted for years. I keep wondering when this disparity and neglect will end. The struggle and campaign on gender equality have to be intensified.

I hope that in the not-too-distant future there will be a freedom of participation for women in community affairs, especially more women in decision-making spaces. Although today women’s participation in popular election positions has seen an increase, the participation of indigenous women is still very low. So I think it is as important as ever for us to raise awareness of men for this paradigm shift or stereotypes about the importance of the women in leadership positions.

Rehab David, NGO Capacity Building Officer/Gender Specialist

Northern Education Initiative Plus, Nigeria

What do you, both personally and professionally, hope to see change for women in your context looking ahead?  

I want to see a firm commitment to gender equality and female empowerment in education. I want to see more commitment and steps taken to overcome gender discrimination and to realize equal opportunities for women and men. I want to see more programs that increase women’s awareness of their rights and ability to advocate for themselves.

I want to see adolescent girls and youth get access to practical life skills training, trainings that will make them more aware of the options and services that are available to them and raise their expectations for their own lives. I want to see them empowered to speak up for themselves and make informed decisions. I want to see all barriers to education addressed and all girls mainstreamed into formal schools after graduating from non-formal learning centers.

Yajaira Hernandez, Gender Specialist

Yajaira gives a women’s health presentation in rural Honduras. Photo by: Victor Mercado

The Dry Corridor Alliance Project, Honduras

What is the greatest challenge you see for achieving women’s equality in your context?

An important aspect of my work is that women have for many years moved in and out of the working world even with children, but men still do not contribute to household tasks so that women can have more time to mobilize, participate in community affairs, become leaders and entrepreneurs. I work to slowly sensitize families to share responsibilities for domestic affairs.

The biggest challenge I see for women is access to resources. Globally, women only own 1 percent of property, rural women have access to land, the lack of bank loans for lack of guarantee continues to limit their participation in productive or income-generating work, conditioning them to domestic space, another major challenge is violence against women that is still a taboo or dare not denounce for fear or shame.

Hafsa Drissi Semlali, Program Coordinator

USAID’s Reading for Success – National Program for Reading, Morocco

What do you want to see change for women in your context in the coming years?

I was hired as an administrative assistant for another project with Creative, and that was the opportunity that eventually led to the leadership position I have now as a project manager. Having this chance to develop as a professional has made me more passionate to see the same for other women. So, what I really hope to see is more women in decision making positions. At the professional level, I see this gender inequality play out all the time. For example, there are more women working in our field, but in leadership roles there are still more men holding positions of power.

We work closely with teachers and most teachers are women. But when we hold workshops, it’s mostly men who show up and that’s because there are always more pressures on women to remain at home with their kids or families instead of traveling to these professional development trainings. As a mother myself, I understand those constraints. But I hope that in the future we can find ways to even this out and make accommodations so more women can take these important career steps.

Yelfign Ayenew Tesfahun, Cross Cutting Issues Coordinator

USAID READ II, Ethiopia

What is your project’s biggest success or most inspirational moment related to gender inclusion?

Based on a study we conducted in the Amhara region, we decided to ensure 30 percent of women leadership in the education sector. This is one of the remarkable results we achieved in government policy changes through evidence-based consultations.

The gender radio drama we produced and broadcasted to incite discussion is changing attitudes has shown also a very encouraging results. We have confirmed through an assessment study that the drama has helped girls and boys, parent and community to discuss gender related issues and the drama raised awareness on things considered taboo, such as girls’ menstruation, the responsibility of both boys and girls in sharing household chores, boys’ participation in the gender clubs, etc…

Another inspirational activity we have done is that while the project provided training to teachers, mothers who breastfeed their children were having trouble participating the trainings. The project provides childcare and place where the children can stay while the mothers participate in trainings, which has made a huge difference.

Patricia Vahanlé, Educational Leadership Officer

Vamos Ler! Mozambique

Why is it necessary to have women working in development?

It is important to have women working on development because they are intellectually equal to men and can contribute equally to the development of a country or society. I hope that in the future there will be a gender balance in hiring staff in both private and state organizations and that women can take advantage of opportunities on an equal footing with men. Many women miss opportunities because they have not been properly prepared or trained. That is why it is necessary to have a gender balance in training centers and universities.

It is necessary to make women aware from an early age that they can contribute to the development of the place where they live and the country in general.

On a personal level, my greatest success was having managed to reconcile family, work and training. The fact of being a mother, wife and worker did not prevent me from continuing my higher education. In this, I was the first of my family to complete a course in higher education. Today, I am an example for my older and younger brothers.

Four U.S.-Africa Trade and Investment Trends to Watch in 2021

March 3, 2021

5 min read

An essential component of the U.S. government’s strategy to strengthen its relationship with Africa is stimulating two-way trade and investment to foster economic growth in accordance with the Prosper Africa initiative. Despite considerable economic setbacks caused by the global pandemic, Africa presents immense economic potential with its rapid growth, both in terms of its population and commercial opportunities.

Under the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment Hub, we have been fortunate to interact directly with business owners, financial leaders, government officials and other stakeholders during the past 16 months of the initiative’s implementation. Based on our discussions and overall observations from the private sector in West Africa, we expect these four trends to shape U.S.-Africa trade and investment relations in the months ahead.

AfCFTA will set the tone for trade relations

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is the world’s largest free trade area based on the number of countries participating. It is predicted to have a substantial effect on African economies and the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world, including the United States. Since it came into force on Jan. 1, it is a bit too early to declare the extent that AfCFTA will impact U.S.-Africa trade and investment. Nonetheless, it is expected to drive considerable benefits and set the tone for trade and investment relations.

AfCFTA covers a population of 1.3 billion people across 54 countries, representing a market worth $3.4 trillion in GDP. In addition to having the potential to lift millions out of poverty, the promise of improved regional trade has the potential to significantly expand the market for local producers and, in some cases, making businesses more attractive to foreign direct investment.

This free trade agreement also creates a vast market for goods and services from the United States. With the new U.S. administration tipped to focus on multilateralism in Africa, new initiatives are expected to be announced that accelerate and simplify two-way trade and investment. Some of these initiatives will be driven by AfCFTA’s enormous potential.

Increased U.S. investments into Africa’s private sector

Inevitably, COVID-19 will steer the economies of the world in 2021. We expect some of the predominant macro-economic trends from last year to continue, although mitigated compared with the height of the pandemic in 2020.

In Africa, disruptions to supply chains will linger, escalating cash flow problems for producers, suppliers and exporters. Unfortunately, this will lead to redundancies, job losses and business failures as access to finance becomes more expensive and harder to find. On the other hand, investment opportunities will increase because of these same cash flow problems. This situation could expedite the flow of foreign direct investments into Africa.

The Trade Hub, for instance, is facilitating the meeting of investors and local businesses to advance COVID-19 resilience by providing catalytic funding to de-risk and encourage such investments. We announced some of these catalytic deals, and more are in the pipeline. Worth millions of dollars, these co-investments are designed to drive and attract even more investments into West Africa during these difficult times.

Likewise, the U.S. government’s Prosper Africa initiative has leveraged the services and resources of 17 participating agencies to drive billions of dollars of investment in Africa. In support of Prosper Africa, USAID is launching an up to $500 million trade and investment program to facilitate more deals between U.S. and African businesses and to address trade and investment barriers. Such U.S. government-driven initiatives across Africa provide assurance that foreign direct investments will increase this year to buoy resilience and drive growth in the region.

More African SMEs will export to the United States

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) gives African countries a competitive edge by allowing duty-free exports for almost 7,000 products from Africa to the United States. It has created long-term, sustainable growth by stimulating the private sector and creating jobs in many African countries. It has also supported the growth of certain sectors in the region, such as garment manufacturing.

In 2020, about $3.72 billion worth of goods exported from Africa to the United States was facilitated through from AGOA. There is an opportunity to increase this value, given the U.S. consumer market consists of more than 328 million people with a purchasing power of $13 trillion.

However, one of the Trade Hub’s biggest challenges in its efforts to promote increased trade is finding export-ready producers.

To tackle the paucity of potential exporters, the Trade Hub’s export promotion team has worked with about a dozen small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to help them get export ready. SMEs create around 80 percent of Africa’s employment. By providing them with technical assistance on issues ranging from obtaining certification to packaging products, the Trade Hub aims to boost their growth potential. This has generated a lot of interest from different sectors in West Africa’s business ecosystem. We expect 20 to 40 SMEs across West Africa to benefit from these export promotion programs and that more companies will join the initiative once they see their counterparts succeed in scaling up thanks to AGOA export assistance.

Increased activities in climate, food security, and digitalization

Although global food prices have been stable, food inflation has risen at the retail level in many countries due to supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19. Rising food prices have a greater impact in lower-income African countries because people spend a larger share of their income on food. At the same time, many families are grappling with lost or reduced earnings. Aside from pandemic-induced challenges, climate change threatens food production, particularly for subsistence farmers, who form a large portion of the population in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

With a new U.S. stance on climate, it is anticipated that U.S.–Africa trade and investment relations will increasingly feature climate smart solutions, especially those that tackle food security challenges and provide clean energy to improve access to electricity, which many Africans still lack .

Overall, digitalization is a cornerstone to solving access problems across the board, from easing regional trade to ending hunger. Apart from access, it is a highly productive sector with the potential to create jobs at scale, especially for young people. Private investments from the United States into Africa’s digital technology sector is already significant, so we expect this trend to continue as government participation increases in this enabling sector.

The impact of these trends will depend on many factors. Whatever the case may be, two-way trade and investment relations between the United States and Africa is shaping up for better times.

Michael Clements is the Chief of Party for the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment Hub. He has diverse industry experience, including in agriculture, energy, information technology, manufacturing, and mining. Before joining the Trade Hub, Michael ran two investment development funds for Trademark East Africa.

The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Creative Associates International and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the U.S. government or its programs such as Prosper Africa. Photos provided by WACOT Rice Ltd., a grantee of the Trade Hub in Nigeria.

Keeping communities at the center of development

February 1, 2021

By Semere Solomon

5 min read

When designing and implementing solutions for sustained growth, development programs depend on a strong foundation that brings together clear plans, stakeholder engagement, policy frameworks and many other strategies. Regardless of the duration, size and scope of a program, it should be geared towards sowing the seeds for sustained growth, allowing others that follow it to build on its accomplishments.

At the center of this foundation are the communities the program seeks to serve. Approaching programming with a community-anchored approach is a crucial piece in ensuring a program’s success.

Only by collaborating with communities can development professionals uncover facts, disprove assumptions and validate a theory of change.

No one is better placed to characterize the local situations, pinpoint problems, single out priorities, and identify local solutions to local problems in an effective way than the community itself. Communities know what works for them, how interventions can advance their own strategic interests and how to work efficiently in the local context. Community-driven development projects usually deliver public investments to poor people faster, cheaper and better. Building trust matters if this partnership is going to work.

These conversations will pave the way for a stronger partnership that responds to the real (not assumed) needs and aspirations of local communities.

A teacher leads class in at at adolescent girls learning center. — A teacher leads a class at an adolescent girls learning center in Bauchi state, Nigeria. Photo by Erick Gibson.

In Nigeria, the USAID-funded Northern Education Initiative Plus (NEI Plus) has engaged communities to expand education opportunities for tens of thousands of students. The project aims to strengthen the capacity of governments in two states to provide greater access to basic education — especially for girls and out-of-school children — and to significantly improve reading outcomes for school-aged children and adolescents. One piece of its holistic approach is the establishment of non-formal learning centers that serve students not enrolled in the formal school system.

Non-formal education has long been instrumental in addressing the educational and psycho-social needs of out-of-school children and adolescent girls. For NEI Plus, what stands out is the extent to which the project has put the communities at the center.

This community-based effort starts with a thorough mapping exercise in collaboration with community structures (both traditional and contemporary), local government entities, and local civil society organizations to get to know where the need is most felt. Once a community has been identified to host a non-formal learning center, the project consults with community members and leaders to:

Identify who should be enrolled in this center with an emphasis on girls’ enrollment
Determine the location of the center giving due consideration to safety issues
Determine the type of infrastructure (temporary structure, classroom, tent, religious institution compound, etc.)
Identify who should serve as the teacher or learning facilitator and set criteria for their selection
Select members of the Center-based Management Committee (CBMC)
Specify which days of the week and hours (for example, taking into consideration market days, harvest seasons or religious occasions) are suitable for children to attend
Identify local craftspeople who could train students on in-demand labor skills in their locality
Determine the community’s contributions to the center, which includes in-kind and monetary support and monitoring

This process ensures that centers are ready to operate successfully and generates a sense of ownership and responsibility among the community. NEI Plus has established 5,600 non-formal learning centers across Bauchi and Sokoto states with a student population of around 270,000.

Facilitating these important conversations are Community Coalitions, which are instrumental in bringing together diverse interest groups such as community and faith-based organizations, traditional and religious leaders, prominent personalities in the localities, and representatives of women and youth groups. NEI Plus established 20 Community Coalitions to drive engagement and create a platform for leaders to advocate and provide for the needs of out-of-school children and adolescent girls.

Children raise their hands in a reading camp classroom in Ethiopia. — A lively reading camp in Addis Ababa, led by a volunteer community literacy leader. Photo by Jim Huylebroek. Photo by: Jim Huylebroek

Community partnership and leadership is also expanding access to educational opportunities in Ethiopia. The USAID-funded READ II program aims to improve the reading proficiency of 15 million children by boosting the quality of literacy instruction and student support. There, communities are similarly mobilized around local reading camps, which are led by youth volunteers. READ II, in collaboration with seven local NGOs, has mobilized 11,656 youth volunteers, called Community Literacy Leaders, and established 5,938 reading camps across the country. Click here to take a 360-degree tour of a reading camp.

An outreach campaign mobilized communities to promote a culture of reading. In addition to identifying youth volunteers, local communities have succeeded in providing space, making in-kind contributions, and maintaining the camps. The camps have become fun and engaging spaces for children to practice reading outside of school with the support of facilitators.

Outside of education, community-anchored development can strengthen economic growth and expand opportunity. Access to financial institutions is a major hurdle for many communities and individuals, and for women in particular. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) leads grassroots-level interventions that promote community engagement and ownership in strengthening women’s economic opportunity and engagement. BRAC takes a business approach to ending poverty, using social enterprise models to recover costs and accelerate impact at scale.

Through this model, people excluded from the formal banking system (due to lack of assets that usually make people eligible for loans) can access a myriad of financial services such as credit, savings and microinsurance products with the support of microfinance. This practice creates a suitable environment for families to build assets and reduce vulnerability to shocks such as health emergencies or natural disasters amongst others. Collateral-free loans are released exclusively to individual women through a group setting, known to BRAC as village organizations.

This platform, comprising 15 to 25 women, helps them come together to deposit their installments and savings, share information and improve financial awareness through training and market support. Using this mechanism, BRAC has succeeded in impacting the lives of 5.6 million active borrowers (87 percent of whom are women) by disbursing $4 billion in 2018. For these women, this has been a life-changing opportunity.

From a much broader developmental perspective, beginning with an anchor in the community is vital to advancing on the journey to self-reliance. When development goals — in education, economic growth, health, and more — are so interconnected, strong community roots ensure programs can complement one another and meet the real and present needs of the people they serve.

Without listening to the poor, we can’t alleviate poverty; without listening to the uneducated, we can’t expand education. For projects to be effective and sustainable, communities should be brought to the center. It is not an option, but a requirement.

Semere Solomon is a Senior Director with the Africa Center at Creative Associates International.

Timeline: Creative supports quality education in Nigeria

January 11, 2021

Q&A: Responding to COVID and remote learning in Nigeria

December 14, 2020

6 min read

When Nigeria’s schools closed in March due to COVID-19, teachers and students — like many around the world — left their classrooms unsure of when they would be able to return.

The USAID Northern Education Initiative Plus program (NEI Plus) — which has worked to strengthen access and quality of basic education through new and engaging teaching approaches and learning materials, teacher training, nonformal learning centers and more — was faced with the challenge of protecting the progress and learning gained over five years as students faced an indefinite time out of school.

In this Q&A, NEI Plus Chief of Party Nurudeen Lawal breaks down how the program responded to the pandemic and the lessons learned over the past several months.

At the onset of the pandemic, how did the NEI Plus team respond?

Nurudeen Lawal: You know, you dive into something and you don’t even know how big it is. But we had a very good start, because immediately we understood that of course we are in a pandemic, and the best thing to do is to ensure that people are safe.

So, the first thing that we did even before we had the first case in Nigeria was to organize awareness sessions for staff about it and give regular updates. And we ensured that this information was cascaded down to our beneficiaries through SMS and WhatsApp.

Not long after we had the first case in Nigeria, we decided to close the non-formal learning centers that we operate with local civil society organizations at the end of March. We have 1,600 non-formal learning centers with about 50 learners each, so we suspended activities and sent the students home with homework. The government closed the public schools as well, and then we closed our offices and commenced working from home.

We developed a contingency plan with activities that we call pivot activities that helped to mitigate the pandemic and at the same time made sure that project activities continued. These were targeted at making sure that learners continued to learn from home and that the beneficiaries get sufficient messages on how to protect themselves from the effects of the pandemic. We did this with a vigorous communication strategy through social media, through SMS and through WhatsApp in English and Hausa. We also supported the state governments in helping them look at their own contingency plans to see how well it responds to remote learning and prevention from the pandemic.

We also started looking into strategies of radio programming, TV programming, IVR (interactive voice response) lessons and how we can continue our activities in terms of helping community structures such as women’s groups and community coalitions to be able to pass on messages of prevention and mitigation of the pandemic.

As a matter of fact, at the very onset of the pandemic, a video was made of children washing their hands, and that video went viral and was used by our partner project in the Northeast, was televised and sent around on WhatsApp and social media.

I can say that in the height of the pandemic we are able to also continue a major activity: the development of new materials in Igbo and Yoruba for early grade readers in primary grades 1, 2 and 3. Working virtually, we were able to develop a large number of texts stories and vocabularies in both languages. This was a great achievement for us during that period.

How did the project use media to keep students and teachers engaged while they were out of school?

Nurudeen Lawal: Importantly, reducing learning loss was addressed through regular use of the radio and TV programs. We developed materials for remote learning, which are all based on the teaching and learning materials that we use in classrooms, called Let’s Read! in English and Mu Karanta! in Hausa. We developed scripts for radio, TV and IVR based on these existing materials. The IVR messages run for six to seven minutes. They were sent to parents and teachers and reached more than 11,000 people within the first few months. We also infused social emotional learning and COVID-19 prevention tips and information.

We also kept the teachers engaged in continuous professional development through SMS and WhatsApp so that when they resume school, they will be ready and they wouldn’t have themselves lost what they know.

I also want to add that at the federal level, there were resources available online. The federal Ministry of Education opened several online portals for learners.

A family works in their school books and follows along on the radio. — A father supports his children in following along in their school books as they listen to an educational program on the radio. Photos by Nura Faggo.

How is the project helping students get back to classes safely?

Nurudeen Lawal: We developed a checklist for resuming the non-formal learning centers that includes, for example, how students are organized. We used to have 50 students at a time, and now they are divided into three clusters to keep class sizes down. We’ve also provided handwashing stations.

In addition, we created a school reopening framework document and we supported the governments in observing schools resuming in Bauchi and Sokoto states and were able to give them feedback on what we have observed. We were able to hold meetings with them to share the framework and ensure they focus on not just prevention of the pandemic from spreading but also how to gain back the lost learning time that the children have experienced.

Looking back on the past several months, what are some of the lessons learned?

Nurudeen Lawal: There are lots of lessons learned around remote learning during this period. And for me that is something for future research: What are the gaps that we saw in trying to run remote learning during a pandemic? What resources were not available? One thing was that of course we had not trained teachers to be able to develop or support remote learning activities. So, it was quite challenging. Teachers became emergency radio teachers and TV teachers, and everything was deployed in response to the situation. But I think we responded to the situation perfectly. We had the minds of the learners engaged during that period and understood that they can learn from home and should not spend the whole time playing. We were also able to provide them social emotional learning activities that kept them mindful and that helped their general psychological wellbeing.

A nonformal learning center classroom — A teacher leads class at a nonformal learning center with new COVID-19 protocols in place, including masks and fewer students.

I think that one of the greatest lessons learned is also that from now on, when we plan to have remote learning content and face-to-face content, making blended learning standard for education activities moving forward.

I also think that in terms of learning, we need to support governments in ensuring that they have in place remote learning framework. We need to understand that when we program, we need to program in parental support for learning. This could bridge a big gap in remote learning programs. The project depended on community outreach materials, whereby parents were engaged to really support their children. The radio program and the other blended approaches could be much more successful if parental support for learning is further emphasized. We need to come up with approaches whereby parents can to some extent provide enabling environment in terms of discussing with the child what they have learned, playing games or doing activities together, providing radios at home for the kids or making a phone available for instructional messages to the kids.

Another lesson is how much we can actually achieve working online. We see that we can engage our local partners online to the extent possible. We also saw how much we can achieve working from home. We were able to do so much, and I see that as the way to go in the future.

USAID’s Trade Hub announces its first co-investment partnership with Nigerian rice company

December 14, 2020

5 min read

The USAID West Africa Trade and Investment Hub is partnering with Nigerian company WACOT Rice Ltd. to expand its base of rice farmers, with significant emphasis on creating programs that elevate youth and women in its network of growers.

The Trade Hub’s co-investment grant of $1.5 million will directly support WACOT’s $8.6 million investment in its Argungu Outgrower Expansion Project, which aims to onboard more than 5,000 new rice farmers, providing them with supplies and training to cultivate their land. WACOT expects that the investment will lead to a 50 percent increase in yield for the farmers, allowing them to reinvest profits in critical areas to expand their production and improve livelihoods.

“The overall impact is to enhance yield per hectare and help farmers better their livelihoods,” says Habiba Suleiman, Strategy and Business Development Manager at WACOT, which is a subsidiary of Tropical General Investments Group. “I’m so positive that this is a step in the right direction.”

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Trade Hub is forging unique public private partnerships to unlock capital, create jobs, and catalyze sustainable economic growth in the region. With a major priority to increase food security amidst a rapidly growing West African population, the partnership with WACOT Rice fulfills a core pillar of the Trade Hub’s mission and USAID’s goals in the region.

“The U.S. government is pleased to partner with the private sector in Nigeria to develop market-driven solutions and sustainably improve food security by supporting local rice production,” says USAID Mission Director Anne E. Patterson. “With this new co-investment partnership, smallholder farmers in Kebbi State can increase yields and improve the livelihoods of their families.”

WACOT rice mill — WACOT Rice has the largest rice mill in Africa. Photo by: WACOT Rice Ltd

Meeting local demand, improving food security

Rice is a staple for Nigerian families, who consume more than 7 million tons per year. In what is now known as Nigeria’s “Rice Revolution,” during the last several years Nigeria has gone from importing the majority of its rice from Asia to producing most of it in local paddies.

Though local demand is far from met, companies like WACOT are working to transform arable land into opportunities for communities to enter the rice value chain. Keeping food production local for staples like rice strengthens economies, reduces its reliance on imports and alleviates the environmental impact of the broken global food supply system.

This co-investment grant ties directly with one of the Trade Hub’s major goals: to bolster food security and Nigeria’s self-reliance. Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s initiative to reduce global hunger, funds the Trade Hub’s deal with WACOT. Feed the Future works to increase the poor’s access to nutritious food and transform the agricultural sector.

“Food security is key because of the very serious poverty in these communities,” says Suleiman. “This cycle continues repeating itself. Smallholders are usually the owners of half a hectare of land they inherited, and the farm labor is the wife and children with no mechanization which leads to harvest losses.”

Harvest losses are a critical pressure point for the rice value chain in Kebbi state. According to WACOT, rice farmers lose significant amounts of rice each growing cycle because of the lack of technical knowledge, access to roads and milling and storage facilities and quality inputs. Its Argungu Outgrower Expansion Project plans to stem unnecessary loss of rice through providing high-quality agricultural inputs such as hybrid seed and fertilizer, training and direct access to the market.

Importantly, WACOT also guarantees “offtake” at the end of the harvest, meaning farmers won’t be short-changed by not being able to sell their rice at fair market prices if demand fluctuates.

Technological innovation is another piece of the puzzle in increasing food security while ensuring producers aren’t left behind and are fully integrated into the rice production system. To maintain transparency and good communication between the farmers and the company, WACOT offers access to rice growing apps and employs its Agricultural Management System to track smallholder farmers’ activity, offering timely direction on agricultural practices and monitoring production.

“In terms of their earnings, [this project] helps them send their kids to school, to access better livelihoods, to access better healthcare and to have better nutrition,” says Suleiman.

WACOT rice africa — Investing in the Argungu Outgrower Expansion Project will lead to an additional 20,000 tons of harvested paddy produced.

Investing in women and youth

Because of cultural barriers and other constraints, women and youth are often left out of economic expansion activities in rural areas. In its Argungu Outgrower Expansion Project, WACOT is placing a strong emphasis on elevating these vulnerable populations.

Of the new farmers the project will onboard, 50 percent will be women and 70 percent will be youth. In communities in Kebbi state, youth usually don’t have access to land because ownership is typically determined through inheritance. WACOT will work with youth to bring them greater access to jobs and farming opportunities in their network, aiming to reduce youth unemployment in the region.

“We go down to the grassroots [level] and ensure that these people are empowered for life,” says Suleiman, referring to the skills development WACOT offers its growers.

One of the Trade Hub’s objectives is to dedicate 50 percent of the jobs created through its grants and partnerships to women, closing the gender gap in the workforce in the region.

“Having a strong gender inclusion component in the first grant we announce is a great step for us,” says Chioma Adiele-Okpara, the Trade Hub’s gender specialist, who is developing strategies to include women’s inclusion elements in all of the Trade Hub’s co-investment grants.

Looking ahead

With its first grant designed to impact farmers in an under-resourced state in Nigeria, the Trade Hub is setting the tone for future investments and partnerships. Hand in hand with WACOT’s initiative, the Trade Hub’s mission is to catalyze sustainable economic growth that reaches those at the bottom of value chains as well as competitive businesses.

“We are glad to be partnering with a company that has a track record of impacting thousands of rice farmers,” says Michael Clements, the Trade Hub’s Chief of Party.

NEI Plus and Nigerian government launch “Big Books”

November 19, 2020

Engaging the private sector for stronger, more dynamic education

November 2, 2020

5 min read

A teacher stands in a class full of students in Nigeria. — Increasing coordination with the private sector could help reduce strain on the public education system. Photos by Erick Gibson.

Education is a social investment aimed at shaping the present and the future. Like other investments, it should abide by the rules of a market that demands quality, relevance, durability and reasonableness of price in order to be attractive and appealing to its users.

In low-income economies, the public sector often struggles to meet its mandate for delivering quality education. Weak systems and opaque operations (and sometimes corruption) contribute to this situation.

Engaging the private sector and private schools and leveraging their strengths in the delivery of education — while adhering to government-set standards — could help bridge this gap, strengthen education and ultimately lead to better learning outcomes for students.

In many places, it is clear where the public sector isn’t living up to expectations for education, as the private sector takes on an increasing share of education delivery. In Nigeria, for example, the 2015 National Education Data Survey showed that private schools account for 28 percent of primary school enrollment in the Southeast and 40 percent in the Southwest. According to Development and Cooperation, 33 percent of Kenya’s primary schools are private, and so are 15 percent of all secondary schools. In these cases, private schools’ prevalence can be attributed to several factors, including struggling ministries, unmotivated teachers and teaching professionals, crumbling infrastructure, lack of teaching learning materials, limited funding and loose relationships between the government and communities.

These are compounded by the fact that ministries do not have a clear policy on how to engage with other education providers. The result is obvious: the rapid deterioration in the quality of education provided by the public sector, creating opportunity for the private sector to fill the gap.

When properly implemented, the private sector’s engagement in education boasts dynamism. It is incentive-driven. It is agile and creative. It can easily adapt to changing market demands or circumstances. And, above all, it has the potential and frequently the means to deliver education as a social commodity to society.

However, there are risks to allowing private schools to operate and expand without regulation. Private schools without sufficient oversight can operate at sub-standard level or even be unsafe. Classroom instructors may not have the requisite qualifications to teach, may not follow the national curriculum or administer standardized tests. They might suffer from scarcity of textbooks, teachers’ guides, supplementary reading materials and teaching aid materials.

And, if solely driven by profit, private schools can promote inequity and marginalize lower-income students. In Somalia, according to UNICEF, the majority of education services are run privately and operate on a fee system under a weak government structure. Without regulation, the result is predictable: poor quality of education.

A man and woman review printed education materials. — Facilitating partnerships with printers is one potential route to increased private sector engagement.

Engaging the private sector

How can public education systems work with the private sector in a meaningful way without losing their important oversight responsibilities? This calls for a new approach.

Governments should create space for all education stakeholders including the private sector to become involved, including in the formulation of education policies, standards, strategic plans and regulatory framework from the outset and on a continuing basis. Above all, governments should be supported by putting in place strong regulatory mechanisms and quality assurance systems for education, not just for the benefit of public schools but private schools as well.

Bilateral and multilateral funding agencies could support governments to understand the benefits of public-private partnerships and assist in the development of tools and mechanisms for how to better engage the private sector. They can also encourage the private sector to invest in education while holding governments accountable for creating better-regulated education systems.

Higher education is where private sector engagement is highly sought after. Investing in higher education can be an expensive venture, and running or managing higher education also requires a greater degree of sophistication. The private sector should be encouraged to take partial ownership of the sub-sector to facilitate access to higher education for students who want to continue their studies. Continuing education through non-residential means such as online learning is also a space in which the private sector has great potential. Additionally, privately owned institutions for higher learning could be sources of innovation driven by cutting-edge research.

Strengthening private schools

As governments create space for the private sector to get involved in public education, the public sector can also work to strengthen private education.

Governments can offer a variety of support to establish and advance high-quality private education, such as simplifying and facilitating licensing for private entities, religious organizations and other interested parties that want to offer education while adhering to government-set regulations.

The government could provide land or other facilities for education delivery. It can encourage the private sector to set up training institutes to train teachers and other education professionals who have the desire to work in private or public schools.

Governments should also provide supervisory oversight to private schools to ensure quality.

Encouraging investment and partnerships

Encouraging outside investment and partnerships with other private sector companies can also strengthen the quality of education.

Governments can facilitate dialogue between private schools and banks to increase access to financing and microcredit to support school improvements and encourage easy access to loans for private school operators or other businesses interested in investing in education. Governments could also partner with and incentivize private publishing houses to make teaching and learning materials available to a wider audience at an affordable price.

By supporting the establishment of private and community school associations, governments can help them bargain collectively with banks, publishing houses, and even the government itself.

It is in the interest of making this social service available to the widest possible segment of society, especially children and youth, that the public sector has to engage or provide space to the private sector to take part in it.

This will first create an opportunity to allow more resources to be allocated to education as well as ease the financial burden the government will have to shoulder in delivering education to a wider segment of the society. Second, it will encourage creativity or innovation, enabling education to be more responsive to the evolving skilled labor needs of the market and society in general. And third, more competition will promote improved quality of education services in the future.

Semere Solomon is a Senior Director with the Africa Center at Creative Associates International.

Nigeria: 18 and learning to read

October 22, 2020

1 min read

Aisha married as a teenager before ever attending school. Now, after her divorce, she is learning to read for the first time through an adolescent girls learning center supported by the USAID-funded Northern Education Initiative Plus in Bauchi, Nigeria.