Livelihoods and Economic Recovery

For communities trying to move forward after a conflict or political instability, economic recovery lays the foundation for sustained, long-term development. It allows individuals and families to recover their livelihoods, build resiliency and participate more productively in market systems systems while enhancing private sector competitiveness and building self-reliance.

According to the World Bank, 10 percent of the world’s population lives on less than $1.90 a day. By 2030, the share of the global poor living in fragile and conflict-ridden situations is expected to rise from 17 percent to 46 percent.

Creative’s Livelihoods and Economic Recovery programs support countries emerging from crisis or conflict in rebounding from economic shock and moving toward stabilization, with a focus on livelihoods, agriculture, value chains and enterprise development.

Creative also works to strengthen the private sector, promote trade and investment and support growing economic sectors.

The USAID West Africa Trade and Investment Hub, a $90 million trade and investment facilitation activity, takes a market systems approach to catalyze economic growth across the region. Over five years, the Trade Hub will provide $60 million in co-investment grant funds to achieve USAID’s trade, investment, and food security objectives by improving private sector competitiveness in West Africa with a focus on increasing the agricultural productivity and profitability of smallholder farmers in Nigeria and promoting West Africa’s regional and international trade and investment.

The Trade Hub is an integral part of the Prosper Africa initiative and also partners with the U.S. and West African private sector firms to generate new private-sector investment in key sectors to create jobs and increase trade between the U.S. and West Africa, including through increased utilization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

The Trade Hub has a growing pipeline of over 250 private sector firms including 30 U.S. firms with the value of private sector investments estimated at $380 million. The Trade Hub is innovating catalytic grants under contract for co-investment, first loss provisions for new fund structures, special purpose vehicles, digital platforms, and transaction advisory services to achieve a minimum of $306 million in new investment, 40,000 new jobs and $240 million in exports. 

A majority of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas and depend on the agricultural sector for work. Realizing the challenges subsistence and small-scale farmers face, Creative’s programs provide rural families with tools and knowledge to help them attain food security, increase their productivity and incomes and engage more effectively in markets.

In Honduras’ climate-fragile and impoverished “Dry Corridor,” Creative is empowering poor and extreme-poor families with knowledge on how to diversify their crops to grow more nutritious and valuable foods, improve planting and irrigation practices and better market their products through the Honduras Livelihoods and Food and Nutrition Security in the Dry Corridor project, funded by the World Bank through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.

Engaging the private sector, building local ownership

To this end, Creative places heavy emphasis on partnerships with the private sector as a major asset to any sustainable economic growth project. Through collaboration with local businesses, Creative’s programs foster local ownership and increase the long-term chances of success of development initiatives.

Creative’s programs also deliver a wide span of enterprise and entrepreneurship development activities for micro-, small- and medium-size firms whose success will contribute to increased competitiveness, economic stability and recovery.

By also working to develop inclusive market systems, Creative’s programs benefit those on the fringes who stand to gain the most, including the very poor, women, youth and other marginalized groups that are too often excluded from traditional economic networks.

All of these initiatives help to strengthen local economies and bolster the resilience of communities and individuals to withstand lingering instability of future economic shocks.

LIVELIHOODS

Projects
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West Africa Positioned as Major Cashew Nut Exporter Through a New Public Private Partnership

The West Africa Trade & Investment Hub awarded a $3 million grant to Red River Foods in support of increasing cashew kernel production in West Africa. Learn More...

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Creating jobs in the Sahel through investment in SMEs

Funding from the Trade Hub will support a series of impact investments that addresses some of the Sahel's biggest challenges, ranging from climate change to unemployment. Learn More...

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The Trade Hub co-invests with West African businesses facing COVID-19 setbacks 

West African businesses Global Mamas and Alaffia, both of which prioritize hiring women in rural areas, are some of the first to receive rapid relief funding to mitigate COVID-19's impact. Learn More...

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