MEDA’s Libya Economic Empowerment (LEE) project began in Oct. 2012 and successfully completed in March 2020. Originally named Libya Women Economic Empowerment (LWEE), the project was designed specifically to release the unrecognized economic potential of youth and women’s entrepreneurship and thereby contribute to Libya’s economic growth and political stability.

I have had the opportunity to spend time in Amman, Jordan, as part of the Jordan Valley Links team. This Government of Canada-funded program works to support economic and social development for women and youth in the Jordan Valley. My experience has been generously funded by MEDA’s private donors. While this internship was initially created to support hopeful international development workers in gaining practical, on-the-ground experience in the communities in which MEDA works, my experience has been eye opening in other ways.

From left: Indra Sarju, Calyssa Burke, Denis Gaudet & Aniqah Zowmi

At MEDA, we believe in the next generation of development professionals. That's why we invest in their careers and help them to gain practical, hands-on international experience that compliments the skills they have learned through their education. Although our international interns have had to return home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are still working with our international teams to achieve goals and create long-standing impact through businsess.

Let us introduce you to these four amazing people!

With the COVID 19 crisis erupting globally, financial institutions have been forced to quickly respond and rethink how they can offer quality services to their clients who are now faced with unemployment and stacking debt.

Photo: by Forbes

The current global pandemic coupled with frequent natural disasters puts Kenya’s food basket in a perilous position. Towards the end of 2019 and early 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic struck, Kenya’s food security status was already under pressure following the devastating desert locust swarms that invaded parts of the country just after an excessive rainfall. This, coupled with inflation and weaker purchasing power, left many Kenyan households’ unable to afford their basic needs such as healthcare and food. The Kenya Food Security Steering Group estimated that nearly 10 million Kenyans were food insecure by the end of 2019, of whom 4 million were already in need food aid.

Did you know that farming for seed is sometimes an even more viable income than than traditional agricultural produce? Our project in Pakistan is doing just that by partnering with Engro, a private business and combined funding from Australia.

My love for social science research is not new. Growing up as a girl in a rural village in East Africa, I witnessed and experienced the impact of gender inequality on my life and the lives of my friends.

Grace Mvula harvesting cassava seed in her field.

For Africa’s Yellow-Billed Oxpecker, its sustained survival relies on the partnership it has with African mammals, such as giraffes and water buffalos. The relationship is mutually beneficial as the mammals’ skin does not become ridden with parasites and the birds have a steady source of food, the parasites.

Table banking is an economic loaning system derived from the principals of Muhammad Yunus‘s practice of microfinancing which was catalyzed in Bangladesh and is based primarily on trust.

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds around the world at varying speeds and levels of intensity, one thing has become clear - the socio-economic effects are felt very differently by women and men, and by minority and excluded populations.

As the world shifts from the adrenalized shock of shutdown to a more measured management of this terrible respiratory threat, the economic forecast is bleak. In some places, especially in Africa and Latin America, the forecast is not yet clear, but upheaval is certain. COVID-19 has imploded financial markets and unemployment has sky-rocketed. What could a post-virus world look like? 

This blog is co-written by Kyla Levin-Russell (Senior Specialist, MarketShare Associates) and Clara Yoon (Project Manager, MEDA). The quotes from the online learning event were edited or condensed for clarity.

Four years ago, MEDA set out to address the research question, “which financial services can catalyze change among smallholder farmers?” Through a series of regional roundtable events and consultations with agricultural finance experts, a research opportunity emerged:

Changes in the global business climate, affect all business no matter the place, size or industry. Although many businesses try to prepare for a variety of potential economic shocks, being prepared for a global pandemic was something that few businesses both large and small saw as necessary.

J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Balancing our work and our personal life is not an easy task, but we never stop pursuing it. Work, life, family, and responsibilities are still a priority. We always have something to do, places to go, bills to pay, dishes to wash, clothes to fold, but when was the last time we stopped what we are doing to hit the pause button? While we are all working from home and still can’t escape most of our responsibilities, we see ourselves in an unprecedented situation.

Every year on April 22, the world comes together to mark Earth Day – birthed from the early environmental movements of the 1970s. This year marks the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day and brings together over 1 billion individuals from across the world to advocate, mobilize and defend our Earth.

Security at MEDA – always an important part of operations – has taken on an even more critical role as we navigate the COVID pandemic. Scott Ruddick, MEDA’s security director and the individual responsible for directing the security response to the pandemic, credits the project security focal points ( SFP) for helping to ensure staff safety.

In 2019 I travelled to Rwanda to visit World Relief, MEDA’s partner through the INNOVATE project. World Relief works through associations of local churches to empower poor women and other underserved populations with financial, agricultural and other important livelihood skills.

As the novel coronavirus COVID-19 spreads around the globe, we all worry about the terrible impact the stealthy virus is wreaking upon the economy. MEDA’s work in market systems and supporting entrepreneurs around the world will help businesses weather the storm.

In rural Ukraine, women have less access to business training and networking opportunities. MEDA’s Ukrainian Horticulture Business Development Project (UHBDP) held a forum to celebrate International Day of Rural Women in Zaporizhya, Ukraine.

This is my third visit to Ghour Al Safi (South Jordan) to meet the women participating in the Gender Progress Markers (GPM) process (see previous blog on GPM). As in other districts of the Jordan Valley, Ghour Al Safi is an agricultural area in which women are usually working in their family’ farms and men are working either in agricultural careers or they join the military. Unlike the middle and the northern valleys, Ghour Al Safi is a very conservative area and the women there are facing different social and cultural barriers.