Afghanistan

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Youth Skills

Why financial inclusion for youth will raise all economic boats

Groups fighting for financial inclusion and youth employment united in Morocco. Will their findings promote progress?

Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/abufaiqa/4434157815/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Salim Photography (Flickr)</a>

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Mobile Technology

From designer crops to social stocks: Our top five posts of 2012

It's holiday season here at Mercy Corps headquarters—time for the Global Envision team to look back on our work this year and look to what's next.

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Afghanistan's superhero: mobile phones fight crime, liberate women and enrich the poor

As Afghanistan’s leading telecommunications provider, Roshan’s mobile phone service is transforming security, information sharing and entrepreneurship in the world’s second most corrupt country.

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Western Union and Roshan launch a beautiful partnership in Afghanistan

"Roshan, Afghanistan's leading total communications provider, and Western Union, a leader in global payment services, have today jointly launched the Western Union Mobile Money Transfer service in Afghanistan that enables Roshan's M-Paisa customers to receive money from abroad.

Small-scale farmers in Afghanistan benifit from a joint financing program administered by USAID and Development Associates International. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/573327368">UK Department for International Development (flickr)</a>

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Loans without banks: Afghan farmers and USAID cut the middlemen out of finance

Small-scale farmers in Afghanistan, considered "high-risk" borrowers, are finally getting the credit they need to buy good seeds and equipment, but not from traditional banks.

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Tinker, tailor, programmer: Entrepreneurship is subverting gender in Afghanistan

In southern Afghanistan, the promise of a well-paid urban career is luring women to keyboards and men to needlework.

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Investing in women in the world's most dangerous place to be female

57 million women give birth each year without the help of a trained professional. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7203470@N03/2366525625/">hugrakka(Flicker)</a>

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Birth kits: An immediate solution to lowering maternal deaths

Bringing one life into the world shouldn't mean sacrificing another. While the developing world scrambles to secure funding for midwifery services, there's a cheap, short-term solution: birth kits.

Men in traditional Maasai clothing using their mobile phones. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/markkelley/1022720488/">Mark Kelley (Flickr)</a>

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How technology is changing the world, and allowing you to change it too

Aid can restore dignity by providing choices. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

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Alternatives to food aid can transform economies for good

Food aid can fill bellies, but countries hit by famine need choices, not handouts. Two new alternatives can solve longer-term problems by letting victims choose how aid gets used.

First, cash voucher programs give people choice.

Soldiers, the traditional actors in a war, patrol in remote Afghanistan. Not shown here are those that provide comforts on the U.S. bases nearby. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/1634664667/">The U.S. Army (flickr)</a>

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The Private Scams Behind the Scenes of War

At the end of a movie, the credits run for cast and crew. At the end of a war, soldiers receive Purple Hearts and well-earned pensions. But when is the production crew of a war recognized?

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Afghanistan's Women Mean Business

This has been reposted from the Mercy Corps blog.

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Kabul's First Skatepark

In a place ravaged by years of war, there is something new taking place: Afghan youth propelled by a deck on four wheels and armed with an abundance of self confidence and a new pair of skate shoes.

A U.S. soldier in Afghanistan gathers a soil sample as part of his work on an army agricultural development project. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/4174406216/">The U.S. Army (Flickr)</a>

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War and Development: Do They Mix?

The U.S. army’s “surge” in Afghanistan marked a new focus on development in addition to an increase in the number of combat troops. Development has not typically been part of the military’s purview.