resilience

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GLOBAL IDEAS NEWS BRIEF: AFRICA SUMMIT + CLIMATE

A weekly roundup of mainstream news about the context in which Mercy Corps works, focused on economic development and innovations.

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Youth Skills

Why youth join violent groups

Although most youth do not participate in violence, armed groups across the world are successful at recruiting young people. Conflict specialist Rebecca Wolfe explains why, and how the right youth programming could make a difference.

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Youth Skills

Goal! Supporting youth through soccer

Behind the glamor of the World Cup lies a simple game that youth advocates believe can motivate young people around the globe to change their lives for the better.

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Financial Inclusion

Infographic: The World Cup of Financial Exclusion

“Exclusion is everyone’s problem."

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Financial Inclusion

The economic consequences of sexual violence in Syria

Systematic rape is a veiled weapon of war; it scars individuals in ways that bombs and bullets don’t. In a Syrian society, sexual assault victims are severely stigmatized: survivors often are forced into marriage, abandoned by their family or face further abuse. Some are put to death.

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Value Chains

Getting Myanmar’s farmers in the game

In Myanmar’s fast-changing, volatile economic landscape, farmers must prove themselves vital to the mainstream economy, or else risk being shunted aside.

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Value Chains

Coffee "rust" is spoiling the global market

A coffee fungus known as "coffee rust" spoils local livelihoods in Mexico and Central America and the coffee market, globally.

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Financial Inclusion

Why cash nourishes faster than food in Kathmandu

Aid groups that implement cash transfer programs without understanding the communities they serve are flirting with disaster.

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Social Enterprise

Doing development better by thinking like a designer

If development professionals thought like designers, they would be much more successful in helping communities lift themselves out of poverty. That’s the argument of Heather Fleming, a PopTech Social Innovation fellow, who recently gave a talk at the Mercy Corps Action Center.

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Value Chains

Q&A: What it takes to feed 842 million people worldwide

Ending global hunger will take more than handouts. The Mercy Corps team thinks outside the box to overcome complex barriers to food security.

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Value Chains

Water partners: Teaming up to solve shortages

Mercy Corps works with a private company, Xylem, to address urgent water needs in some of the toughest places on Earth. Why work with a partner?

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By the numbers: The economic costs of the Syria conflict

The Syria crisis enters its fourth year on Saturday. The conflict’s terrible toll on Syria’s economy will last long after the violence is over.

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Financial Inclusion

Why financial inclusion matters

“Financial inclusion” might sound like a ploy by banks and credit card companies to get more clients. But it's actually a vital effort to improve the lives of poor people.

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Social Enterprise

How three common pitfalls of social enterprises can be avoided

Many businesses face challenges trying to balance for-profit endeavors with social objectives, and end up trapped by three familiar pitfalls.

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Financial Inclusion

This is what financial inclusion looks like: CGAP announces photo contest winners

A man stacks bricks on his head to carry. Another sells newspapers. Three women carry fishing nets across golden sand dunes. These images, among the winners of CGAP’s annual photo contest, portray workers at the bottom of the economic pyramid around the world.