Gregory Howell is the Deputy Director of the Office of Economic Growth and Infrastructure at USAID’s Afghanistan Mission in Kabul, Afghanistan. Traditionally, USAID Missions have managed development programs by segmenting activities into technical offices such as democracy and governance, economic growth, health, education, and infrastructure. Crossfertilization takes place occasionally, when mutual interests are identified; but meaningful collaboration is rare. The focus [...]
Tag archives for mobile money
Can Mobile Money Transform a Country?
Two years after the earthquake, Haiti is rebuilding not just brick by brick, but click by click. The earthquake left behind a government in rubble, an economy in shambles, and a people living in makeshift camps, coping with enormous loss. Against this backdrop, the possibility of progress lives not just in the resilient spirit of [...]
Innovating in Afghanistan
In 2002, fewer than 200,000 people in Afghanistan had access to telephones. Today, some 15 million Afghans use mobile phones and a full 85% of the population lives within the combined network coverage of the four major telcos. This technological leap connects Afghans to each other and to the economy in ways that were unimaginable [...]
USAID’s Frontlines – February/March 2011
Read the latest edition of USAID’s premier publication, FrontLines for these stories: A trio of back-to-back disasters in 2010 challenges the resilience of Haiti’s people Dial it up: Mobile money services are coming to Haiti with high aims to help consumers spend and bank better Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg says there’s a special role for [...]
Embracing Innovation in Haiti: USAID’s Haiti Mobile Money Initiative
By: Mark Feierstein, USAID Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean One of the hallmarks of the U.S. Government’s fresh approach to development in Haiti is making better use of innovative private sector ideas to solve tough development challenges. So when one third of Haiti’s bank branches were destroyed in the earthquake a year [...]
From the Field
In the Philippines, we will hold an international conference on Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) in Asia. The 2-day interactive workshop is designed to help define the right MMT business model, while maintaining prudent financial sector regulatory practices. Particular focus will be given to the prevention of money laundering, the security of payment mechanisms and consumer [...]
