July 1, 2020
Timor-Leste: Customs Reform Project
Since 2017, USAID/Timor-Leste’s Customs Reform Project (CRP) has been working with the Government of Timor-Leste (GOTL) Customs Authority (CA) and private sector stakeholders to provide support for trade facilitation and domestic resource mobilization. With limited domestic farming and manufacturing infrastructure, Timor-Leste is heavily reliant on trade for the...
Earlier this year, the world was shaken by the emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which has affected more than 215 countries all over the world. The emergence of a global pandemic has led countries and states to adjust priorities to make public health central to their international development efforts. In Southeast Asia, as in the rest of the world, coronavirus has not only had a major...
June 9, 2020
Black lives matter. Such a simple statement. So much more should be obvious. Every person is entitled to respect of their dignity and protection of the law. When basic human rights are violated, the people have the right – indeed the civic duty – to shed light on wrong-doing through peaceful protest.
Since its origin in 1996 IBI has been committed to creating a diverse staff who respect and befrien...
May 22, 2020
This spring, IBI welcomed three new members to their team. I was lucky enough to be one of them. The current COVID-19 pandemic makes starting and supporting new positions complicated. IBI, however, has experience working in trying circumstances because of their development work during the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Liberia. They have used these experiences to create a welcoming environment even now, i...
May 15, 2020
The USAID-funded Strengthening Local Organizations (SLO) project, implemented by IBI, has reached the mid-way point of its second year. The project works to build the capacity of 10 Salvadoran CSOs spanning all stages of organizational development. And, in just a year-and-a-half, it has earned a reputation for providing the kind of high-caliber, individualized support that beneficiary CSOs had bee...
April 30, 2020
Despite the country’s best efforts, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit El Salvador as it has hit almost everywhere else. The IBI-implemented Strengthening Local Organizations (SLO) project has already felt the impact, having to cancel a half-dozen in-person workshops scheduled for March and early April for safety reasons.
In these difficult times, however, SLO has an advantage: early on, the project cre...
April 23, 2020
France’s President Emmanuel Macron believes “the coronavirus pandemic will transform capitalism” and says that “it’s time to think the unthinkable”[1]. While this statement may seem extreme, it communicates a sense of urgency and a new reality we find ourselves in. For those of us involved in the delivery of foreign aid, is it also time to rethink the paradigm of development assistance?
The curren...
March 20, 2020
The ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 has had a significant impact in countries around the world, which has resulted in new travel restrictions and policies. We here at IBI have first-hand knowledge of how to continue critical program activities in challenging situations like these.
During the 2015 Ebola epidemic we managed our existing Liberia USAID-GEMS project, and starting up a new, State Depa...
March 3, 2020
On February 27, representatives from USAID, the World Bank, DFID and GIZ participated in a Public Financial Management (PFM) donor coordination session facilitated by USAID PCDS-SB activity. The working group focused on identifying areas for collaboration and potential synergies. The meeting was one in a series of events designed to provide a forum for donor coordination and planning around PFM wo...
January 29, 2020
Prior to support provided by USAID under Digital Liberia, each Government of Liberia entity pursued its own IT initiatives without coordination with others. The result was a splintered and duplicative set of systems that were wasteful and inefficient.
Through the Digital Liberia activity, IBI supported a new CIO Council that convenes IT officials from across government to address this problem. The...