Blog

Best of 2020 – Ocean Plastics at USAID

Despite the many challenges of 2020, it was an important year for advancing USAID’s work on combating ocean plastic pollution. From new partnerships to unsung heroes, here are some of the highlights of USAID’s ocean plastics work in 2020: 1: Honoring informal waste… Read More

Lanka Upcycles: Making Waves of Change in Waste Less Arugam Bay

Lanka Upcycles is a social enterprise located in the surfer’s paradise of Arugam Bay on the east coast of Sri Lanka. They are making waves with novel approaches to addressing the ocean plastic pollution through its Waste Less Arugam Bay (WLAB) project funded by USAID’s Municipal Waste Recycling Program (MWRP). Read More

Yamuna’s Story – How One Woman is Improving Recycling in Sri Lanka

Two years ago, Yamuna Hemanthi – a housewife with interests in giving back to her community – attended a “training of trainers” event hosted by the Municipal Waste Recycling Program grantee Sri Lanka Centre for Development Facilitation-Galle (SLCDF). The goal of the event was to equip local leaders with the… Read More

4 New Urban Learning Briefs Available

Urbanization is rapidly increasing, and municipalities are becoming the locus of opportunities and challenges for countries on their journey to self-reliance. By 2050, more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas. The majority of that urban growth over the next thirty years is happening in Asia… Read More

USAID Presents on Circular Economy at APEC Webinar

Recently, USAID Senior Urban and Ocean Plastics Specialist, Clare Romanik, was a featured speaker during an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) webinar on land-based waste management. Malaysia, in collaboration with the Malaysian Green Technology & Climate Change Centre and Ocean Conservancy,  invited Ms. Romanik to present how USAID and its… Read More

Prioritizing Health in Our Cities

Our USAID-funded Building Healthy Cities project (BHC) has partnered with Anant National University for a series of webinars on topics integral to healthy urban planning. Read More

COVID-19 and Emergency Operations in Libya

Few countries in the world are as vulnerable to the devastating health, economic and political effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as Libya.  With its territory divided between two governments, its national institutions in disarray, its currency rapidly devaluing, and with armed conflict persisting nearly a decade-on from revolution, Libya has… Read More