Inclusive Plug powered by RECONOMY

Join us on Episode 34 of Inclusive Plug powered by RECONOMY, as we explore the potential of the Western Balkan region in transforming its economic landscape through business process outsourcing (BPO) and information and communications technology (ICT). Hosted by Sabin, this videocast features an engaging discussion with distinguished guests from the Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL)....

Join us in Episode 33 of Inclusive Plug, brought to you by RECONOMY, where our host, Sabin, engages with a panel of experts to explore the role of digital technologies in sustainable agriculture. This conversation 🎙️ features insights from Mihran Sahakyan, the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of SkyAgro, Bojan Kolundzija, the Team Leader of the OPTIM project in Moldova (a project of the Swi...

Welcome to another episode of Inclusive Plug, brought to you by RECONOMY. In this episode, we delve into the complex world of employment, dissecting what it means to create ‘decent’ and ‘inclusive’ jobs in a rapidly evolving labor market. 🔊 Featured Experts: Katharina Walker: Senior Advisor on Skills Development, Helvetas Hans Posthumus: Trainer and Consultant on Private Sector Development Paulo...

In Episode 31, we are joined by Dr. Risto Ivanov, a senior expert in managing EU and national projects in North Macedonia with extensive knowledge in energy-efficient construction and renovation. With his plethora of qualifications and hands-on experience, Risto guides us through an in-depth exploration of the energy landscape in the Western Balkans, from historical shifts to major policy shifts a...

Killer robots and autonomous weapons. Global unemployment. Mass surveillance. Superintelligence. There are a host of fears about artificial intelligence (AI) and related industries such as machine learning (ML). But what exactly are they? How are they being used? What, if anything, do they offer the development sector? Are we at the beginning of a fundamental transformation of a business model tha...

In Episode 29, we dive into the challenges of pitching ideas and convincing partners or donors to adopt and act upon them. Even if you have a brilliant idea, selling it can be trickier than selling a product or service. This is where the market systems development (MSD) approach comes in. Despite the progress in applying and generating relevant practices and evidence, there are several mispercepti...

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency launched RECONOMY in July 2020, a regional program that applies the MSD approach, spanning 11 countries from the Western Balkan and the Eastern Partnership regions. The inception phase finished in December 2022 for the Eastern Partnership region and in March this year for the Western Balkan region. RECONOMY was conceived with a regional remi...

Mobility is no longer a “buzzword” or just the “hottest new shiny thing”. Today, mobility is mainstream, and it’s a business strategy that can’t be overlooked any longer. The way we work has slowly but surely been shifting towards a more dynamic and fluid way of working, and the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated the development of these trends significantly. This has had an impact on o...

There are more than 2.5 billion people playing games at the moment. They are from all over the world. And the gaming industry is now looking to its 'next billion'. Yes, you read this right. The industry has become a career choice for young people. It's offering new ways to make a living that didn't exist a decade ago. Let's take you through arguably one of the most important and innovative sectors...

The way we describe people shapes how we perceive and act toward them. Terms and words that are used in development seem to indicate who holds power and who doesn’t. But then, does this matter? Sometimes it may not matter what we call someone. Rather the way we treat and approach someone is more important than the description or labeling. A fascinating discussion with Nabanita Sen Bekkers, Directo...

The use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) have increased throughout the world, particularly after the advent of the Internet. Statistics show that most people living in the developed economies have access to ICTs in one form or another, but this is not the case for people living in developing economies. Some of the questions explored in this episode are: how can these countries...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine fundamentally challenged the EU approach towards the future of the neighborhood countries, European security and stability, and prospects for the EU integration in the region. 13 years after the Eastern Partnership initiative was declared under the leadership of Poland and Sweden, its geopolitical success remains to be under a question mark.  The strategic reas...

Speaking of employment, let’s admit it: we tend to care more about the number of jobs created. Ask a politician up for election, or a project manager preparing an annual report on employment…  Then comes who’s getting the jobs — women, men, people from rural areas, ethnic minorities, young people. The type of jobs seems to be an afterthought despite many years of discussions. It’s high time t...

The world has entered 2022 in the stage of polycrisis. Climate change poses existential threat to humanity, disproportionately affecting poorer economies predominantly based on natural resources and related economic sectors such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. Yet even the more diversified economies are vulnerable to climate change, while climate risks are of cascading nature, causing unp...

By looking at the title of this episode, you may think that ‘oh, once again the old debate about geography and economic development!’ If one is thinking about opening a coffee shop or a restaurant, then location is still an old mantra for businesses. Even in this case, businesses still need to use a well-built website, or social network campaigns to reach out to more customers. For other economic...

The digitalization of many professions around the world has contributed to creating a new, competitive and innovative labor market. Self-employed people who mostly work remotely have been sharply rising in numbers in the past years. These people are called freelancers.   Wherever they are based, freelancers are increasingly using digital innovation to work on their own terms, with the flexibi...

Market Systems Development has emerged in the past two decades as a way to better deliver large‐scale, sustainable development impact to poor and disadvantaged people. It provides a framework to understand the institutional underlying causes of negative development outcomes and a method of intervening in market systems to achieve poverty reduction sustainably. But have we ever stopped and looked i...

In partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and other implementing partners, Helvetas is leading a regional inclusive and green economic development program in Eastern Europe, South Caucuses, and Western Balkans.   While designing the program, we asked ourselves ‘what a regional program would look like’. We’ve been much more interested in the value addition of...

COVID-19 is transforming people’s relationship to work, with millions now out of a job. And many more getting used to working in a very different way. The pandemic has been a transformation and that raises a whole bunch of questions. Do you need as much expensive office space? And do individual workers need to commute into the office every day? The need for workers to gather together in offices ha...

Fast learning and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances are critical to the market systems development approach.   Market systems consist of multiple actors with their own goals and points of view and the regional program, RECONOMY, including other projects that apply the Market Systems Development (MSD) approach implemented by Helvetas, operate in complex, dynamic and unpredictable...

Whether the Market Systems Development (MSD) approach works in practice is a hot topic in development. For this episode (Part II), we have interviewed: - Nabanita Sen Bekkers, who’s Results Measurement Specialist at the DCED (Donor Committee for Enterprise Development), where she leads the development of results measurement initiative including the development and dissemination of the DCED Standar...

Inclusive Plug powered by RECONOMY is a video podcast that covers a range of topics, because the regional inclusive and green economic development program, RECONOMY, of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), implemented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, works across different areas in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus, and the Western Balkans. We highlight and explain the...

Whether the Market Systems Development (MSD) approach works in practice is a hot topic in development. For this episode, we have interviewed: - Maja Rüegg, who’s leading the working area Skills, Jobs and Income at Helvetas. She provides thematic support on market systems development for projects working on agricultural value chains and labour markets. Her advisory expertise also covers monitoring...

Development cooperation is being challenged. People question whether development works. There are people in the development community who have a rich experience that provides answers to the critical questions that society raises. But their knowledge is tacit. It is only available to themselves and perhaps a narrow circle of their colleagues. Knowledge must be accessible. It is our responsibility a...

The monitoring and results measuring system is an integral part of any project, especially important for projects that use the market systems development approach, using adaptive, learning-by-doing approach to implementation. The system supports the project team during planning, designing, managing, reviewing and evaluation of project interventions in compliance with the market systems development...