Focus Area

Economic Growth

Creative unlocks inclusive economic opportunities by strengthening market systems, fostering private sector competitiveness, and building a market-ready, skilled workforce around the world.

Creative’s work in building economies abroad supports American interests at home by fostering self-reliance, reducing migration and enhancing global stability. By attracting private sector investment and enabling sustainable business growth, we help create environments where people, including women, youth, and marginalized groups, can thrive in their own countries. This reduces the pressure for migration and helps stabilize regions, in turn contributing to global security and economic stability.

Our work involves close collaboration with the private sector, communities, educators and government partners to design and implement locally led approaches that emphasize sustainable economic growth. With extensive experience in non-permissive environments and fragile, conflict-affected regions, we employ a cross-sectoral strategy to build resilience and generate diverse economic opportunities. This builds markets for U.S. exports, increases opportunities for U.S. trade and investment abroad, builds a skilled workforce for U.S. investors abroad, reduces competition for U.S. jobs by reducing economic drivers of migration, reduces dependency on U.S. foreign aid and reduces global instability and the costs of fighting extremism.

Private Sector Engagement

Recognizing that the private sector is key to economic growth, Creative places heavy emphasis on partnerships with the private sector as a major asset to any sustainable economic development project. Creative strategizes, collaborates and implements activities with and through the private sector to achieve greater scale, sustainability and effectiveness of interventions, providing economic stability and resilience to people and communities.

Workforce Develoment

Partnering with the private sector to understand their workforce requirements, Creative works with technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, formal and informal training providers, community stakeholders and non-governmental organizations to design workforce development programs. Our interventions deliver market-driven, competency-based training programs, enhance TVET and training providers’ capacities, provide technical, digital, and life skills training and offer career counseling, job placement and ongoing support that enable people to be productive members of the workforce. To support a sustainable and resource-efficient society, Creative helps energy and non-energy industries in their just energy transition plans by training existing and new workforce on green skills for green jobs. Creative partners with TVET institutions and the private sector to co-design STEM-focused curricula addressing the growing demand for STEM-oriented occupations.

Livelihoods and Job Creation

Recognizing that many of the people we work with are in the informal sector, especially youth and women, Creative specializes in supporting both formal and informal pathways to livelihoods for underserved populations. We support aspiring entrepreneurs with training in business management and sales, including financial education, leadership, marketing and sales, and we facilitate access to markets to sustainably grow their business, enabling them to realize greater efficiencies, increase income and employ others.

Trade and Investment

Creative works with financial and non-financial institutions and other co-investment partners to mobile private capital and incentivize investment in the private sector. Creative works with private sector businesses across a wide range of economic sectors to attract and utilize investment by improving their productivity, adopting new technologies, expanding their product offerings and meeting market demand. This enables companies to increase the volume and value of their trade in new and existing markets, both domestically and internationally.

Agriculture and Agribusiness

A majority of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas and depend on the agricultural sector for livelihoods. Agricultural development is critical in reducing poverty, boosting incomes and increasing food security. Creative partners with businesses in the agriculture and agricultural-adjacent sectors to provide sustainable livelihoods and community resilience.

Enterprise Development

Creative’s programs deliver a wide range of enterprise and entrepreneurship development support for individuals, micro-, small- and medium-sized firms whose success will contribute to increased competitiveness and economic growth and stability. Creative works with businesses and entrepreneurs as well as business development service providers to build a robust business-enabling ecosystem that leads to sustainable economic growth for all.