Blog

This post was written by Jonah Belser for USAID’s Trade and Competitiveness Activity (TCA). Communities located in border regions are economically significant across the developing world. Border businesses provide vital products and services to people in transit—from international traders to migrant families—especially where cross-border trade and travel procedures are slow-moving and inefficient. These businesses range from customs brokerage and currency exchange services to local restaurants, hotels, markets, and more.

As connectivity grows, digital technologies are transforming the Indo-Pacific region. The Southeast Asia region grew from 360 million internet users in 2019 to 400 million in 2020.

By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist  

Since the market for “bottom of the pyramid” consumers was identified nearly 20 years ago, product marketing, sales, and distribution have evolved with the help of technology. Here's how two businesses use mobile and cloud-based tools to reach emerging market customers.

Feed the Future Cambodia Harvest II is a five-year project, now at its halfway point, working to help Cambodia accelerate horticulture sector growth and strengthen the horticulture market system. This case study describes Harvest II’s blended buyer-led and market systems development approach, citing examples of progress to date and posing several learning questions about the project moving forward.

As USAID programs evolve to adopt a market systems approach, implementing partners must adapt their monitoring and evaluation approaches to better capture dynamics of complex systems change.

The Women in Agriculture Network (WAgN): Cambodia project teaches women who manage small farms ways to diversify their operations for improved nutrition.

The LEO project is speeding towards the finish line! LEO’s broad goals of increasing the capacity of donors and implementers to design, implement and evaluate market systems projects have led to some landmark publications.

When a market system isn’t humming along as it should, something must be missing. Read on for examples from Cambodia and Guinea.

Underdevelopment and missed market opportunities come with real costs, especially for women.

Curtis Hundley of DAI discusses strategies for improving the competitiveness of enterprises, promoting a healthy business enabling environment, and facilitating public-private partnerships from DAI's MSME Project in Cambodia.

During the past seven years, the Cambodia MSME Project has effectively changed the governing and business cultures from distrust to partnership and cooperation.