Blog

In her November 2021 speech, “A New Vision for Development,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced two ambitious goals. One, that USAID will provide at least a quarter of program funds directly to local partners by the end of FY 2025.

The digital economy offers emerging countries opportunities to accelerate economic growth, increase productivity, reduce inequalities, and support sustainable development, but emerging evidence shows that cyber harassment and other forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence limits productive economic participation, especially for women.

Accessible finance is vital for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Yet, oftentimes, they struggle to access financing from traditional sources because they lack the knowledge to produce comprehensive financial documentation required by banks. Meanwhile, financial institutions may perceive small businesses as higher risk clients due to their size, limited track record, and insufficient collateral. In many countries, like Rwanda, financial institutions have limited knowledge in the livestock value chain financing opportunities compared to crops value chain.

A level legal playing field in employment, entrepreneurship, and access to and control of resources is an essential component of women’s economic empowerment (WEE). Government laws and business policies can restrict or remove impediments to women’s ability to fully and independently participate in the economy. Additionally, laws and policies that support women’s economic empowerment create the basis for legal recourse and consequences for violations.

Around the globe, communities are faced with complex challenges and facilitating and sustaining peace remains of critical importance. While peacebuilding programming is implemented throughout the world, little is known about the overall impact and return on investment of these programs. Historically, program evaluations in this field (and in international aid and development broadly) have offered information on outputs, for example the number of people who participated in training, but this information remains insufficient to truly understand the impact.

To address the lack of food safety certifications available at the SME level and validate the implementation of project trainings, Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety designed the BD4FS Pre-HACCP Validation Badge program. Working with growing food businesses (GFBs) interested in earning a Validation Badge, BD4FS held specialized trainings, offered technical assistance, and organized a professional food safety audit of 21 Senegalese GFBs.

Several terms have gained prominence in recent times. The SARS-CoV-2, Covid-19, pandemic caused much thinking on localisation and heightened questions surrounding shifting the power. As we moved forward from the worst of the pandemic, lessons have been drawn in different ways by those seeking to make changes happen. Regularly, this is within the specific organisational agenda noting one of the rules of a bureaucracy is to perpetuate itself. Shifting the power is great – as long as my job is ok?

Safe food supports national economies and global trade, in addition to contributing to food security, nutrition, and sustainable development. Governments can facilitate a culture of food safety by creating clear food safety regulations, policies and an enabling environment where small and medium-sized enterprises can thrive. Ethiopia’s government has been continuously upgrading its food safety laws and regulations to meet the requirements of both international buyers and its fast-growing food retail and wholesale establishments.

What if I told you that the financial sector has been favoring the wrong gender - that often women entrepreneurs are a better credit-risk than men and their businesses have higher returns?

In agricultural market systems development (MSD), a crucial debate has emerged—whether to adopt a crop-agnostic or a value chain-specific approach. Day 2 of the 2023 Market Systems Symposium explored this debate with insights from experienced professionals, shedding light on the complexities and considerations within this strategic decision-making process.

This blogpost is one in a series of blogs sharing insights gained from the Market Systems Symposium 2023. The MSS blogpost provides a brief snapshot of key insights shared across a number of different sessions in MSS 2023 held in Cape Town between 13-15 November 2023.

Understanding and influencing norms and behavior change emerge as critical components for fostering lasting impact. Day 3 discussions among practitioners at the 6th annual Market Systems Symposium shed light on diverse perspectives and strategies employed across different sectors within the development landscape to influence behavior change.

This blogpost is one in a series of blogs sharing insights gained from the Market Systems Symposium 2023. The MSS blogpost provides a brief snapshot of key insights shared across a number of different sessions in MSS 2023 held in Cape Town between 13-15 November 2023. Market Systems Development (MSD) is more than a technical approach—it demands operational adaptation to effectively drive transformative change. On Day 2 of the Market Systems Symposium 2023 discussions among industry experts, valuable insights were shared on practical steps organizations can take within the operational and grants arena to align with the principles of MSD.

As a systemic lens is being more widely accepted across development programming, organizations and programs have witnessed a notable shift towards embracing a more intentional Market Systems Development (MSD) approach. This transformation has been spearheaded by thought leaders and change agents who recognize the imperative of adopting a systemic lens. In this blog, we explore insights shared by some prominent practitioners in the field—on Day 2 of the Market Systems Symposium 2023—offering an overview of how their respective organizations have navigated this evolution.

In a three-part blog series, we share lessons on the process of evaluating the Cambodia Feed the Future Harvest II program focused on what systemic changes the program made progress on in the horticulture sector. (Full report here). The lessons are:

In the dynamic landscape of international development, the intersection of market systems development (MSD) and conflict presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities. Several conversations on Day 1 at the Market Systems Symposium 2023 centered around MSD and conflict, drawing on experiences from Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.

In the vast expanse of global development, where complexity too often reigns alongside chaos, a symphony of collaboration is playing out, weaving together diverse contexts and perspectives. The 6th annual Market Systems Symposium 2023 is bringing esteemed practitioners of Market Systems Development (MSD) to share insights and experiences, shedding light on the intersections of MSD with the three key themes this year: food security, conflict, and climate change. Kristin O'Planick, Market Systems Team Lead at USAID, and Elisabet Montgomery, Senior Policy Specialist Market Development at SIDA—both key figures in the donor working group on MSD—offered opening remarks and a glimpse into the evolving space of market systems development.

The blog provides a summary of how MSR analysis can provide important insights into local contexts that should shape how activities are designed and implemented. The case of Haiti is of particular interest in that the various forces and factors affecting how smallholders manage risks from shocks and stresses have had a profound effect on how they engage market systems. As the authors explain, the MSR analysis provided insights into how smallholders manage a portfolio of animals to cope with such a dynamic and uncertain context.

The blog provides an excellent case of how smallholders can be integrated into a high-value supply chain when the contexts are effectively considered. The example shows how context specific efforts the generate value will take off, and can emerge as an attractor that encourages ongoing change with knock-on effects. It is also important to recognize that there are concerns related to only working with a single firm.

The blog highlights the critically important learning function that in many parts of international development are quite weak. The blog provides an example of how practitioners in the area of employment and labor markets have realized the importance of learning and sharing across projects, countries, donors, etc. to accelerate the learning related to complex labor related challenges. While the blog does not focus on the importance of taking systems lenses, it is useful to note that systems thinking is a foundational element of the community of practice.

Climate change has been a slow-moving risk for some time now, but what is often missed, which this blog points out, is that there are immediate consequences affecting most people around the world, especially the most vulnerable. As the blog highlights, increasing weather variability is a challenge for most smallholder farmers, including in Uganda. At the same time, the ability to effectively forecast weather has remained low, which creates a circumstance of increasing risks since erratic weather patterns mean farmers are often caught off guard damaging crops and reducing productivity.

In this three-part blog series, we share lessons on the process of evaluating the Cambodia Feed the Future Harvest II program focused on what systemic changes the program made progress on in the horticulture sector. (Full report here). The lessons are:

If you’ve ever tried to evaluate the extent of system change, you know it’s a fascinating—but tricky—process.

Have you ever wanted to see where USAID provides funding, or what USAID invests in?

In the second blog in the series, the authors focus on the importance of using a retail distribution market systems lens to gain insights into the business realities of selling construction products and services to low-income customer segments. For example, low-income customers buy in smaller lots and often have important considerations related to decision-making, coping strategies, and trust that require specific business strategies and tactics. The blog examines a few examples from TCIS’s work in relation to how they applied systemic thinking related to retail distribution to improve housing outcomes for incremental builders.