Blog

Globally, 65 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face a $5.2 trillion financing gap. SMEs not only represent the large majority of businesses but also create more than half of the world’s employment. A lack of finance impedes the growth of these critical businesses and the economies in which they operate. 

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.

The population of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is currently estimated at 1.2 billion people,1 and is projected to double by 2050. The continent’s smallholder farmers (SHF) account for 60% of the population,2 and produce 80% of the food consumed.3 These figures highlight the critical role that agriculture and SHF play in the continent’s food security and development.

Senegal is home to an emergent fresh fruit and vegetable sector that employs many women, from production to retail. Despite challenges in maintaining quality throughout the product lifespan, there are growing markets for fresh fruit and vegetables, like “ditax”. Ditax, or Detarium Senegalese J.F. Gmel, is a forest tree found in Senegal whose fruits are locally called ditax in Wolof.

Food Enterprise Solutions recognizes that food safety is everyone’s business. And – that food safety is good for business!  Today, June 7, 2022, we are celebrating Food Safety Day 2022 to highlight the exciting work that the Feed the Future Business Drivers for Safety (BD4FS) project is doing with growing food businesses in Senegal to promote safer food handling and ultimately more successful businesses.

In the Sahel region of West Africa, small and growing businesses account for nearly 50 percent of new job creation. When these businesses are women-led, the potential to drive growth is even higher: a USAID study found that, globally, these businesses grow revenues 1.5 times faster and jobs twice as fast compared to male-owned businesses.

Experts from USAID and RTI discuss how agricultural market systems – both domestically and globally – can be a driver of resilience, buffering us from the ripple effects of shocks and stresses such as the ongoing pandemic.

How is COVID-19 and Senegal’s response to the pandemic affecting the fishing industry as a whole?

Practitioners from ACDI/VOCA, Impact LLC and MarketShare Associates discussed findings on the diffusion of innovations within market systems in several programs. Part 2 of 2.

Practitioners discuss findings around the diffusion of innovations within market systems in the Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program, the Senegal Nataal Mbay program, the Zambia PROFIT PLUS program and the Ghana ADVANCE II program.

Two more vignettes are here, hot off the presses! Read on to find out how two more projects mobilized private capital successfully.

Plan Canada assesses the benefits of the Youth Microfinance Project as well as its effect on youth economic empowerment.

Keck discusses Engility’s experience working with cereals value chains in the Senegal Economic Growth Project, as the linkages between development work and stabilization efforts in countries in crisis or emerging from crisis.