Blog

Society Development Committee, or SDC, based in Faridpur, Bangladesh, is a microfinance partner of the Feed the Future Bangladesh Livestock and Nutrition Activity, funded by USAID and implemented by ACDI/VOCA. Through this partnership, thousands of people working in Bangladesh’s livestock sector have benefited from microfinance products.

This blog, written by Ashfaq Enayetullah, was originally published on Agrilinks. 

Inclusion contributes to greater market connectivity, one of the key determinants of market system resilience. People—including those traditionally excluded from or marginalized by market systems, such as women, youth, LGBTQI+ individuals, people with disabilities, and indigenous or other identity groups—are human resources. They are critical for enabling a system to better absorb, adapt, or transform when faced with shocks and stresses.

We tested different business models and found ways to increase the resilience of both large and small agricultural businesses. Our world is entrenched in systemic challenges, from a pandemic to global warming and supply chain issues. So, how do we respond to these challenges effectively and sustainably? Market-based approaches offer one solution, but not all approaches are created equal. And many questions remain regarding how market systems development programs can support communities facing these shocks.   

In early 2020, the Feed the Future Bangladesh Rice and Diversified Crops Activity, funded by USAID and implemented by ACDI/VOCA, began an assessment to understand how the Activity could increase financial access for agricultural small- and medium-sized enterprises (agri-SMEs) in Bangladesh during COVID-19. The assessment originally focused on opportunities for the Activity to increase financial access through agent banks during the pandemic.

Resilience is a word we’ve heard a lot during the pandemic. It means having the ability to absorb, adapt, and transform during shocks and stresses. Access to financial resources allows households to make changes in response to current shocks or anticipation of future shocks. Ultimately, a resilient financial system can lead to better food security, improved health, and nutrition. One of the largest shocks in recent history, the COVID-19 crisis, has allowed us to understand just how resilient some systems are.

This post was authored by Paul Newall, Associate Director of Partnerships and Investments at ACDI/VOCA. Sajeda Begum purchased a bull for $330 after receiving a cattle loan from the Society Development Committee for the first time. After four months of rearing, she sold the bull for $1,180, earning a huge profit. She plans to reinvest the money in purchasing another bull to continue contributing to her household’s income.

By Emily Langhorne, INVEST Communications Specialist  

Banks in Bangladesh are exploring agent banking and digital services as ways of coping with COVID-19 restrictions, expanding financial inclusion to those in need, and preventing the gap in microfinancing from widening further.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures national governments around the world are taking to contain it have created new challenges for families who were already vulnerable to a number of climate-related disaster risks. New research supported by USAID is learning whether investments in broadly based resilience helps families to withstand even this completely unexpected and global shock.

Learn how USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures grantees are adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This post explores how global development organizations can mitigate food and agricultural systems during the COVID-19 crisis, using a market systems approach.

Access to finance is a major pain point in market systems development, but how can we go beyond traditional financing methods to better reach agricultural businesses?

As we prioritize making market systems more competitive, resilient, and inclusive for smallholder farmers and other market actors, we must connect our support for these actors with support for the all-encompassing yet elusive enabling environment around them.

While women make up a large part of Bangladesh’s agricultural workforce, they are rarely at the forefront of commercial agriculture. Engaging women in more diverse agricultural activities could change this.

Economic development programs are increasingly shifting to a system change approach instead of direct delivery service.

Flooding is a constant threat in many parts of Bangladesh where people’s livelihoods depend on a good crop. Microinsurance was designed to help at-risk farmers to increase their resilience to this threat.

Network analysis is often cited as a useful tool for analyzing market systems, but can be difficult for large networks. In Bangladesh, the USAID-funded Rice and Diversified Crops (RDC) activity tested an ego-net approach.

This post examines difficulties in measuring inequalities and differences in women's participation in the labor market as well as ways forward in the field.

Read how private sector-led technical and entrepreneurial trainings are playing an important role in boosting women's economic empowerment in Bangladesh.

In the context of Bangladesh, two of the most influential informal norms are family loyalty and social hierarchy, and these norms permeate many layers of social interaction and structure, including market systems and businesses.

Learn how driving firms to to consider smallholder farmers as a more integral part of their business strategy results in a more inclusive input supply system.

Explore how reframing market systems as enabling environments with pockets of momentum, rather than a series of snapshot problems, can boost market systems change efforts.

Explore USAID's recently released interactive online resource to complement The Guide to the Use of Digital Financial Services in Agriculture!

By offering a secure way to store money and access financial services, mobile money has the potential to increase the efficiency of programs and significantly improve the resilience of smallholder farmers in Bangladesh.