Finance in Value Chain Analysis: A Synthesis Paper

This paper presents a systematic approach to incorporating finance in value chain analysis (VCA). As the lifeblood in the value chain, finance is often one of the critical constraints to economic growth. Understanding the financial structures both within and between firms in the value chain is necessary for the development of upgrading strategies that effectively increase competitiveness. The paper synthesizes some of the more pertinent literature on the topic and adds to this some key insights gained from a recent set of case-studies completed under USAID's Accelerated Microfinance Advancement Project (AMAP) Financial Services Knowledge Generation (FSKG) project.