Scaling Impact: Zambia Profit Case Study

The USAID/Zambia-funded PROFIT project was a $15 million, five-year (2005–2010) project implemented by Cooperative League of the USA (CLUSA), International Development Enterprises (iDE), and Emerging Markets Group (EMG). The project had three goals (Snodgrass & Woller, 2006):

• Improve the competitiveness of selected industries in which large numbers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) participate and might benefit.
• Foster the sustainability of competitiveness to enable firms and industries to respond to market demands, both in the short and long run.
• Increase the breadth and depth of benefits at the industry, SME, and household levels.

This case study analyzes the extent to which dynamics between input suppliers and smallholders have changed, including: the extent to which input suppliers’ focus on smallholders as a viable market has persisted, reversed, or evolved, and what this means for smallholders; what external economic and policy factors supported or hindered smallholder input market growth; and what lessons policymakers and practitioners can draw from the evolution of the Zambian input supply sector over the past ten years.