Resource Library

DFID has been one of the leading agencies in Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P), a market systems approach that works with the private sector to catalyze changes in markets that benefit the poor. DFID’s flagship M4P project in Kenya is the Market Assistance Programme (MAP), managed by Mike Field, a recognized leader in value chain and M4P approaches. Field and his team are exploring innovative, scalable solutions in cross-cutting systems and specific value chains.

Browse resources from the latest MPEP seminar on transforming African agriculture.

The Tanzania Staples Value Chain Project – NAFAKA, implemented by ACDI/VOCA, is one of the 10 active Feed the Future projects in Tanzania. Chief of Party Lee Rosner discusses NAFAKA’s market-driven, value chain approach to addressing food security concerns in the country, sharing both the challenges and successes encountered during the project’s first year of implementation.

The related resources below are products of the "Facilitating Sustainable Change" session of USAID's Meeting the Challenges of Value Chain Development: A Learning Event. Session Description:

The related resources below are products of the "Financing Value Chains" session of USAID's Meeting the Challenges of Value Chain Development: A Learning Event. Session Description:

SITE’s work in Kenya's warm milk trade has been an iterative process, relying on numerous types of facilitation to address each challenge as it unfolded, incentivizing a fragmented informal sector without lead firms to collaborate, improve its performance and increase the benefits to its participants. By demonstrating the benefits to regulation and formalization, there has been significant upgrading in the value chain, crowding in of new entrants, and substantial increases in the volumes of milk traded and profitability for the actors.

In this presentation, Sebstad and Manfre discuss a framework that considers how gender influences behaviors in agricultural value chains with a particular focus on upgrading.

In an effort to identify appropriate interventions and policies for improving food security, this paper provides a synthesis of recent research into the behavior of producers and consumers of staple food crops in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Steve McCarthy presented, "Linking Smallholders in Ethiopia and Rwanda to Higher Value Coffee Markets." The seminar was the 31st installment of the Linking Small Firms to Competitiveness Strategies Breakfast Seminar Series sponsored by the USAID Microenterprise Development office.

Discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the Stepped Approach to Improved Livelihoods (SAIL) tool in post-conflict environments.

In this assessment, the LIFT project conducted a food security and livelihood assessment in Namibia oriented towards people living with HIV/AIDS.