Resource Library

The Resource Library serves as a broad resource hub, including over 1000 documents, training materials, wikis, and curated reports to increase readers' awareness, understanding, and proficiency of several topics in market systems development. Users have access to proposals, evaluation materials, and USAID policy updates, as well as training modules and wikis to boost skills and knowledge.

These resources are bolstered by the inclusion of curated USAID reports published on the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) which serves as a repository of reports from completed or ongoing USAID development projects around the globe. The full USAID Development Clearinghouse website can be accessed here.

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What Works to Enhance Women’s Agency

This J-PAL literature review draws from 160 randomized and natural experiments in low and middle-income countries to distill key lessons on what we know about supporting women’s agency based on quantitative evidence.

Savings Groups and COVID-19

This post shares recommendations from The SEEP Network to help organizations consider how best to support Savings Groups and their members during the COVID-19 crisis. This guidance draws on experiences working with Savings Groups during times of crises including conflict, natural disasters and epidemics, such as Ebola.

Working with Savings Groups During COVID-19

COVID-19 poses health and economic risks for savings groups as markets falter; and mobility and community gathering are restrained. This post highlights guidance from CARE to help implementers consider how best to support savings groups and their members during this crisis.

Report: Lessons Learned in Enterprise Development from Sri Lanka

The USAID BIZ+ program in Sri Lanka helped small and medium-sized businesses sustainably and effectively accelerate and grow. This work created over 8,000 jobs and leveraged over $22 million in private sector investment. This post highlights the program and the new Enterprise Development Report.

4.5.16. Sidecar Technical Assistance Facilities

DESCRIPTION Funds used to sponsor technical assistance for investees of one or more investment funds related to a priority geography, sector, or market segment (Source: FinTech Partnerships Playbook).

4.5.15. Pay for Results: Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) and Social Payments

DESCRIPTION Arrangements whereby cash payments are made directly to needy households to stimulate investment in human capital upon meeting predetermined con (e.g., ensuring periodic health checks or school attendance).These programs seek to encourage behavior change to resolve social challenges through cash payments to benefit contingent on the beneficiaries meeting certain human capital investment requirements.

4.5.14. Pay for Results: Advance Market Commitments

DESCRIPTION Agreements to guarantee a price or market for a product upon its successful development, as a way to mitigate uncertainty in building products/markets (initially used to encourage vaccine production).

4.5.13. Pay for Results: Development Impact Bonds and Social Impact Bonds

DESCRIPTION Arrangements where private investors provide upfront capital for social services, and then are repaid with a success premium if successful by an outcome funder upon achievement of results by the implementer/service provider. A Social Impact Bond (SIB) involves a government entity as the outcome funder; a Development Impact Bond (DIB) is the application in a developing country context with a third party paying for the outcomes.

4.5.12. Pay for Results: Prizes

DESCRIPTION An arrangement where prizes (financial rewards) are awarded, usually through an open and competitive process, to one or more competitors that are successful at accomplishing a pre-specified desired result (which could be a fresh approach to a development challenge). Prize competitions mobilize a range of participants to try to achieve a desired result and select winners based on assessment of evidence of their achievements, rather than pre-selecting a single implementer.

4.5.10. Angel Investment Networks

DESCRIPTION Angel investors, also called informal investors, angel funders, private investors, seed investors or business angels, they invest in entrepreneurs and their businesses in the earliest phases. Angel investors typically invest their own money in exchange for equity or convertible debt.

4.5.8. Seed Funding

DESCRIPTION Seed funding can be described as grant funding into early-stage, high-risk and potentially high-reward projects to prove their viability, so that they can be further commercialized or scaled by private investors (Unlocking Capital for Development). As shown in the figure below, seed funding is indicative of where a business is in its lifecycle; as the first stage, “seed” is perceived to be the riskiest type of funding for investors.

4.5.7. Competitive Procurement and Reverse Auctions

DESCRIPTION “Competitive procurement is not unique to the energy sector, and is simply defined as a method for purchasing a product or service through an open and competitive process with multiple bidders. In the electricity sector, competitive procurement refers to the purchase of an energy or capacity product through a competitive tender process.

4.5.5. Subsidize Mobile and Electronic Banking

DESCRIPTION Payments systems that can strengthen the financial sector by reducing the time, risk and cost of transferring funds. Modern systems can facilitate digital payments, including mobile money, which enable more people to pay bills and transfer money electronically. Although FinTech products can be offered by banks and non-bank financial institutions alike, the last decade has seen the most innovation from FinTech start-ups and non-banks.

4.5.3. Strengthen Investment Promotion Agency Capacity

DESCRIPTION Many countries have some form of Investment Promotion Agency which have the potential to play a large role in identifying and promoting investment opportunities. Investment Promotion Agencies can have a strong impact in convening, creating forums and events in which those seeking finance can engage with finance providers (Source: Mobilizing Private Finance for Development: A Comprehensive Introduction).