Rethinking the Future of Women’s Empowerment: Economic Engagement & COVID-19

  • Partner: FHI 360
  • Publication Type: Blog
  • Date: October 20, 2020

We kick off the first of a two-part blog series – co-produced by FHI 360 and MarketShare Associates – on Rethinking the Future of Women’s Empowerment in response to the global pandemic with exploring COVID-19’s impact on women’s economic engagement in Egypt.

Read More

Gendered Social Norms in Financial Inclusion: A Diagnostic Study from Southeastern Turkey

  • Partner: CGAP, MetLife Foundation
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: July 2020

The influence of gendered social norms has not been systematically analyzed or widely incorporated into financial inclusion programming. This diagnostic aims to identify social norms that affect how women access, use, and benefit from financial services. The goal is to guide practitioners toward a better understanding of the underlying dynamics. By identifying actionable insights, practitioners can design interventions that target the root causes of consumer behaviors that limit the potential benefits of financial inclusion interventions for women.

Read More

Resources for a Gendered Approach to Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning During COVID-19

  • Partner: USAID
  • Publication Type: Blog
  • Date: May 21, 2020

Tools and resources for a gendered approach to monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) during the COVID-19 pandemic compiled by the Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment (AWE) program team.

Read More

How to better serve smallholders: Key learning from INNOVATE’s 3-year initiative on non-traditional finance for agriculture

  • Partner: Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
  • Publication Type: Blog
  • Date: May 12, 2020

This blog, co-written by MEDA and MarketShare Associates, summarizes key learnings from INNOVATE’s three-year initiative assessing the potential of non-traditional finance to enable adoption of smallholder agricultural innovations in South Asia, South America and East Africa. The blog shares insights on customer centricity, smallholder products and services, smallholder household decision-making, and policy and regulatory transformation. The authors also provide recommendations for implementers, policy makers, donors, and the private sector to re-think how programs and policies are implemented, and how products and serviced are designed and delivered.

Read More

Does Market Systems Development Work for Women’s Financial Empowerment?

  • Partner: Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF), DAI, The SEEP Network, UK Department for International Development (DFID)
  • Publication Type: Webinar
  • Date: April 16, 2020

This webinar builds on MSA’s work supporting the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF) to stimulate increased women’s economic empowerment through a market systems approach. Funded by the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) and working in Jordan and Egypt, AWEF has been one of DFID’s flagship women’s economic empowerment programmes and the first to innovatively apply a market systems development approach to enhance women’s participation in markets.

Read More

Making Digital Finance Work for Women in the MENA Region: 8 Lessons from the Field

  • Partner: Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF), DAI, UK Department for International Development (DFID)
  • Publication Type: Blog Post
  • Date: April 13, 2020

This blog builds on MarketShare Associates' work supporting the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF) to stimulate increased women’s economic empowerment through a market systems approach in Jordan and Egypt. Drawing from AWEF’s Practitioner Learning Brief, Making Digital Finance Work for Women in the MENA Region (2020), the authors explore opportunities and challenges of Digital Financial Services (DFS) and highlight eight lessons on how to design and implement interventions that can pave the way for women’s digital financial empowerment across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and more widely.

Read More

Making Digital Finance Work for Women in the MENA Region: 8 Lessons from the Field

  • Partner: Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF), DAI, UK Department for International Development (DFID)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: April 2020

This Practitioner Learning Brief builds on MarketShare Associates' work supporting the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF) to stimulate increased women’s economic empowerment through a market systems approach. The Brief explores opportunities and challenges of Digital Financial Services (DFS) and highlights eight lessons from 14 case studies on how to design and implement interventions that can pave the way for women’s digital financial empowerment across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and more widely. This Brief aims to encourage others to test and scale innovative approaches to making digital finance work better for women’s empowerment.

Read More

NTF4Ag: Emerging Lessons and New Frontiers – INNOVATE Final Synthesis Report

  • Partner: Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: April 2020

The INNOVATE Final Synthesis Report, produced with support from MarketShare Associates, brings together key results, insights and lessons from the research conducted by MEDA INNOVATE and its partners from 2017-2020, with the goal of learning and documenting experiences of non-traditional finance for catalyzing smallholder agricultural innovation adoption.

Read More

Discovering A Route to Formalize Women-Owned Businesses in Jordan

  • Partner: Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF), DAI, UK Department for International Development (DFID)
  • Publication Type: Blog Post
  • Date: March 10, 2020

This blog builds on MarketShare Associates' work in Jordan supporting the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF) to stimulate increased women’s economic empowerment through a market systems approach. The authors share key results from AWEF's work with local municipalities to facilitate home-based vocational licensing. To date, AWEF’s approach has led to adoption of the home-based licensing process across 20 municipalities within Jordan, with over 300 women obtaining vocational licenses. As part of the licensing process women are trained to adjust production to meet market and supplier requirements, enabling many of them to grow and formalize their businesses. Several women who were licensed have been connected to large, national buyers.

Read More

Digital Platforms and Customer Centricity: Fostering Adoption and Sustained Use of AgTech Solutions

  • Partner: Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: March 2020

As part of INNOVATE, a three-year initiative assessing the potential of non-traditional finance to enable adoption of smallholder agricultural innovations in South Asia, South America and East Africa, MEDA and MarketShare Associates produced a learning paper examining the role of digital platforms and the importance of customer and user experiences to reach and serve smallholder farmers. Through a review of the literature and in-depth interviews with firms leading the development of digital platforms for smallholders and relevant ecosystem players, this paper examines lessons learned for improving customer experiences and fostering increased uptake and sustained use of AgTech innovations.

Read More