Is the ‘MSD hockey stick’ a fable or a fact? Early lessons from the USAID ex-post series

  • Partner: BEAM Exchange, Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP), DAI
  • Publication Type: Blog
  • Date: November 12, 2024

This blog explores insights from USAID’s Ex-Post Evaluation Series—highlighting the transformative impact that Market Systems Development (MSD) can drive across programs.

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Affecting Equitable Systems Change as a Woman-Owned Business

  • Partner: Small Business Association for International Companies
  • Publication Type: Blog
  • Date: August 27, 2024

This SBAIC blog shares MSA’s perspective as a woman-owned business and highlights strategies for thinking beyond conventional development practices.

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Leveraging Opportunities for Systemic Change: Insights from a Market Systems and Performance Baseline of the Rwandan Food System

  • Partner: USAID Feed the Future, Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA)
  • Publication Type: Learning Brief
  • Date: June 5, 2024

The Hinga Wunguke Baseline Study summary brief presents baseline learnings from Rwanda to inform stakeholders and activities striving towards more inclusive and equitable agricultural market systems.

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Building a Team Culture for Adaptive Management in MSD: 5 Strategies MEL Managers Say Work

  • Partner: USAID Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP), DAI
  • Publication Type: Learning Brief
  • Date: May 31, 2023

Brief 2 in the MSD in MEL Clinic Series draws from the experiences of four Senior MEL Managers to summarize five practical strategies to build a culture among teams that enables the use of an MSD approach.

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Practitioners’ Guidance to Assessing Systems Change

  • Partner: USAID Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP), DAI
  • Publication Type: Learning Brief
  • Date: May 31, 2023

Brief 1 in the MSD in MEL Clinic Series is a guide that draws from the practical experience of MEL Managers working on market systems development (MSD) programs around the world to help other MEL Managers find what works best for their program and teams in assessing systems change.

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Shifting the Locus of Learning: Catalyzing Private Sector Learning to Drive Systemic Change

  • Partner: USAID Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP), DAI
  • Publication Type: Learning Brief
  • Date: January 23, 2023

Learning is at the heart of the process of economic development—it drives more competitive, resilient, and inclusive firms and systems. Yet learning is less frequently seen as a critical function within systems that can catalyze and quicken systems change and enable adaptation. This brief makes the case that programs can and should shift the locus of learning from being only program-focused to system-focused.

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Feed the Future Inova Business Cases

  • Partner: USAID, DAI
  • Publication Type: Business Cases
  • Date: February 10, 2022

The USAID Mozambique Feed the Future Agricultural Innovations Activity (FTF Inova), implemented by DAI in partnership with MSA, developed six business cases to offer tangible proof that enterprises can profit from investing in addressing challenges experienced by smallholder farmers. The business cases cover three themes: supply chain management; input distribution networks; and support services. Each business case summarizes the prevailing business model being applied, the new opportunity, what options were explored, the value proposition for smallholders and others, the timeline, return on investment, recommendations, and risks going forward.

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Beyond building: how social norms and networks shape mason construction practices in incremental homebuilding

  • Partner: Habitat for Humanity Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter
  • Publication Type: Journal Article
  • Date: September 1, 2021

How do low-income households and masons make house construction decisions? This three-country study examined social norms, networks, and information flows that influence construction practices in Kenya, India, and Peru. The research sought to answer the following questions: 1) How do households and individuals make housing decisions? 2) What are the information flows, key influences, and social norms that steer these decisions? and 3) How can programmes leverage knowledge about norms to improve the quality of home construction?

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The Return on Investment of Social Inclusion: An Evidence Gap Analysis from Developing Countries

  • Partner: USAID
  • Publication Type: Brief
  • Date: August 16, 2021

This brief analyzes the existing literature from developing countries on how firms invest in social inclusion and measure its return on investment. It then analyzes existing evidence gaps and makes recommendations on how firms and USAID partners working in private sector engagement and market systems development can improve their investments and fill evidence gaps.

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The Great Opportunity and Challenge of MSD Ex-Posts: 4 Takeaways from a Rapid Harvest of Insights

  • Partner: USAID
  • Publication Type: Blog
  • Date: August 5, 2021

Ex-post evaluations are a key way to build the evidence base for the scalability and sustainability of the market systems development approach, yet few have been funded through to completion. This blog shares insights on conducting market systems development ex-post evaluations as part of the DAI-implemented Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP) activity.

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