Scaling Impact: Cambodia MSME Ex-Post Assessment

  • Partner: Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: 2016

Over the course of the Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) activity, MSA discovered that there had been very analysis of the durability of the results created by market systems development initiatives following their completion. Consequently, MSA conducted this ex-post assessment of the USAID/Cambodia Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) project's work in the swine sector five years following its closure. MSME promoted the use by the private sector of an embedded training model, in which companies would provide technical information on input selection and application at no direct charge to swine farmers in order to increase input sales. MSA’s research found that the embedded training model has endured and indeed expanded since the end of the project, being used to varying extents by the majority of the firms in the sector, indicating that it has become an industry norm.

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Reconsidering the Concept of Scale in Market Systems Development

  • Partner: ACDI/VOCA
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: January 2016

Economic development programs are increasingly taking a systems approach. This paper suggests that the shift to a systemic perspective calls into question the utility of using scale as a key measure of project success, at least in its current usage. While understanding a project’s outreach still has a place, it has been traditionally overused as the primary means of assessing a project’s impact; a use which creates perverse incentives for projects trying to take a systemic approach.

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Making the Business Case: Women’s Economic Empowerment in Market Systems Development

  • Partner: Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: March 2015

This paper, based on extensive research and interviews, provides the rationale that market systems facilitation practitioners can use to engage private sector firms in efforts to empower women. From identifying partners to articulating the mutually beneficial value of women's inclusion, the paper offers guidance and real-world examples to help companies empower women working at every level of the economy.

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Scaling Impact: Extending Input Delivery to Smallholder Farmers at Scale

  • Partner: Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: January 2015

This paper strives to inform the development of market systems that improve smallholder access to and adoption of commercial inputs. Previous studies have focused primarily on cases where donor funding has facilitated market change. This report, on the other hand, considers a diversity of models but focuses particularly on those that have reached significant scale.

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Driving Innovations to Scale in Agricultural Market Systems

  • Partner: Agrilinks and Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO)
  • Publication Type: Blog Post
  • Date: December 16, 2014

Smallholder farmers represent a majority of the world’s farmers and a majority of the world’s poor. Low agricultural productivity is a key driver of their poverty. Yet while the application of improved inputs such as fertilizer, agrochemicals and seeds have significant potential to increase both agricultural yields and farmer income, input access among smallholder farmers remains low.

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Beyond Financial Services: Improving Access to Basic Financial Services and Agricultural Input and Output Markets by Smallholder Farmers in Zimbabwe

  • Partner: Aga Khan Foundation (AKF)
  • Publication Type: Case Study
  • Date: April 2011

This case study examines CARE International’s efforts to promote access to basic financial services and agricultural input and output markets in very poor areas of rural Zimbabwe. This case study investigates two research propositions: (a) savings groups enhance the capacity of smallholder farmers to purchase agricultural inputs; and (b) linkages of savings groups to an agro-dealer model improves access to and participation in agricultural input and output markets.

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Measuring Job Creation in Private Sector Development

  • Partner: Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED)
  • Publication Type: Working Paper
  • Date: June 2014

There are significant challenges impeding the measurement of job creation. The complexity of the topic makes measurement challenging and error-prone. Few guidance documents are available presenting methodologies for measuring project-level impacts on job creation. The aim of this paper is to provide guidance and practical examples on measuring job creation impacts.

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Evaluating Systems and Systemic Change for Inclusive Market Development

  • Partner: Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: June 2014

This report presents a literature review on evaluating systems and systemic change. This review highlights findings that can contribute to developing an evaluation framework for interventions to facilitate inclusive market systems development and empirical approaches for identifying and monitoring systemic changes.

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Investing in Young People: A Start-up Toolkit for Youth Employability Projects

  • Partner: Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC)
  • Publication Type: Toolkit
  • Date: 2013

The Start-up Toolkit for Youth Employability Projects provides valuable tools and lessons learned for development practitioners engaged in developing and/or facilitating employment and entrepreneurship projects for young people.

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Markets and Poverty in Northern Kenya: Towards a Financial Graduation Model

  • Partner: Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: September 2012

This preliminary scoping study presents the outcome of an analytical review of markets and poverty in northern Kenya. It begins with a definition of financial graduation models tracing the evolution of approaches and pathways out of poverty which have informed these models. The subsequent sections provide an analysis of poverty and different livelihoods in northern Kenya. Finally, the value chains approach is used to identify promising interventions for developing markets and enabling the very poor to engage in them.

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