Pathways Out of Poverty: Applying Key Principles of the Value Chain Approach to Reach the Very Poor

  • Partner: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: December 2011

This discussion paper provides guidance on how value chain and market development core principles can be adopted when working directly with the very poor. This paper is applicable to initiatives aiming to ‘reach down’ further and include the very poor in—or graduate the very poor more intentionally into—economic growth interventions, thereby creating a “pathway out of poverty.”

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Beyond Financial Services: Combining Savings Groups with Agricultural Marketing in Tanzania

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

This case study reviews a chickpea production and marketing project implemented by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in the Mwanza region of northern Tanzania. The project facilitated agricultural production and marketing support to savings groups comprised of chickpea farmers. This document presents the preliminary findings of the project in an effort to explore the sustainability and replicability of this integrated model.

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Beyond Financial Services: A Synthesis of Studies on the Integration of Savings Groups and Other Developmental Activities

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

This document summarizes the findings of a Learning Initiative carried out by Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) with support from the MasterCard Foundation, to study the integration of Savings Groups (SGs) and other developmental activities. It looked at nine projects that integrated SGs with other activities such as linkages to agricultural input and output markets, health education, and marketing of social products (i.e. solar lamps).

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