MSA Engagement Database

Accelerating Strategies for Practical Innovation and Research in Economic Strengthening (ASPIRES)

The Accelerating Strategies for Practical Innovation and Research in Economic Strengthening (ASPIRES) project supported evidence-based, gender-sensitive programming to improve the economic security and related health outcomes of highly vulnerable individuals, families, and children. ASPIRES aimed to accelerate the adoption of evidence-based practice by evaluating Household Economic Strengthening (HES) interventions and supporting program configurations most consistent with success in the evidentiary record.

Access to Finance Rwanda Gendered Social Norms Diagnostic

Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR) was a Rwandan not-for-profit organization established in March 2010 by the governments of the United Kingdom (UK) and Rwanda. With support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), AFR’s strategic focus stimulated financial sector development by partnering with financial institutions and other stakeholders to increase access to, and use of, financial services.

Advancing Women’s Empowerment

The 5-year Feed the Future AWE program was implemented by EnCompass LLC and its subcontractors to enhance women’s empowerment and gender equality in agricultural systems and programming. AWE provided targeted technical assistance to USAID missions, implementing partners, the Bureau for Food Security, and other USAID operating units to increase women’s participation, productivity, profit, and benefit in agricultural systems.

Advising on the Employment Strategy for the Mastercard Foundation

In 2017 the Mastercard Foundation (MCF) embarked on an ambitious new strategy to enhance educational outcomes and generate millions of new jobs in Africa.

Africa Trade and Investment Learning & Evidence Services

The USAID Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) activity aims to boost economic growth, trade, and investment between the United States and African nations, supporting USAID's priorities of Private Sector Engagement and Financing Self-Reliance.

Africa Trade and Investment Liberia Agribusiness Incubator

The USAID Africa Trade and Investment (ATI) activity aims to boost economic growth, trade, and investment between the United States and African nations, supporting USAID's priorities of Private Sector Engagement and Financing Self-Reliance. The ATI program includes the Liberia Agribusiness Incubator and Development Activity (AIDA), which strengthens Liberia's commercial agricultural sector, particularly benefiting women and youth. The program involves three regional incubators providing training to MSMEs and hosting pitch competitions for grants.

Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund

The Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF) was a five-year program aimed at increasing women’s participation in the economy by fully incorporating gender dynamics into a systems-based approach. AWEF was guided by five key principles: empowerment, systemic change, learning and innovation, adaptability, and understanding political economy/stakeholder dynamics.

Assessing Market Systems Approaches to Improving Job Quality

The Lab was an International Labour Organization (ILO) project that aimed to generate empirical knowledge and tools on the use of a market systems approach to address decent work issues.

BOSS Evaluation

The International Labour Organization (ILO) Timor-Leste’s Business Opportunities and Support Services BOSS program was a six-year, $11.8-million Private Sector Development project with a core purpose to contribute to employment creation and income generation. BOSS aimed to contribute to the generation of pro-poor economic development and quality employment for women and men by spurring growth of micro and small enterprises (MSEs).

CARE Market-Based Approaches (MBA) – Lean Impact Measurement

CARE rapidly grew its work in Market Based Approaches (MBA) and aimed to impact over 100 million people by 2030 by catalyzing commercial funds that helped bridge the global funding gap to end global poverty.

Coastal Rural Support Programme Tanzania

The Coastal Rural Support Programme Tanzania (CRSPT) was a long-running initiative implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation and funded by a range of donors, including DFID, the EU, and others. CRSPT operates in Lindi and Mtwara regions of southern Tanzania. One of the initiatives of CRSPT was Food Security and Incomes, a 5-year program funded by DFID focused on the rice and sesame value chains. 

Conducting Market Systems Assessments of the Water, Agricultural Inputs, and Livestock Sectors in Kenya

Kenya Markets Trust (KMT) was a Kenyan organization funded by DFID and the Gatsby Foundation that workedwith the private and public sectors to catalyze large systemic change. MSA was contracted to assess to what extent systemic change had been created in three systems: water, agricultural inputs, and livest ock.

DCED Audit of the ALCP Project

Alliances Lesser Caucasus Programme (ALCP) was a multi-phase initiative funded by SDC that took a market systems development approach to enhancing the livestock sector in Georgia. Working across much of the country, ALCP incorporated a strong focus on women’s economic empowerment.  

DCED Guidelines on Results Measurement in Women’s Economic Empowerment

The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) was a leading source of knowledge about Private Sector Development (PSD).

Emprende

EMPRENDE was a coffee-, cacao-, and banana-focused value chain project operating in Peru (San Martín and Piura) and Ecuador from 2013-2016, implemented by SwissContact and funded by SDC. It worked with 8000 farmers, supporting their access to finance, access to markets, good agricultural practices, irrigation, inputs, soil analysis, etc.

Enhancing Employability and Leadership for Youth

The Enhancing Employability and Leadership for Youth project was an M4P project that addressed the root causes of youth unemployment in Northern Pakistan through four components: working with local workforce development institutions to enhance curriculum and access, strengthening agricultural value chains with a focus on youth, promoting civic leadership in local institutions, and working with the national government to redesign Pakistan’s youth employment strategy in Northern Pakistan. Promoting young women’s economic empowerment was a key aspect of the project.

Evaluation of DFID/Malawi’s Private Sector Development Programme

DFID Malawi funded a private sector development (PSD) portfolio consisting of two challenge funds, a market systems development program, and a business-enabling environment program.

Evaluation of the Ethiopia Competitive Facility (ECF)

The World Bank-funded Ethiopia Competitive Facility (ECF) was a matching grant program that co-funded technical assistance and industry benchmarking to four sectors with the potential for export growth: tanning, leather footwear, textiles, and agro-processing.

Evaluation of the Yunus Social Business Fund

The Argidius Foundation supported international market-driven business development initiatives to alleviate poverty since 1992. Yunus Social Business Foundation (YSB) Global Initiatives was launched in 2011 as a non-profit social venture fund that aimed to bring sustainable solutions to social problems through growing social businesses. In January 2016, the Argidius Foundation entered into a four-year partnership with YSB, aimed at supporting its social entrepreneurship acceleration and financing services in Uganda and scale them in the East Africa region.

Evaluation of TradeMark East Africa’s LIFT and TRAC Challenge Funds

TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) was a $550-million initiative facilitating trade between Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, DRC, and the world. Its three strategic objectives included supporting agricultural sector growth and increased food production that contributed to greater exports, creating the infrastructure that supports trade (e.g., ports, roads, border crossings), and supporting the systems and procedures for regional integration (e.g., reducing non-tariff barriers, improving customs software).

Evaluations of TradeMark East Africa’s Uganda and Rwanda Country Programmes

TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) was a $550-million initiative facilitating trade between Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, DRC, and the world. Its three strategic objectives included supporting agricultural sector growth and increased food production that contributed to greater exports, creating the infrastructure that supports trade (e.g., ports, roads, border crossings), and supporting the systems and procedures for regional integration (e.g., reducing non-tariff barriers, improving customs software).

Evidence Base for Collaborating, Learning and Adapting

This project developed the evidence for Collaborating Learning and Adapting and Adaptive Management as part of a learning grant for USAID.

Facilitating a Global Working Group on Women’s Economic Empowerment for SEEP Network & USAID

The SEEP Network was a global network of international practitioner organizations dedicated to combating poverty through promoting inclusive markets and financial systems. SEEP represented the largest and most diverse network of its kind, where members are active in 170 countries and reach nearly 90 million households.

Feed the Future Knowledge, Data, Learning, and Training

The Knowledge, Data, Learning, and Training (KDLT) activity sought to expand the USAID Bureau for Food Security (BFS) and Feed the Future’s capacity and quality of knowledge sharing, data management and analysis, organizational learning, and training.

Feed the Future Market Systems & Partnerships – Ex-Post Study Ghana

MSP conducted an ex-post study on the Feed the Future ADVANCE II Activity in Ghana as one part of a multi-country series focused on evaluating the sustainability and scale of outcomes from specific systems changes catalyzed during a USAID-funded Activity demonstrating key features of an MSD approach.

Financial Health in the Arab World: Social Norms Diagnostic

MSA led a study for the World Bank to research how gender social norms influence women’s financial inclusion in the Arab world. The study was conducted in Southern Turkey, primarily with Arab and refugee populations. The outcomes of the field research informed operational and policy recommendations on how to address socio-cultural and socio-economic issues influencing women’s use of conventional and digital financial products.

Food Security and Incomes

Food Security and Incomes (FSI) was an $11-million project managed by the Aga Khan Foundation in southern Tanzania, with a focus on rice and sesame value chains.

Gender and Market Assessments for Gates Foundation and CARE International

CARE used a market systems development approach to developing and trialing innovative economic development and family planning interventions aimed at increasing the age of first childbirth among married adolescent girls in Niger and Bangladesh under the Gates Foundation-funded Supporting Married Nulliparous Adolescents project.

Gender Assessment of AgDevCo investments in Mozambique

AgDevCo was a social impact investor that made investments in the agricultural sector in Africa. It invested in seven emerging markets in Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Gender-Sensitive Business Environment Reform and Women’s Entrepreneurship Development

The ILO sought a technical research paper on gender-sensitive business environment reform (BER) with the goal to develop practical recommendations on integrating a women’s empowerment lens into a broad range of BER policy areas, as well as into making the reform process more inclusive.

Gendered Social Norms Diagnostic in Egypt

Greyston Bakery Open Hiring Monitoring & Evaluation Support

Greyston Bakery, founded 37 years ago, has provided access to employment to those most in need in its home community of Southwest Yonkers. Greyston has developed and put into practice a simple but transformative idea – the Open Hiring Model.  Greyston Bakery sought to accelerate its impact by creating a Center for Open Hiring that would introduce the model to large companies.

Growth and Employment in States (GEMS)

The GEMS2 and GEMS4 projects focused on construction and real estate, and wholesale and retail trade, respectively. The projects were active in various urban centers, including Lagos and Abuja. All of the GEMS projects reported on their job creation effects.

Habitat for Humanity ShelterTech

Habitat’s ShelterTech aimed to identify potentially game-changing technologies and entrepreneurs around the world and addressed the lack of capacity to attract/raise capital for increased growth to meet the growing demands of this invisible segment. ShelterTech supported both scale-ups and start-ups focused on innovative solutions to material, technology, land, water, sanitation, renewable energy, and financing gaps with the goal of creating an investable portfolio of solutions that addressed affordable housing gaps across the globe.

ILO Somalia Value Chain Analysis

The objective of this study was to add to the existing study by conducting a more detailed value chain analysis of the milk value chain in Mogadishu and the off-grid solar value chain in Garowe.

Impact Evaluation of Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation Customs Clearing Program

The Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (GAfTA) project in Malawi focused on supporting regulation of the customs agent space through improved licensing, inclusive of testing and certification, with a training program to support this change.

Improving Trade Facilitation and Customs Support in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

The FCDO’s Improving Trade Facilitation and Customs Support in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (TFCS) was a 3-year, £15-million program aimed at improving the livelihoods of Palestinians by improving cross-border trade whilst taking a systems perspective, improving the capacity of both the public and private sectors.

Inclusive Finance CGAP Co-Lab Facilitation: Gender and Social Norms

CGAP funded the development of a toolkit on inclusive finance consumer insight studies that incorporate systems thinking, behavior change identification, and social norms, and tests the process of the toolkit through a “Co-Lab,” which engaged seven unique donors and countries to build their capacity on consumer insight studies, social norms, and testing the toolkit.

Independent Mid-term Evaluation of the Savings at the Frontier (SatF) Project

Savings at the Frontier (SatF) was a five-and-a-half-year program (2015-2021) to improve the financial inclusion of low-income individuals and communities in sub-Saharan Africa. SatF sought to bridge the gap between the supply of formal financial services and users of savings groups, and other Informal Savings Mechanisms (ISMs), so that they have a greater choice of financial services that best meet their needs.

Integrating Market Systems Development Principles into the M&E System to Enhance the Evidence Base for the Landscape Approach Used in IUCN’s SUSTAIN Africa Program

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s SUSTAIN Africa program bridged water security and sustainable development. It also built sustainable and inclusive growth to improve water and food security and climate resilience.

Jalin

Jalin was a 5-year, USAID-funded initiative that used a whole-of-market approach to improve: 1) maternal and newborn health quality of care in public, private, primary, and secondary facilities, and 2) the efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency referral system at community and facility levels.

Job Measurement and Implementation Support

The Job Measurement and Implementation Support (JMIS) project provided technical support to FCDO (formerly DFID) to better measure, aggregate, and communicate its impacts on job creation across its funding portfolio.

Jobs: Enhancing Measurement and Impact (JEMI)

The FCDO Jobs: Enhancing Measurement and Impact (JEMI) program was a UK-AID funded program that operated from February to December 2020 and sought to help standardize FCDO’s approach to job measurement across its programs. The JEMI program developed the Jobs Measurement Framework that provided guidance on different jobs concepts and definitions, as well as methodological approaches to help programs ensure alignment with a core set of jobs-related indicators and take methodological approaches that are appropriate and relevant, having taken into account various key considerations.

Kenya Markets Trust – Case Studies Series

Kenya Markets Trust (KMT) was a Kenyan organization with private sector, national, and international partners with a long-term goal to deliver large, systemic change in selected markets that benefits all players. KMT developed a substantial portfolio of successful interventions in water, crop seed, agricultural inputs, and livestock markets across Kenya. KMT and Gatsby wished to synthesize learning from these programs into case studies for a wider audience.

Labor Market Analyses with a Focus on Migrant Workers in Seven IGAD Member States

The ILO implemented the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) financed project entitled ‘”Free Movement of Persons and Transhumance in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Region: Improving Opportunities for Regular Labour Mobility.” The overall objective of the project was to improve opportunities for regulated labor mobility and decent work within the IGAD member States through the development of models of intervention.

Livelihoods and Food Security Technical Assistance (LIFT)

LIFT was a USAID-funded project that provided assistance to missions and implementing partners in supporting effective economic strengthening strategies when working with the food insecure.

Market Systems Analysis and MSD Capacity-Building for DRC Kenya

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC)’s addresses protracted displacement issues by promoting self-reliance and social cohesion between displaced populations and host communities. Challenges arise due to restrictions on movement and work rights for refugees, underdeveloped local systems, and a dependency on humanitarian aid. In 2024, DRC Kenya began a shift towards a systems-thinking approach to address displacement in fragile contexts, integrating short-term humanitarian support with long-term durable solutions, focusing on economic as well as social systems. The program places a particular focus on greeting opportunities and enhancing resilience for marginalized groups, primarily women and youth.

Market Systems Assessment of the Agricultural Sector in Syria

Advancing Livelihoods through Support to Agricultural Markets in Dara’a (AAMD) was a three-year project that sought to improve the livelihoods and resiliency of actors in the agricultural value chain in non-regime-held areas of Southern Syria.

MDF – Women’s Economic Empowerment and Poverty Baseline and Study

The Market Development Facility (MDF) was a six-year, AU$44.9-million private sector development project funded by the Australian Government, which aimed to sustainably increase employment for poor women and men in rural and urban areas.

Measuring Job Creation and Monitoring Support for the Kuza Project in Coastal Kenya

The Kuza project, formerly called the Mombasa Country Youth Employment Project, generated employment for underemployed and unemployed youth in Mombasa County via investment generation, waste management, agribusiness, micro-retail, and skills-training sectors. Kuza sought to improve the business competitiveness of enterprises located in coastal Kenya.

MEDA INNOVATE

INNOVATE – Adoption of Agricultural Innovations through Non-Traditional Finance was a three-year initiative implemented by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) and funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Through 10 projects (pilot studies and case studies), INNOVATE assessed the potential of non-traditional finance to enable large-scale adoption of agricultural innovations among women and men smallholder farmers in South Asia, South America, and East Africa.

MELA Jordan MSD Water Market Assessment, Evaluation, and Project Design

The Monitoring, Evaluating, and Learning Activity (MELA) was designed to ensure USAID’s activities in Jordan achieve their intended results through monitoring and evaluation, strategic assessments, and CLA.

Mid-Term Evaluation of the Scale2Save Program

Scale2Save was a six-year program (2016-2022) to establish the viability of low-balance savings accounts and use of customer-centric approaches to address barriers faced in access, usage, and affordability of savings services.

Monitoring Support to Gebana Afrique

Gebana Afrique was an agricultural social enterprise that procures its source products from smallholder farmers.

Monitoring the Market Development (MADE) project in Northern Ghana

The MADE project facilitated the development of agricultural value chains to improve the incomes and resilience of smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana.

Multi-country Customer Research for the Scale2Save Program

Scale2Save was a six-year program (2016-2022) to establish the viability of low-balance savings accounts and use of customer-centric approaches to address barriers faced in access, usage, and affordability of savings services.

Nourishing Prosperity Alliance

The Nourishing Prosperity Alliance (NPA), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by Land O’ Lakes Venture37, was an innovative coalition including private agricultural firms, research institutions, and non-governmental organizations with a mission to enhance the productivity and incomes of small-scale dairy farmers in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Project Monitor for Global Affairs Canada

Global Affairs Canada supported two 6-year projects on extractive sector benefit sharing across five African countries, implemented by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the WUSC-CECI consortium, respectively. The projects focused on sustainable and inclusive economic growth in communities hosting extractive industries, including local value chain development, entrepreneurship, as well as enhancing community dialogue and local governance of the extractive sector. Both projects focused on empowering women, girls, and youth.

ProMPT (Promoting Malaria Prevention & Treatment)

The program “Promoting Malaria Prevention and Treatment in Ghana” (ProMPT) was carried out in support of PMI/USAID efforts to strengthen malaria prevention and control in Ghana through the implementation of proven malaria interventions, promotion of positive behavior change, and strengthening the capacity of the National Malaria Control Program.

Research on Measurement in Conflict-Affected Environments – Liberia and Somaliland Case Studies

The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) was a leading source of knowledge about Private Sector Development (PSD). The DCED Secretariat commissioned research to guide practitioners on how to effectively monitor in conflict-affected environments.

Research on Measuring Job Creation

The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) was a leading source of knowledge about Private Sector Development (PSD). The DCED Secretariat commissioned a consultancy to support the global roll-out of the DCED Standard, a cutting-edge tool for incorporating best practices in monitoring private sector development initiatives.

Results Measurement Support to Essor in DRC

Essor was a £30-million funding mechanism to support reform of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s business enabling environment. Essor was engaged in multiple areas of business reform, including tax, construction permits, electricity, and anti-corruption.

Scoping for Gender and Private-Sector Engagement Opportunities in Three Sub-Saharan African Countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, and Mozambique

IFC commissioned a private-sector gender analysis in three countries: Cote D’Ivoire, Mozambique, and Liberia. This work investigated existing gender gaps across key thematic areas and key economic sectors and the extent to which they hinder the realization of equal opportunities for women to participate in economic development.

SHARPE

SHARPE was a 3.5-year, $24-million GBP project focused on applying a market-systems development approach to benefit refugees and host populations in three regions of Ethiopia: Gambella, Dollo Ado, and Jijiga. SHARPE took a resilience approach that sought to improve the resilience of target market systems and beneficiaries.

South Sudan Country Context and Market Study for AECF’s Investing in Women in South Sudan (IIW-SS)

The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), a non-profit organization with headquarters in Nairobi, supported early and growth-stage businesses in the agribusiness and renewable energy and adaptation to climate change sectors, with an increasing focus on gender, youth, and employment. The AECF implemented a private sector-led initiative: the Investing in Women of South Sudan (IIW-SS) program in the Republic of South Sudan. This five-year program aimed to enhance women's economic empowerment in the agricultural sector in South Sudan.

SPRING Accelerator

The SPRING Accelerator was a partnership between USAID, DFID, and the Nike Foundation designed to accelerate economic empowerment for girls in parts of Africa and Asia. SPRING supported early-stage enterprises developing products and services that enable girls to safely learn, earn, and save.

Strategic and Monitoring Support to CENPROMYPE

The Regional Center for the Promotion of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (Centro Regional de Promoción de la MIPYME - CENPROMYPE), an El Salvador-based organization, operated in the eight member countries of the SICA region (El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Belize, Panama, and Nicaragua). CENPROMYPE ran various activities to support the start-up and growth of MSMEs, supported by a range of donors including GIZ.

Study on Social Norms Hindering Financial Inclusion and Financial Capability of Consumers in the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Tajikistan

This study focused on youth, labor migrants and their families, and women in Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. It provided insights into how individuals manage their finances and save, decision-making roles in the household, and what expenses are considered normal or outside the norm.

Support to Designing M&E Frameworks

Comic Relief hired Coffey International Development Ltd. to support grant applications on improving their monitoring and evaluation systems. This included guiding each application to complete a self-assessment form of their current capacity in monitoring and evaluation, and then providing tailored support to each application to address key weaknesses.

Support to National Malaria Programme

Support to National Malaria Programme (SuNMaP) was an $89-million GBP initiative funded by DFID that ran from 2008 to 2016. The project’s purpose was to reach the general population, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, with evidence-based interventions that would help control the disease and reduce the malaria burden. This included engaging particularly with the private sector to develop market-based strategies.

Supporting IYF to Apply a Market Systems Development Approach to TVET and Construction Sectors

In partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, the International Youth Foundation (IYF) implemented Via – pathways to employment, a 5-year program in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Morocco. Via was a program that, applying IYF’s tested Passport to Success (PTS) methodology, aimed to transform the delivery of the public Technical and Vocational Education Training system in each country, to ultimately improve youth’s access to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.   

Supporting Pastoralism & Agriculture in Recurrent & Protracted Crises (SPARC)

The Supporting Pastoralism & Agriculture in Recurrent & Protracted Crises (SPARC) program, funded by FCDO and Implemented by CoWater aimed to enhance the resilience of poor and vulnerable populations in areas facing protracted crises and conflicts by addressing evidence gaps related to the effectiveness of programs and policies supporting agricultural livelihoods.

Supporting the Mastercard Foundation to Synthesize its Learning on Market Systems Development

The Mastercard Foundation (MCF) increasingly invested in market systems development to support its aims of youth employment and economic empowerment. To synthesize the learning across its portfolio, build linkages among its implementing partners, and identify directions for future programming and research, MCF decided to hold a learning event called “Cross Learning to Advance Youth Employment” (CLAYE).

Supporting the Widespread Adoption of a Global Standard for Quality Results Measurement

The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) was a forum overseen by the International Finance Corporation that consists of bilateral and multilateral funders as well as foundations who fund economic development. In 2009, the DCED developed a cutting-edge quality standard for the monitoring of private sector development programming called the DCED Standard for Results Measurement. The DCED commissioned a consultancy to support the global roll-out of the DCED Standard.

Techstars Impact Accelerators

The +Nature Conservancy Accelerator was a three-month, mentorship-driven program launched in 2018 aimed to give startups access to experts and resources to help them rapidly scale up technology that solved for a sustainable future across food, water, and climate change.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Financial Inclusion – Consumer Insight Study and Gender Social Norms Diagnostic

The main objective of this study was to explore consumer behaviors and dig deep into the social norms that affect women’s financial inclusion in Bangladesh. To this end, the Gates Foundation worked closely with partners to define the common principles for digital financial inclusion, support policymakers in developing sound policies and regulations, and invest in national financial inclusion initiatives. The social norms diagnostic contributed to knowledge production that will help future strategies for addressing the gender gap in financial inclusion in Bangladesh.

The Social Norms Factor: How Gendered Social Norms Influence How We Empower Women in Markets Systems Development

The BEAM Exchange was launched in 2014 with funding from the UK Department for International Development and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The BEAM Exchange aimed to “deepen understanding by practitioners and policy advisers in donor agencies of how market system approaches can be applied.” One key research topic within the BEAM Exchange learning agenda was studying the application of systems approaches that achieves the economic empowerment of women.

Trade Facilitation and Custom Support Programme (Tasdeer)

Tasdeer, a 4.5-year, £15-million development program funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), aimed to facilitate reaching an inclusive and sustainable export-led growth from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). The program, implemented by Cowater International, worked to support trade-related institutions and private sector businesses to better move goods and services across borders and to increase the revenues from trade-related taxes the Palestinian Authority received.

TradeMark East Africa and Local Institutional Capacity Building

TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) was a locally registered $550-million initiative facilitating trade between Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Somaliland, Somalia, Ethiopia, DRC, and the world. Its three strategic objectives included supporting agricultural sector growth and increased food production that contributed to greater exports, creating the infrastructure that supports trade (e.g., ports, roads, border crossings), and supporting the systems and procedures for regional integration (e.g., reducing non-tariff barriers, improving customs software).

TradeMark East Africa Results Meter

In 2013 Trademark East Africa (TMEA) introduced the Results Meter, a framework and tool that could be used to measure performance against TMEA’s primary goals. The Results Meter was intended to measure improvements in containerized transport times between African Ports and Kigali/Bujumbura that were attributable to TMEA interventions and determine how current improvements compare to TMEA’s 15% improvement goal.

Understanding Social Norms in Housing Market Systems

The Terwilliger Center worked to create a vibrant marketplace of housing choices leading to solutions that help low-income households improve their shelter in Peru, Kenya, and India. An outcome of this work was consumers were able to find affordable, high-quality, environmentally friendly products and services designed with their needs in mind. To accomplish this, the project worked with housing market actors to address housing access challenges amongst low-income households.

Understanding Social Norms in Housing Market Systems Phase 2: Gender and Housing Finance: Harvesting the Outcomes

The Terwilliger Center worked to create a vibrant marketplace of housing choices, which led to solutions that help low-income households improve their shelter in Peru, Kenya, and India. Building on MSA’s previous study about social norms in housing market systems, this second phase used an outcome harvest methodology to explore the links between women’s empowerment and housing finance, especially housing microfinance as provided by Habitat for Humanity’s partners in Kenya.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees Market Analysis in Peru

This project was a market analysis to improve economic opportunities for refugees in Peru.

Uniterra: Design and implementation of Global Market Systems Program for Women and Youth

The Uniterra program, a $125M partnership between World University Service of Canada (WUSC) and the Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI), promoted the employment and entrepreneurship of young women and men by focusing on the development of key economic subsectors through an inclusive market systems approach.

USAID Feed the Future Bangladesh Nutrition Activity

The USAID Feed the Future Bangladesh Nutrition Activity aims to contribute to improvements in nutrition outcomes of household members, with an emphasis on children under the age of five years, pregnant and lactating women, and adolescent girls and boys. Integrating a strong focus on gender equality and social, the Activity uses a two-pronged approach — social and behavior change (SBC) and market systems development (MSD) — to catalyze sustainable change in nutrition outcomes through local actors and systems.

USAID Feed the Future Inova

Inova was a $21-million, USAID-funded (and former Feed the Future) initiative operating in Mozambique. Started under Feed the Future, Inova’s objectives were to improve the competitiveness of targeted agricultural sub-sectors, strengthen target agricultural value chains, and improving the livelihoods of tens of thousands of smallholder farmers spread across multiple provinces of Mozambique.

USAID Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships

The USAID Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP) Activity is a global learning mechanism for advancing learning and good practice in market systems development (MSD) and private sector engagement (PSE) within USAID, its partners, and beyond. MSP sought to improve the effectiveness of Feed the Future, USAID, and other USG programs, leading to sustained development outcomes at scale.

USAID Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP): SME-Level Learning and Systems Change Learning Brief

The Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP) Activity advanced learning and good practice in market systems development (MSD) and private sector engagement (PSE) within USAID, its partners, and beyond. MSP supported USAID to bring about a major cultural and operational transformation by integrating PSE across all activities, while at the same time deepening market systems development and facilitative approaches across the program cycle.

USAID Feed the Future Nepal Agricultural Inputs

The USAID Feed the Future Nepal Agricultural Inputs Activity aims to increase the availability, accessibility, and use of agricultural inputs and technology to improve agricultural productivity in Nepal. It focuses on four critical agricultural inputs – seed, fertilizer, irrigation, and agricultural mechanization – in 16 districts from the Sudurpaschim, Karnali, Lumbini, Bagmati, and Madhesh provinces.

USAID Feed the Future RESINA

The USAID-funded Feed the Future Mozambique Resiliência Integrada na Nutrição e Agricultura (RESINA) Activity was a five-year initiative to improve resilience of smallholder farmers and rural households in target districts in the Nampula and Zambezia provinces of Mozambique.

USAID Feed the Future Rwanda Hinga Wunguke Activity

The USAID/Rwanda Hinga Wunguke Activity is a $29.75-million activity implemented by CNFA in collaboration with MarketShare Associates primarily in the Feed the Future (FTF) Zone of Influence (ZOI) in Rwanda. The overall objective of Hinga Wunguke is to increase incomes and improve nutritional outcomes, by sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, and strengthen domestic consumption and markets for high-value and nutritious agricultural products.

USAID Feed the Future Rwanda Orora Wihaze

Orora Wihaze, a $15-million program, utilized a market-systems approach to facilitate the introduction of new practices that will contribute to the goal of increasing the consumption of animal-sourced foods in Rwanda from selected value chains, including fish, pigs, poultry, and shoats (goats and sheep).

USAID Feed the Future Senegal Value Chain Services (VCS) / Dooleel Mbay

The VCS activity aimed to increase rural incomes and reduce poverty through an inclusive and sustainable market-systems approach, reaching 170,000 households and 230,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the FTF ZOI. Over the performance period, the VCS activity aimed to boost dissemination and access to productivity-enhancing technologies that facilitated market integration and investment in further growth that benefited the targeted rural populations.

USAID Feed the Future Uganda Inclusive Agricultural Markets (IAM) Activity

The Uganda Inclusive Agricultural Markets Activity was a five-year project that sought to increase incomes and improve the livelihoods of households through agricultural-led inclusive economic growth in the 38 FtF focus districts in Uganda.

USAID Feed the Future Water and Food Systems

The USAID WFS Activity aims to improve the security and resilience of water and food systems in Uganda’s northeastern Kyoga Basin. Operating in the Lokok, Awoja, and Lokere watersheds, the Activity takes a market-based approach as it works with local communities and individuals to build resilience to shocks and stressors such as climate change and conflict that endanger local food and water systems.

USAID Feed the Future Water and Food Systems for Resilient Communities Activity

WFSRCA aimed to improve the security and resilience of water and food systems in Uganda’s northeastern Kyoga Basin. Operating in the Lokok, Awoja, and Lokere watersheds, the Activity took a market-based approach as it worked with local communities and individuals to build resilience to shocks and stressors, such as climate change and conflict, that endanger local food and water systems.

USAID Haiti Resilience and Agriculture Sector Advancement

The Feed the Future Haiti Resilience and Agriculture Sector Advancement (HRASA) Activity was a five-year, USAID-funded initiative implemented by DAI Global, LLC, in collaboration with Haitian partners, that focused on enhancing individual, household, and community resilience through strengthened market systems.

USAID Jordan Water Efficiency and Conservation

The WEC Activity contributes to USAID/Jordan’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy’s (CDC: 2020-2025) five-year goals of supporting Jordan to advance its stability, prosperity, and self-reliance by spurring private sector-led economic growth, improving water security, strengthening accountable governance, fostering a healthy, well-educated population, and enhancing the agency and leadership of women and youth.

USAID Leveraging Economic Opportunities

Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) was USAID’s three-year research initiative to better understand how to best spark economic growth.

Yapasa 

Yapasa was a joint United Nations program between the International Labour Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization that took a market-facilitation approach to promote decent jobs for rural youth and improved food security through the development of sustainable rural enterprises.