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 the Results of Women’s Economic Empowerment in Private Sector Development: Guidelines for Practitioners
- Partner: Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Working Group
- Publication Type: Toolkit
- Date: July 2014
Most guidelines on women’s economic empowerment focus on theory of guiding implementation practices but not on measurement practices tailored to private sector development (PSD) programs. Moreover, more PSD programs focus on measuring enterprise-level results instead of household level results. This document presents the key findings on measurement practices of women’s economic empowerment specifically.
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Breaking Barriers to Youth Entrepreneurship & Employment through Savings Groups
- Partner: The SEEP Network
- Publication Type: Webinar
- Date: June 24, 2014
Can youth savings groups help foster entrepreneurship and employment among young people, supporting them in their search for decent work and their struggle against poverty? This webinar presented key findings from a paper on the topic commissioned by Plan UK; programmatic considerations on what is working and what is not from the Banking on Change partnership; and learnings from Freedom from Hunger's AIM youth initiative.
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DCED Webinar: Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment
- Partner: Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED)
- Publication Type: Webinar
- Date: June 17, 2014
Why measure women’s economic empowerment? Why are household level indicators important for measuring changes in women’s economic empowerment? In this webinar, Erin Markel presents guidelines, good practices, and lessons learned for Measuring Results of Women’s Economic Empowerment in Private Sector Development.
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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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Youth Savings Groups, Entrepreneurship and Employment
- Partner: Plan UK
- Publication Type: Report
- Date: May 2014
This report examines how youth savings groups can contribute to the fight against youth unemployment. It looks at key constraints to youth employability and entrepreneurship, including limited asset base and access to finance, lack of employability and entrepreneurship skills, limited social networks, household underinvestment in education and health, unfavorable cultural and social norms and non-conducive regulatory frameworks.
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Leveraging Apprenticeships to Reach and Benefit Vulnerable Youth: Lessons from STRIVE’s Afghan Secure Futures Program
- Partner: Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and FHI360
- Publication Type: Report
- Date: December 2013
STRIVE implemented four field projects in Africa and Asia between 2008 and 2013, ranging from savings-led finance to workforce development to value chain interventions. This report summarizes the findings of one of four STRIVE-funded initiatives, MEDA’s Afghan Secure Futures (ASF) project. ASF focused on benefiting youth apprentices working in workshops in the Afghan construction sector.
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Measuring Results in Challenge Funds: Practical Guidelines for Implementing the DCED Standard
- Partner: Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED)
- Publication Type: Toolkit
- Date: October 2013
This paper provides guidance for results measurement in challenge funds using the DCED Standard, an eight-part framework for measuring and managing results of private sector development programs. It looks at each of the eight elements of the DECD Standard to present practical advice on how to implement them in a challenge fund context.
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Practical Guidelines for Measuring Achievements in Private Sector Development in Conflict-Affected Environments: A Case Study of The Employment Promotion Programme in Sierra Leone
- Partner: Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED)
- Publication Type: Case Study
- Date: August 2013
This case study supplements the DCED Practical Guidelines for Measuring Achievements in Private Sector Development in Conflict-Affected Environments (CAEs), drawing lessons from the Employment Promotion Programme (EPP) in Sierra Leone. The case is structured around four elements of the DCED Standard: articulating the results chain, defining indicators, measuring indicators, and managing the system for results measurement.
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