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

  • Partner.: USAID Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP)
  • 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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Putting Gender at the Heart of Business Environment Reform

  • Partner.: International Labour Organization (ILO)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: October 25, 2021

This report charts some key entryways for better incorporating gender in business environment reform, with a focus both on policies themselves, and the processes for their proper implementation.

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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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How the Private Sector Measures Social Inclusion and its Return on Investment: A Framework to Inform Future Research

  • Partner.: USAID
  • Publication Type: Brief
  • Date: May 25, 2021

This brief documents how different private sector actors understand and measure social inclusion and its return on investment (ROI) as an initial step to frame further research on the business case for social inclusion in developing countries. This brief was produced as part of MSA’s work with the Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP) Activity, a set of learning initiatives around social inclusion.

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Evidence Review of Women’s Groups and COVID-19: Impacts, Challenges, and Policy Implications for Savings Groups in Africa

  • Partner.: The SEEP Network and the Evidence Consortium on Women’s Groups
  • Publication Type: Brief
  • Date: April 20, 2021

Developed by the Evidence Consortium on Women’s Groups, this brief presents emerging evidence from studies in diverse African contexts— with a deep dive into Nigeria and Uganda—on how COVID-19 has affected Savings Groups and how these groups have helped mitigate the pandemic’s negative consequences in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Women’s Empowerment Collectives are Critical to Reaching Scale

  • Partner.: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The SEEP Network
  • Publication Type: Blog
  • Date: February 23, 2021

Women’s collectives are often thought of as a critical source of social solidarity and resilience at the grassroots level. But what if women’s collectives could be leveraged to target and help unlock the economic empowerment of rural women at scale? This blog post explores the potential transformative role women’s collectives can play in expediting women’s economic and social empowerment globally, and how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is targeting these groups to address structural barriers to gender equality.

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Leveraging the Enabling Environment to Achieve Scale in Women’s Economic Empowerment: An Interview with USAID’s Wade Channell

  • Partner.: USAID
  • Publication Type: Blog
  • Date: February 19, 2021

The Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment (AWE) program team spoke with Wade Channell, senior economic growth advisor for gender with USAID about how we can leverage the enabling environment to achieve scale in women’s empowerment.

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What Does It Take to Achieve Scale in Women’s Empowerment Activities?

  • Partner.: USAID
  • Publication Type: Blog
  • Date: February 18, 2021

Insights and examples of approaches to scaling women’s empowerment from the Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment (AWE) program team, particualrly relating to gains in agricultural productivity, resilient and sustainable livelihoods and nutrition.

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