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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Investment Climate Reform Toolbox

  • Partner.: Investment Climate Reform Facility (ICR Facility)
  • Publication Type: Toolkit
  • Date: September 2, 2021

The Investment Climate Reform Toolbox (ICR) Toolbox is written for policy-makers and the business membership organizations in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and beyond, and is designed to respond to common challenges faced by those working to develop a business environment for a thriving, inclusive, and sustainable private sector.

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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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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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Crafting Kuza: Towards a Systemic Approach to Job Creation for Youth in Mombasa

  • Partner.: International Labour Organization (ILO)
  • Publication Type: Case Study
  • Date: 2016

This case study examines the Kuza project, a 3.5 year initiative that operated in coastal Kenya, and distills lessons for initiatives seeking to facilitate inclusive job creation, as well as methods for understanding impact. MSA conducted an analysis of Kuza’s job creation and job measurement strategies with a specific focus on the micro-retail sector. The study profiles Kuza’s approach to capturing direct, indirect and induced job creation.

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Market Systems and Job Quality: What Do We Know and What Can We Do About It?

  • Partner.: International Labor Organization (ILO)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: August 2017

If you’ve ever wondered (or been skeptical about) if or how the market systems approach can address job quality, we’ve mapped the evidence from the field to learn what’s been done, what’s been effective and what projects and donors can to better address job quality in the future.

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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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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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