Publication database

Based on data from 132 GDC members, as well as evidence and insights gathered by the GDC over the last three years, this report explores four major trends in the LMD sector: digitalisation, access to finance, product diversification and consumer financing. Overall, the report finds that, despite significant challenges – not least Covid-19 – the LMD sector is impactful, resilient and increasingly professional. External support, including access to finance, is key to unlocking LMDs’ full potential for impact at the last mile.

Since 2013, the G4AW programme has been supporting 25 partnerships in 15 countries in Africa and South-East Asia that have taken up the challenge to develop digital solutions, using satellite and geodata to improve food and income security at smallholder food producer level. The major lessons learned from the programme (about 8 years) are summarized in this new lessons learned publication. It focuses on the business-related decisions and the steps taken to move towards a sustainable business model and scale to other services and regions.

Consumer intelligence refers to the insights and recommendations generated by research teams about target demographics of consumers. In the Growth for Growth network, ThinkPlace used a range of research methods to develop consumer intelligence. Regardless of method, this research focused on spending time with people in their context, learning about how consumers experience the world, not how we see their world externally. 

This toolkit introduced design-led prototyping for companies serving low-income customers. Design-led prototyping is an iterative process, meaning that critique and refinement comes through a series of validation exercises wherein consumers provide feedback to the prototype. Testing does not entail asking users what they think about the prototype as much as it anchors a broader conversation with consumers about how the central idea of the prototype might add value in their lives. 

This report offers practical guidance to last mile distribution (LMD) companies seeking digital solutions that can help them to scale up their activities. It focusses on five key areas that will enable them to better engage with digital solution providers: understanding how LMDs can benefit from digitalisation, improving accessibility, financing IT, understanding how to integrate different digital solutions, and helping digital service providers to enter new markets.

This snapshot report details how prioritising green and social enterprises delivers triple returns - economic, social and environmental – in both short and long terms. It analyses the status quo, gaps and potentials of green and social enterprises as well as the SME support landscape in different areas and locations. Building on in-depth SEED-conducted interviews with enterprises and enterprise support providers, green recovery contributions and support opportunities were identified to improve the existing support offers for green and social enterprises in a green recovery context.

This guide lists digital tools that deliver remote data collection, information, or training for farmers and farmer organizations. It assesses them on five criteria: demand, value addition, costs, transcending inefficiencies, and interoperability. 

This document is a strategic guidebook developed by Argidius Foundation and Dalberg Advisors to support business development services (BDS) providers to successfully adopt digital practices and tools. It explores current practices and opportunities across the landscape to guide BDS providers in using digital technologies to provide services to entrepreneurs in an effective and inclusive way.

This report highlights opportunities for the private sector in Digital Climate Advisory Services (DCAS), including how to implement financially sustainable business models and recommendations for business. DCMS offer a huge opportunity to increase the productivity and resilience of smallholders and support sustainable food systems. 

Social enterprises have shown resilience and agility in response to the pandemic's severe challenges, offering new products, services, and trading models to support their communities. This global survey explores these responses along with the uneven impact on different demographic groups and variations across regions. It also looks at support provision, growth expectations and implications on social enterprises as generators of employment.