Publication database

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 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.

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.

This report provides practical lessons from TechnoServe’s past experiences working with businesses during crises, as well as early insights from the coronavirus pandemic. It outlines TechnoServe’s three-step framework for supporting entrepreneurs through the crisis: (1) Reset the goal to business survival, (2) Adapt the program to the new needs of entrepreneurs during the crisis, (3) Engage the ecosystem to foster cooperation and learning.

This report addresses the opportunity for the private sector to play a role in developing digital payment systems. It highlights various sectors where these opportunities are largely untapped and where global companies can leverage their networks to help bring consumers into the digital economy.

This document aims to inform and empower those who may have limited technical experience as they navigate an emerging ML/AI landscape in developing countries. Donors, implementers, and other development partners should expect to come away with a basic grasp of common ML techniques and the problems ML is uniquely well-suited to solve. We will also explore some of the ways in which ML/AI may fail or be ill-suited for deployment in developing-country contexts. Awareness of these risks, and acknowledgement of our role in perpetuating or minimizing them, will help us work together to protect against harmful outcomes and ensure that AI and ML are contributing to a fair, equitable, and empowering future.

Part 1 of this report discusses instrumental and infrastructural approaches to ID and argues for long-term investments in ID infrastructure. Institutions and individuals each have key roles in the ID ecosystem, and we will discuss the tensions inherent in trying to serve both. Part 2 of this report asks how the ID landscape is changing. Emerging technologies will expand the options for identifying and authenticating individuals and introduce new actors across the DID value chain. While some emerging trends may offer greater opportunity for inclusion, higher confidence in authentication, or better data security, new technologies and new actors may also change the roles of traditional ID-granting institutions and their relationships with ID-holding individuals. How we address these emerging trends in technology will determine whether ID is an instrument of empowerment and inclusion or surveillance, disempowerment, and exclusion.

This workbook has been conceived as a practical tool for innovators working in the agricultural sector to reach and effectively serve the untapped market of women smallholder farmers in emerging economies. The workbook reviews existing resources and tools for designing and marketing products, services, and technologies, provides a way to assess barriers and opportunities for reaching the missing market of women farmers, and recommends specific tools and processes for the entire business cycle, from product design to market entry, retention, and growth.

BIF engages with businesses either by first identifying a market in which to operate, and then finding appropriate companies with whom to work; or by identifying multinationals that are looking to innovate, and then introducing a programme to develop the market in which they are working. This report explores examples from both of these strands and distils learning from three countries.