Publication database

This report takes stock of the increasingly pluralistic landscape of agricultural small- and medium-sized enterprise (agri-SME) finance in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, with the aim to establish a new perspective on the market overall - sizing and segmenting the market in new ways, reflecting on the rapidly accelerating imperative around climate, and identifying new priorities for action.

The objective of a proposed Transformational AVC Guidelines is to enable small-scale producers to overcome barriers to development through more inclusive AVCs in the food, agriculture, and forestry sectors toward contributing to the attainment of the SDGs. The Transformational AVC Guidelines are voluntary in nature and designed to enhance and complement relevant ASEAN policies, approaches, and other guidelines. 

The ongoing compound and acute crises of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine meet longer-term but no-less pressing crises of social and environmental sustainability in and around agriculture, food and nutrition security. Many international mechanisms are already in place on agriculture and food systems which are almost unavoidably not (yet) sufficiently coordinated. A new generation of due diligence laws recently is added mostly by industrialised countries to that existing mix of policies in place addressing serious sustainability gaps of supply chains into these countries. However, these regulations also bear the risk of generating unintended negative consequences, particularly for smallholder farmers in poor countries.

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.

Increasingly, development funding is directed to programmes aiming to make market systems more favourable for smallholders and low-income consumers of food. Assessing whether a programme indeed contributed to development outcomes is challenging. Building on real-world experiences with theory-based evaluation in inclusive business programmes, this IDS Bulletin discusses approaches and methods for meaningful impact evaluation. 

This report – supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – relies on case studies drawn from the health sector to provide a better understanding of female sales forces. When are women direct sales forces be best-placed to reach low-income (women) consumers and why? How much income can women sales agents truly hope to make from these models?  What practical requirements and best practices can help make these models successful?

The lack of affordable and appealing nutritious foods limits the ability of many lower-income consumers to sustain a healthy diet. As the largest player in the food system, food and beverage companies in low- and middle-income countries have the potential to vastly improve nutrition. What role can innovative business models and distribution channels play in providing affordable nutritious foods? And what marketing innovations can help ensure that low-income clients consume the products at the required frequency for health impact? Over the past 5 years, as part of a program supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Growth for Growth coalition has been working to develop innovative business models to fight malnutrition. They are now proud to share key learnings that can be applied throughout consumer goods industries.

This document has been designed to provide you with sustainable approaches to increase the consumption frequency of nutritional and other beneficial FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) products for lower income consumers. This toolkit has been created by experts in consumer insights and behavioural science, as well as marketing, distribution and communications strategy. It is a series of standardised modules and tactics to fuel your strategic marketing and innovation processes, helping you reach sustainable impact at scale (SIS).

Companies selling fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) have traditionally focused their marketing and distribution efforts on increasing penetration of their products. However, few have focused on increasing how frequently consumers purchase their products. While focusing on penetration can be a sound business strategy for traditional FMCGs companies, it cannot suffice for brands selling products meant to have a health impact achieved through repeat use. How can last-mile distributors encourage frequent consumption among consumers?