Driving trade, technology, agriculture, business, and financial services to create jobs, reduce poverty, and enhance food security.
From input suppliers to end retailers, we strengthen the capabilities of all actors along a product line to meet market demand by alleviating constraints on productivity and growth, increasing access to high-quality inputs and working capital, and improving information flow.
We facilitate strategic planning—rigorously diagnosing opportunities and constraints, and recommending best-practice approaches by those with an interest in seeing growth in the entire chain—which increases domestic production, boosts sales, improves incomes, promotes investment in the rural economy, and generates new jobs in sectors with natural, and sometimes thoughtfully nurtured, comparative advantages.
Under our model, buyers, suppliers, and financial service providers become the leading, sustainable source of technical assistance, and value-chain participants become advocates for legal and regulatory reform when needed.
Melanie Bittle is a Principal Global Practice Specialist for DAI’s Agriculture and Market Systems practice.
Lief Doerring is a senior international development expert, leader, and portfolio manager with more than 20 years of experience working in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific.
Arsalan Faheem works with our London-based Private Sector Development practice, where he is responsible for advising DAI’s portfolio of economic development programmes, as well as growing the practice through client development.
Bill Grant has played an important role in the development and application of subsector and value chain approaches.
Bronwyn Irwin is an agricultural economist who specializes in strengthening agricultural market systems to increase competitiveness while preserving natural resources, increasing food security, and integrating gender.
Tom Lenaghan is a specialist in agricultural value chain and market systems approaches to development.
James McIntyre Brown is the Health Practice Director for Europe and joined DAI in May 2017.
Kirsten Pfeiffer leads the design and implementation of complex agriculture market systems and investment facilitation projects.
Bhairav Raja serves clients in our Sustainable Business Group’s corporate social investment portfolio, including multinational corporations in retail and oil and gas.
Kongkona Sarma is an experienced economic development specialist who started her career in the capital markets, gaining skills in financial valuation, corporate restructuring, and quantitative research.
Katja Silva-Leander is a Director at DAI, specialized in inclusive economic growth, with 20 years of experience working in the financial services and international development fields.
David Tardif-Douglin is an agricultural economist with expertise in capacity building, training, and managing and overseeing multiple technical teams operating in multiple project sites.
DAI is working in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan to improve regional trade—which will grow exports and employment.
Read MoreThis program helps generate access to finance, good quality jobs, and increased incomes for Ethiopia’s poor. DAI works with consortium partners First Consult (Ethiopia), Itad (United Kingdom), Enclude (Netherlands), and BCaD.
Read MoreInnovation for Agribusiness works to increase revenue for small farmers in northern Mozambique by promoting the development of inclusive and sustainable market systems.
Read MoreThe second phase of the Market Development in the Niger Delta project is using a market systems approach to increase productivity and incomes for poor farmers as well as addressing the root causes of migration and human trafficking from Nigeria.
Read MoreWith plans for key infrastructure investments such as electrification and regional airports hubs, the farmers and agribusinesses of eastern Afghanistan are well positioned to take part in the country’s growing economy and benefit from expanding international trade opportunities.
Read MoreUzbekistan AVC works to improve the quality and volume of agricultural production and post-harvest handling and production, facilitate market linkages, and link educational institutions with private sector demand.
Read MoreThe USAID Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub engages with partners across Southern Africa to deepen regional economic integration, promote two-way trade with the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and attract investment that drives commercial expansion within the region and globally.
Read MoreThe Financial Sector Transformation (FST) Activity supports efforts to reform Ukraine’s non-bank financial institutions.
Read MoreThe Feed the Future Agricultural Innovations (FTF Inova) project partners with farmers, businesses, and policymakers to explore ways to improve production and increase sales of key cash crops vital to Mozambique’s economy.
Read MoreThe Afghanistan Value Chains–Livestock project helps livestock farmers and related agribusinesses to increase productivity and create jobs by expanding into new markets, attracting investors, and improving efficiency.
Read MoreAfghanistan Value Chains–High Value Crops works with leading Afghan firms in select agriculture value chains to improve efficiency and profitability, driving rapid growth and creating jobs for men, women, and youth.
Read MoreSHARPE works to bring about systemic improvements in the protracted refugee situation affecting three regions in Ethiopia, enabling refugees and their host communities to become more economically resilient.
Read MoreThe Uganda Inclusive Agricultural Markets Activity works to increase incomes and improve livelihoods by promoting agriculture-led economic growth.
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DAI was founded in 1970 by three graduates of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government intent on providing a more dynamic and effective brand of development assistance. See how DAI is turning this American success story, into a global one.
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