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.
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 and is currently leading numerous programs applying the Making Markets Work for the Poor approach for private and international donors.
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.
John Jepsen has expertise in applying market systems approaches and making markets work for the poor (M4P) strategies to economic growth programming, as well as specializations in various financial inclusion and capital mobilization topics.
James McIntyre Brown is the Health Practice Director for Europe and joined DAI in May 2017.
Bhairav Raja is a multilingual consultant with experience in financial sector development and inclusive finance in Africa and Latin America, employing market systems approaches.
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 17 years of experience working in the financial services and international development fields.
David Tardif-Douglin runs Africa Lead II, a project that builds the capacity of agriculture professionals, institutions and stakeholders to position African leaders and institutions at the forefront of increased agricultural productivity and food security.
A quarter of a century after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian Republics have yet to realize full regional integration or sustained economic growth outside of the oil and gas industries.
Read MoreThis program is helping generate access to finance, good quality jobs, and increased incomes for Ethiopia’s poor. DAI works with consortium partners First Consult/Ethiopia, Itad/UK, Enclude/NL, and BCaD.
Read MoreFunded by the U.K. Department for International Development and the Islamic Development Bank and working in Jordan, Egypt, and Palestine, Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF) is the first project of its kind. AWEF will stimulate increased women’s economic empowerment and agency through a market systems approach. This partnership will address gaps in women’s economic empowerment in the region, which has one of the lowest rates of female labour force participation in the world.
Read MoreThe Lebanon Industry Value Chain Development (LIVCD) project is a five-year program aimed at improving Lebanon’s economic stability and providing income-generating opportunities for small business while creating jobs for the rural population, in particular women and youth.
Read MoreThe Rural Access Programme addresses lack of access and social exclusion through rural road construction that targets the poorest and most disadvantaged groups in Nepal.
Read MorePMDP is improving market systems and the competitiveness of the Palestinian private sector. The project works to improve private sector skills and innovation through technical assistance and matching grants; address market system failures in specific sectors through market analysis and facilitation; and strengthen trade and investment linkages with international markets in collaboration with key commercial representatives.
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 MoreThe Promoting Inclusive Markets in Somalia (PIMS) programme addresses critical market constraints in Somalia largely through co-investment with Somali firms, to stimulate the creation of long-term jobs, increase smallholder incomes, and leverage private sector investment.
Read MoreUzbekistan AVC is capitalizing on the achievements of USAID’s Uzbekistan AgLinks (2007–2011) and AgLinks Plus (2011–2015) projects, which were implemented by DAI.
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 to global markets.
Read MoreThe Financial Sector Transformation (FST) Activity supports efforts to reform Ukraine’s non-bank financial institutions.
Read MoreThe Feed the Future Agricultural Innovations (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 MoreRELATED CONTENT:
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.
Read More