Market Systems and Value Chain

We are a global leader in implementing market systems development programs, expanding the frontiers for driving competitive, inclusive, and resilient growth. We have been at the forefront of integrating the value chain approach and the Making Markets Work for the Poor approach (M4P) within the broader systemic thinking. Since 2010, we have implemented more than 50 market systems development projects in 42 countries, and for clients including the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Chevron, and Kosmos Energy. Our approach addresses the root causes of systemic constraints, empowering local actors in the market system to understand underlying problems and find solutions, all while adopting a facilitative approach to ensure long-term impact at scale.

We engage private sector actors to co-design and co-create market-based and enterprise-led interventions that value and actively engage a broader set of system actors, specifically the rural poor and other marginalized groups.

• In Bangladesh, DAI forged agreements with 42 of the most influential private sector firms and helped facilitate $19.4 million in new private sector investment that drove inclusive growth.
• In Mozambique, DAI leveraged project funds to strategically buy down risk and co-finance with farmers and agribusiness to promote investments in equipment upgrades, climate-smart agriculture, input distribution, smallholder farmer access to finance, and women’s empowerment.
• In Nigeria, DAI applied a market systems approach in the conflict-affected areas of the Niger Delta across 17 sectors—agricultural, livestock, manufacturing, renewable energy, and the entertainment industry—by facilitating relationships between lead firms and local service providers, who supported 700,000 smallholder farmers through commercially driven models.

Our most successful market systems projects work at the nexus of government and its interactions with the private sector to create a conducive enabling environment for inclusive growth.

• In Ethiopia, we have assisted the government to develop sectoral growth strategies in conjunction with the private sector and then supported their implementation using market systems approaches.
• In Mozambique, we have enhanced the regulatory framework for seed certification and supported the rollout of new licensing regulations to make commodity trading easier and less expensive.
• In Nigeria, we worked with state governments to adapt their policies and implementation to include sustainable approaches. In each case, changes made it easier for the private sector to drive inclusive growth.