Global – Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project—Business Development Services Knowledge and Practice II (AMAP BDS K&P II)

Enhancing Performance and Competitiveness of SMEs

Knowledge and Practice II (K&P II) builds on the successes of ACDI/VOCA’s first Knowledge and Practice (K&P I) task order issued under the USAID-funded $10 million Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project–Business Development Services (AMAP BDS) contract. The goal of AMAP BDS is to increase incomes in poor communities and promote economic growth by enhancing the performance and competitiveness of micro and small enterprises (MSEs). Under K&P I, ACDI/VOCA led research on factors and strategies that create wealth in poor communities and promote growth by linking small firms to profitable markets. This research centered on the development and articulation of a value chain approach to economic growth with poverty reduction. In total, ACDI/VOCA published 18 papers, made 11 presentations and conducted trainings and workshops for over 450 USAID staff and program implementers. K&P II builds on the research conducted under K&P I and focuses on three areas of activity: generating knowledge, codifying emerging best practices and improving practice.

Generating Knowledge

ACDI/VOCA generates knowledge through primary research activities, which have included extensive studies of value chains in Guatemala and Tanzania and an impact assessment of ACDI/VOCA’s Growth-Oriented Microenterprise Development project in India. Additionally, in support of USAID’s Global Food Security Response, ACDI/VOCA is leading a multicountry study of the rice value chain in West Africa. ACDI/VOCA and its partners have developed comprehensive protocols for value chain analysis and field work in the rice value chain and conducted analyses in Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. The findings will be combined with desk research and a regional end-market analysis into a report containing recommendations for strategic investments to increase food security and competitiveness in West Africa’s rice value chain.

Codifying Best Practices

ACDI/VOCA develops guidelines and materials that make action-oriented recommendations for improved practice. Along with donors and practitioners, ACDI/VOCA has developed a set of 14 briefing papers that draws from both field experience and research to identify best practices in the application of the value chain approach. ACDI/VOCA has also published a series of 10 case studies from value chain development projects and developed two field manuals—one illuminating various tools and approaches for sector selection and the other serving as a quick reference guide for use during value chain analysis. In addition, there is a three-day value chain workshop curriculum that distills much of the learning to date about good practice in value chain development and identifies remaining challenges. To identify successful and pioneering value chain finance interventions, ACDI/VOCA held the “Innovations in Financing Value Chains” competition. A panel of value chain finance experts judged and scored 11 submissions, and two winners were awarded prizes in February 2009. Two case studies—“Value Chain Finance Methodology” (World Council of Credit Unions) and “Purchase Order Finance in Bolivia” (Crimson Capital/Chemonics)—further codified and highlighted the experiences of the winning entrants.

Improving Practice

Under K&P II, ACDI/VOCA is developing tools to improve implementation of the value chain approach. In the spring of 2009, ACDI/VOCA helped USAID launch its Value Chain Development Wiki comprising over 100 pages that cover every aspect of the value chain approach and link to hundreds of resources and tools (see sidebar). In addition to the briefing papers and case studies on value chain development projects, ACDI/VOCA and its AMAP Consortium partners recently published the Value Chain End-Market Research Toolkit, which educates implementers on the process of end-market research for value chain development and provides a portfolio of tools grounded in case studies that demonstrate their practical application.

ACDI/VOCA also disseminates learning through value chain development workshops, where USAID missions and their implementing partners share approaches, good practices and lessons learned in project implementation. In 2007 a total of 48 USAID staff and 84 practitioners from nearly 40 countries attended three regional workshops in Cambodia, Ethiopia and Egypt. At the events, participants shared knowledge about market systems, factors affecting their performance and strategies for overcoming constraints.

All publications and materials produced for USAID under the AMAP BDS project can be found online at www.acdivoca.org/valuechains and www.microlinks.org.

For more information contact Hannah Schiff at Hschiff@acdivoca.org.

Updated: 7/09

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