AFE Resources

• Understanding Systemic Change in the Vegetable Seed Market
• Facilitating the Development of Business Plans with Input Supply Companies, A Tool for Development Organizations (and Excel Spreadsheet Tool for the Business Plan Development)
• Tools & Methodologies for Collaborating with Lead Firms: A Practitioner’s Manual
  In value chain development, practitioners frequently come across dynamic firms that play a critical role in moving their industry and other value chain participants forward. This manual presents principles, tools, and strategies for working with such Lead Firms in a value chain framework. It is designed to provide practitioners with guidelines, examples, and lessons learned that they can use in designing and implementing value chain development programs.
• A Short Guide To Pro-Poor Value Chain Program Design
  The purpose of this short guide is to introduce the concept of pro-poor value chain development and describe tools that can help development practitioners to design and implement value chain programs.
• Collaborating with the Private Sector for Pro-Poor and Inclusive Business Development
  This paper address the following questions: 1) What are inclusive businesses? 2) How can companies better integrate low income producers into their business operations? 3) How can development programs and government promote inclusive business and why does it make sense for them to do this? and 4) What are some best practices and guiding principles for development programs to "facilitate" inclusive business development?
• Approach for Value Chain Program Design
  This document was prepared for the USAID Microenterprise Development Office and presents an 8-step process to value chain program design. This approach discusses several value chain analysis techniques and then outlines the use of market-based solutions to address value chain constraints.
• Useful Principles for Market Development
  This document, published for the International Journal of Emerging Markets, outlines a set of general principles useful for enterprise development organizations looking to take a market development approach to their enterprise development projects.
• Manual for Facilitating Outgrowing Operations
  This document was published with support from USAID under the FIELD-Support LWA. The manual provides a reference and set of tools for development organizations to assist in building the capacity of companies looking to develop outgrowing operations with farmers. The manual contains a series of question guides, intervention briefs and case studies, as well as sections outlining general lessons learned and the role development organizations should play in facilitating the development of outgrowing operations.
• Illustrative Interview Guides Used in Value Chain Analysis
  This document contains illustrative interview guides to be used as a tool for conducting interviews during a value chain analysis exercise. These guides can be used with participants at all levels of the value chain and are intended to help: 1) Identify the primary VC actors, their roles, and interrelationships; 2) Identify market channels and trends and; 3) Identify constraints and opportunities.
• Illustrative Interview Guides for Assessing Supporting Markets
  This document contains illustrative interview guides to be used as a tool for conducting interviews for both providers and clients of supporting market products and services as part of a value chain program design.
• Promoting Food Safety and Quality Standards for Agricultural Processors and Exporters: Case Study from Bosnia: Action for Enterprise
  This document presents a case study on AFE experience in promoting HACCP and ISO certification in the non-timber forest product sector (NTFP) of Bosnia. It shows how to implement a program that results in sustainable provision of services needed to ensure quality standards in agricultural value chains.

AFE Assessments on Using Market Development Tools for Disaster Risk Reduction (funded by Swiss Development Corporation in Bangladesh).

• Approach Paper
• Galachipa Analysis
• Kazipur Analysis

The FIELD Facilitation Brief series are a set of papers written by the FIELD Facilitation Working Group, an initiative to capture and share the knowledge of FIELD LWA consortium members on effective facilitation in enterprise development, particularly in the context of dealing with lead firms. The report presents the collective response of working group members to the questions outlined within. It has been made public both to inform the work of others and to provide an opportunity for open feedback.

• FIELD Facilitation Brief 1: Defining Lead Firms & Principles
  This first cycle, was designed to serve as the foundation for the subsequent cycles. It begins with a description of lead firms (in the context of value chain development programs) and is followed by a section on "principles/good practice for facilitation (in the context of working with lead firms)". This section includes topics on sustainability, promoting relationships among value chain actors, choosing lead firms to work with, and structuring collaboration.
• FIELD Facilitation Brief 2: Lead Firm Selection
  This second "cycle" of discussions of the FIELD Facilitation working group begins with an in-depth examination of criteria for selecting lead firms that includes: the rationale for the criteria, possible indicators for determining whether lead firms satisfy each criterion, additional considerations when using these criteria and possible exceptions, tools and processes for applying these criteria, as well as links to resources used by member organizations of the working group. Lastly, this brief examines the factors that affect decisions about the number of lead firms with which a development organization can or should work.
• FIELD Facilitation Brief 3: Structuring and Managing Collaboration with Lead Firms
  This third cycle begins with a section on practical measures that development organizations (DOs) can employ to establish and maintain credibility with LFs they are collaborating with. This is followed by a section on developing and negotiating memoranda of understandings (MOUs) with Lead Firms (LFs). This includes a discussion on how to initiate MOUs, the components of successful MOUs, and guidelines for identifying and structuring cost share agreements.
• FIELD Facilitation Brief 4: Interventions with Lead Firms
  This fourth cycle begins with a "typology" of common interventions that development organizations (DOs) undertake in collaboration with LFs in order to increase the competitiveness of these firms and the value chains they participate in, and to generate sustainable impact for the MSME producers that the LFs buy from or sell to. Following a discussion of the typology, examples of "intervention briefs" (IBs) based on the actual experiences of working group member organizations are presented. Each IB contains a description of the initiative, an outline of the activities, potential cost share opportunities, and a section detailing the lessons learned and challenges faced by DOs.
• FIELD Facilitation Brief 5: Addressing Absence of LFs in Value Chains
  This document discusses how development programs can promote lead firms to take on missing value chain functions. It begins with a description of VC functions (and lead firms providing those functions) that are sometimes missing in value chains. This is followed by a presentation of different approaches that development organizations can pursue to promote lead firms to take on the missing functions, including real life examples from development programs.

General Resources

• Proparco
  "Proparco is a subsidiary of Agence Française de Développement (AFD) focused on private sector development. It has been promoting sustainable economic, social and environmental development practices for the past 40 years."
• BEAM Exchange
  "The BEAM Exchange is a specialist platform for knowledge exchange and learning about using market systems approaches to reduce poverty. We exist to promote, support and encourage good practice, by providing a gateway to know-how (and know-who) for policy advisors, team leaders, practitioners, researchers and consultants."
• Intermediate Technology Publications
  Numerous books on development — search for Market Development.
• SEEP Guide to Market Development and Resources
  SEEP's practitioner-developed, web-based guide to the wide range of services and frequently asked questions about Market Development. AFE is a principal author of this guide.
• The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED)
  The DCED promotes economic opportunity and self-reliance through private sector development (PSD) in developing countries. It is the forum in which donor and UN agencies share their practical experience of PSD, and agree guidance on good practice. It is also a leading source of knowledge about PSD.
• microLINKS
  microLINKS is a dynamic knowledge-sharing Web site designed to improve the impact of USAID-funded mircoenterprise programs and activities. Created through USAID's Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project (AMAP), microLINKS shares cutting-edge research and serves as a meeting place through which visitors can share their own experiences and knowledge.