Market landscape

Articles, academic studies, field learnings, and research about the landscape of actors and their invovlement in the smallholder and rural finance market. Information for market landscapes is often collected through extensive on-the-ground interviews and workshops.

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Digital Financial Services

Providing Financial Solutions

Client Demand

Impact and Measurement

The capital markets: An increasingly sophisticated market still grappling with the impact-return trade-off

Report: In a series of blogs, ISF Advisors and the RAF Learning Lab will introduce major concepts and frameworks that will anchor our upcoming State of the Sector report for rural finance. Building on the “industry model” developed in our 2016 Inflection Point report, these frameworks aim to bring further clarity and insight to the three layers of the market: Rural clients [1], financial service providers, and the capital markets. We hope that by sharing early versions of this thinking we can stimulate debate and discussion across the sector about what is needed to continue to enhance access to rural, agricultural financial services.

Interrelated Problems and Comprehensive Solutions for Venture Capital in African Agribusiness

Analysis:

Venture Capitals often search for companies addressing sectors of the economy that are...

Rural finance providers: A new segmentation for an expanding market

Report: In a series of blogs, ISF Advisors and the Mastercard Foundation Rural and Agricultural Finance Learning Lab (the Lab) will introduce major concepts and frameworks that will anchor our upcoming State of the Sector report for rural finance. Building on the “industry model” developed in our 2016 Inflection Point report, these frameworks aim to bring further clarity and insight to the three layers of the market: Rural clients, financial service providers (FSPs), and the capital markets. We hope that by sharing early versions of this thinking we can stimulate debate and discussion across the sector about what is needed to continue to enhance access to rural, agricultural financial services. 

Transition Pathways: A Dynamic View of How Rural Households Evolve

Analysis: In a series of blogs, ISF Advisors and the RAF Learning Lab will introduce major concepts and frameworks that will anchor our upcoming State of the Sector report for rural finance. Building on the “industry model” developed in our 2016 Inflection Point report, these frameworks aim to bring further clarity and insight to the three layers of the market: Rural clients, financial service providers, and the capital markets. We hope that by sharing early versions of this thinking we can stimulate debate and discussion across the sector about what is needed to continue to enhance access to rural, agricultural financial services.

Skills for success: FSP perspectives on business development support for smallholder finance

Analysis: The eleventh blog in the Pulse series aims to outline key insights from a recent ISF survey on the growing ecosystem of Business Development Services (BDS) to help financial service providers (FSPs) better reach smallholders.

The fund manager perspective: Moving the needle on inclusive agribusiness

Analysis: The fifteenth briefing note in a series from the Initiative for Smallholder Finance interrogate how different impact-oriented agribusiness funds combine public and private capital to build a more inclusive agricultural market.

Fund management and inclusive agribusiness: A global perspective

Analysis: Part 3 of ISF's and RAF Learning Lab's Pulse series shares a fund manager's perspective on inclusive agribusiness and fund management.

A 2016 Zambia ecosystem review & strategic perspective on digital financial services for smallholder farmers

Report: Mercy Corps' AFA program conducts country-level ecosystem reviews in coordination with its work to support the expansion of digital financial and non-financial services to smallholder farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia. These analyses are published as white papers in the "Fertile Ground" series. This is the Zambia white paper.

2016 Tanzania Ecosystem Review & Strategic Perspective on Digital Financial Services for Smallholder Farmers

Report: Mercy Corps' AFA program conducts country-level ecosystem reviews in coordination with its work to support the expansion of digital financial and non-financial services to smallholder farmers in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. These analyses are published as white papers in the "Fertile Ground" series. This is the Tanzania white paper.

Learning Brief 1: The business case for digitally-enabled smallholder finance

Analysis: Our learning brief explores the role of digital approaches (across the lending value chain) in making it possible to profitably serve the smallholder market at scale. What do the digital journeys of financial service providers entail? What results are FSPs seeing and what challenges do they face?

Open data platform launched with Smallholder Financial Solutions dataset

News: I'm excited to let our users know that we have now publicly launched our open data portal. The inaugural dataset, Smallholder Financial Solutions (beta version) provides details of nearly 800 existing financial solutions (including provider and partners, products and business model) targeting smallholder farmers in developing countries worldwide.

Understanding the digital and financial solution market for smallholders in Kenya

Analysis: Dalberg's Christabell Makokha provides a preview of Kenya ecosystem findings from an upcoming Mercycorps AgriFin Accelerate white paper.

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