When taking a market systems approach, development organisations such as those in the FSD network act as facilitators of market development—external change agents whose role is to develop actors in the market system to increase financial inclusion. While facilitators...
In June 2015, FSD Africa embarked on an ambitious exercise – to examine the ‘art of financial market facilitation’ in greater focus. Today, the ‘making markets work for the poor’ approach (otherwise known as M4P or market facilitation) is a relatively...
Now in its fourth year AFSIC (the Africa Financial Services Investment Conference) is Africa’s leading investment event for Africa’s financial services sector. Many of Africa’s most significant investors attend AFSIC with the objective of meeting banks, insurance...
FSDA is looking to build a panel of specialist advisers on whom it can call on for short term consultancy assignments or for draw-down (i.e. retained consultant) arrangements. This call for Expressions of Interest (EOI) is aimed at pre-qualifying consultants so as to...
‘Making markets work for the poor’ (otherwise known as M4P or market facilitation) is a relatively well-understood development concept. In comparison, understanding of how to apply this approach in practice remains limited and is often poorly documented. In...
The use of challenge funds to promote economic and social development continues to grow but has been the subject of relatively little research. This article draws on institutional economics (particularly principal-agent theory) to define challenge funds and review how...
Challenge funds are seen as an innovative and versatile financing mechanism for channelling public funds for development. A definition shared by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Canadian...
