Simon - your comments are music to my ears and echo everything I have been
saying for years :)

“The initial results one year later showed some signs of progress but …in the humanitarian sector I am not sure we will get the resources to do so.”

Katie, you have hit the nail well and truly on the head. The 3 issues you raise about are very common, and firmly in the area of market development (or MSD) – not at all in the territory of humanitarian actors. (Facilitating change them requires a different time scale, different ways of working, different skill sets…) The problem is that because we are talking about displacement and crisis, we assume that the actors should be humanitarian. This is surely a case for the humanitarians to be dragging their non-humanitarian colleagues into the crisis-hit areas and telling them firmly to stop dodging all the hard work. Let’s face it, anyone can sort out markets in Nairobi or Sindh Province or rural Mozambique (😊), but it’s time for them to earn their salary and help out the thin markets with crises! And it’s time they stopped relying on the humanitarians to do everything for them!

Good weekends all!

S

I think this is a really interesting supporting market sector that does not
get enough focus. @MiC AC it would be great to follow this thread and
perhaps create a short resource on the topic.

I am reflecting on some work in displacement contexts for energy products
(though I would highly expect that this could be extrapolated to other
sectors too). When looking at the root causes for the cost of products in
remote camps and villages, one critical factor was the cost of transport.

But rather than it being the cost of fuel, maintenance, labour etc due to
the remoteness and poor highway infrastructure, one of the major
contributors to the cost of the product was that local traders could not
purchase bulk stock so price per unit transported from wholesalers in
cities were huge.

The cause of the lack of bulk purchasing was due to: 1) inability to demand
forecast as it was assumed there was little interest in the local market
for the product; and 2) inability to safely and affordably store bulk stock
until demand arose locally; and 3) inability to finance purchase of bulk
stock in advance.

There were a number of interventions explored to address these three issues
namely:

- Assessing actual not perceived demand and how this fluctuated through
the year (and how this correlated to farming seasons)
- Identifying opportunities to support rental of secure and affordable
warehousing and/or retail hubs
- Providing proof of ability to pay of consumers to see if this provided
greater security for advanced bulk purchases

The initial results one year later showed some signs of progress but
certainly more evaluations are needed to assess that and in the
humanitarian sector I am not sure we will get the resources to do so.

Papers on this study are here:
- https://www.mercycorps.org/research-resources/paying-darkness
-
https://www.mercycorps.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/One-Year-On_Paying-for-Darkness_Short_final.pdf

On Sun, 30 Jan 2022 at 11:07, [Hidden email] <

The way out is to create innovations around existing systems and structures
such as the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the
context. This will possibly enhance adoption and effectiveness of
intervention.

In South West Nigeria, we are currently developing a regional integrated
agricultural framework. Implementation will be private sector led and
government-enabled. Transport market constitutes a major component in the
framework and we expect stakeholders buy in on the model being developed.
Hope that helps .

Regards

Olusade Taiwo (PhD).
Policy Research and Partnerships Consultant.

[Hidden email]
08033023282

This is really a great John.
I am looking at the figure of transport and logistic that increase manufacturing cost of manufactured good by 320%. This figure is really alarming.
The project seems to be really interesting taking special note that the main challenges of in Most regions of Africa are linked to logistic and transport and Energy render manufacturing and marketing difficult.
In the case of North Nigeria where you are working, what are the norms and laws governing the road construction and rehabilitation in that area? I am asking this because, difference governance systems exist and locals are not allowed to temper with main road system ( like the case of Cameroon)
I look forward to understanding more how your project is advancing
Great day to you

Ing Fonyuy Carlos Bintar

Phone: +237 674844643Mail: cfonyuy@yahoo.com/cfonyuy@hotmail.com/ [Hidden email]

On Saturday, January 29, 2022, 11:06:34 AM GMT+4, [Hidden email] <[Hidden email]<div class="original_message_link">Original message <[Hidden email]<div>

Evidence shows that logistics and transportation in Sub-Saharan
Africa increase the cost of manufactured goods by up to 320% of the
manufacturing cost. Economies are better when transport and logistics are
efficient and affordable. Armed with this thinking, we as Rural Resilience
Activity set out a business case to address issues of the transport market
in North-Eastern Nigeria.

The problems are many, from poor infrastructure to a low level of trust
between various players to high investment costs and information asymmetry.
Our ambition is to improve the efficiency of the transportation market.

Our hypothesis is to enhance demand and supply communication and improve
the reliability of transport service; which will ultimately improve
customer experience. In addition, we wanted market players to realize cost
savings, and ultimately reduce the cost of doing business, through improved
resource management and planning for order scheduling.

If this happens, we would have helped men and women behind every type of
business to trade easily, deliver more competitively, and build
extraordinary businesses. We sent out requests for innovative commercially
viable solutions but we don't seem to get people/businesses thinking in our
way. Should we abandon ambition? Should we refocus our understanding of the
problem? Should we keep trying? Who do we talk to? Any thoughts? Any
experience? Any ideas? Any leads?

Warmest,

John

You will find a suite of financial literacy materials made specifically for the humanitarian/development sector by the private sector think tank representing the cash management industry, Cash Essentials, at https://www.cashessentials.org/cash-crises. They were shared with CaLP with zero feedback on their usefulness
Sent from my iPhone

Dear MiC community,

We need your help.

The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance at USAID in partnership with the Pulte
Institute for Global Development <https: pulte.nd.edu=""> at the University
of Notre Dame through an agreement with the LASER PULSE
<https: laserpulse.org=""> consortium is working on expanding the scope of
the Private Sector Engagement Evidence Gap Map
<https: #="" crcresearch.github.io="" egm="" usaid-pse-egm=""> tool to more fully
represent learning and research from the humanitarian sector.

The private sector’s contribution to the development field, especially
their roles in humanitarian assistance (HA) activities, has not been
well-studied or documented. This project aims to fill this gap by
identifying, categorizing, and presenting relevant documents in an evidence
gap map (EGM) so that the donors, private sector, development
practitioners, and wider research community can use the resource to plan HA
programs with a better understanding.

The team at Notre Dame is working on curating relevant materials in this
area. Because of your experience with the topics that we are exploring, we
would like to invite you to share any relevant materials by replying to
this email (Cc: jbiedron@nd.edu). We would especially welcome any publicly
available documents that provide evidence of private sector engagement in
HA.

If you have any questions, please email me at jbiedron@nd.edu. We
appreciate your time and contributions. We see this project as an important
contribution to the field of private sector engagement in the humanitarian
context.

Sincerely,

--

Jaclyn E. Biedronski, MGA

Program Coordinator

Pulte Institute for Global Development

University of Notre Dame</https:></https:></https:>