Programme profile
MDF: Market Development Facility (Phase 3)
Project description / objective
A multi-country initiative which promotes sustainable economic development, through higher incomes for women and men in its partner countries.
MDF supports partners from business and government to identify and grow commercial opportunities that are profitable, scalable and deliver social and environmental value.
Market system focus
Fiji
Tourism:
- International tourism (air travel)
In post-COVID Fiji, industry readiness, labour shortages and competitiveness are a concern. MDF is supporting information (using data for decision-making), product development and marketing. - Nautical tourism (sea travel)
The revival of cruise and yachting tourism in Fiji has the potential to drive growth across the tourism value chain. MDF supports maritime mapping, industry coordination and marketing.
High-value agriculture
- Quality agricultural inputs
MDF works with businesses to increase farmers’ use of quality agricultural inputs, to improve crop yields and increase farmer incomes. - Premium agricultural products
Increasing the volume of quality Fijian produce used in the value addition of premium agricultural products for domestic and export markets would provide better prices and higher incomes for farmers involved in these value chains.
Urban industries
- Outsourcing services
A ‘high priority’ sector in Fiji. MDF is focused initially on industry marketing, advocacy and industry coordination. MDF will build on its efforts to increase awareness of Fiji as an OS destination in nearshore markets and scope emerging OS opportunities in at least one new market. - Enterprise solutions for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)
Business development services for MSMEs in Fiji have been traditionally driven by the Government and development programmes. MDF is looking to support the emergence of more commercially viable, affordable private sector-led business development services providers, stemming from increased demand for these services from MSMEs.
Sri Lanka
Tourism
High value tourism which focuses on high-quality products and services rather than volume-based mass tourism.
Agriculture and fisheries
- Blue swimming crab
Continued support to the Fishery Improvement Project (FIP), a private-public initiative to ensure sustainable practices in the blue swimming crab industry. - Giant freshwater prawn
Supporting improved reservoir productivity. - Speciality coffee
Sri Lanka’s specialty coffee market is emerging, with increasing demand, prices and private sector interest. MDF is supporting expanded production, improved quality sourcing and processing, and better industry coordination and promotion. - High value agriculture
MDF focuses on inputs and information - increasing access to, and proper use, of, agri-inputs, equipment and the knowledge required by farmers to maximise productivity and minimise crop losses. MDF also focuses on sourcing and processing, to improve the operation of supply chains needed to source high-quality produce from farmers and add value to this produce to serve export and domestic markets. - Agriculture technology (agritech)
Supporting business-to-business agritech models to address supply chain management and farm management practices.
Timor Leste
Agriculture
- Coffee
Coffee is a critical industry for Timor-Leste. MDF aims to support the shift from commodity to specialty grade coffee. MDF works with local partners to improve processing and quality management practices. - Pigs
MDF supports good biosecurity practices to mitigate the spread of African Swine Fever, while also working on increased availability of feed, improving farmer knowledge, and supporting healthy breeding practices. - Agri inputs
MDF supports input supply, distribution and retail. - Early-stage export commodities
This focuses on six high-potential exports: candlenut, cocoa, coconut, konjac, seaweed and vanilla. MDF supports improved production, quality and export logistics.
Tourism
- Destination marketing
Destination marketing is key to boosting the country’s profile within target segments in key source countries, such as dive tourists, who tend to be more ‘determined’ travellers. MDF supports research, marketing, stakeholder coordination, and content and branding. - Marine tourism
Supporting Timor-Leste to becomes a well-known destination for snorkelling, diving, and whale-watching in selected markets, starting with Australia and Europe. This will require well-established tour products and relationships with wholesalers in these markets. Long-term, it also requires better management and protection of Timor-Leste’s marine assets.
Papua New Guinea
Agriculture
- High-grade and sustainable coffee
Coffee is a key export commodity in PNG. To better control quality, volumes and margins, buyers of all scale are willing and able to invest in backward integration, into sourcing and related supply chains, and forward integration, into roasting and distribution. Accessing high grade value through, for instance, certification, provides smallholders the opportunity to access price premiums. - High-grade and value-added cocoa
PNG’s potential lies in high-grade cocoa, but this requires investment in better extension services and access to certification, among other things. Many of PNG’s cocoa farmers and fermentaries face problems producing, procuring and processing high-quality cocoa. - High-grade vanilla
Vanilla in PNG suffers from several quality issues, primarily due to a highly fragmented value chain. As a result of sub-optimal sourcing practices, PNG has traditionally been seen as a low-quality producer, and this deprives smallholders of the incentive to improve the quality of their produce. - Livestock (pigs)
There is significant demand for pigs in PNG that is not currently being met by the low-input, low-productivity smallholder pig producers that make up the bulk of the sector. This supply gap has been compounded by African Swine Fever (ASF). MDF identified an opportunity for SME pig producers to formalise their operations and improve their supply chains while improving biosecurity to mitigate the risks of ASF.
Pacific Regional
Agriculture, Information and Communication Technology, Transport and Logistics, Business Development Services
Work in Pacific Regional is still in its initial stages, with several market systems and initiatives being explored for feasibility and potential for impact.
Programme interventions
Fiji
Tourism
- Supporting industry stakeholders (public and private sector) to generate relevant data and use it for decision-making on marketing, strategy development and attracting new traveller segments.
- Supporting the tourism sector to better understand the domestic tourism market, to capitalise on low season tourism and develop a more resilient sector.
- Recognising the threat presented to the tourism sector from climate change. Study demand and supply trends around adaptation strategies and explore commercially viable solutions that business can pursue.
High value agriculture
- Supporting input providers to import and distribute high-quality and affordable new and improved inputs.
- Working with the major exporters to understand market entry requirements for the new destinations, rebranding their products and introducing internationally recognised quality assurance accreditations.
- Support interventions in climate-smart technology, farm mechanisation, domestically produced fertiliser, cost-effective renewable solutions for logistics and storage, more sustainable harvesting methods, and other climate-resilient inputs.
Urban industries
- Supporting industry efforts to promote Fiji as an outsourcing destination and attract foreign investment.
- Working closely with the industry body to build capacity, advocate for government support and coordinate the efforts of the multiple industry stakeholders.
- Supporting MSME business development services that are commercially viable and scalable.
- Explore opportunities around climate resilience, including setting in place systems to adapt to more frequent and intense natural disasters and their impact on infrastructure particularly in the outsourcing services industry.
Sri Lanka
Tourism
- Working with tourism decision makers to improve capacity in tourism data collection, analysis and decision-making.
- Supporting national tourism authorities to use Big Data on source markets and consumer trends to strategically realign Sri Lanka’s tourism offering.
Agriculture and fisheries
- Working with the key stakeholders to improve the sustainability of crab catch in the Northern Province.
- Assessing and improving prawn reservoirs productivity.
- Improving the extension services and processing capacity of smallholder farmers and processors in the specialty coffee value chain.
- Supporting private sector to introduce new inputs and information to farmers, and establish new sourcing models.
- Working with agribusinesses and tech providers to introduce innovative solutions for supply chain management and farm management practices.
Timor Leste
Agriculture
- Increasing production and processing of konjac through outgrowers, seed nurseries and private extension services.
- Working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to combat the spread of African Swine Fever through raising awareness around biosecurity and more productive pig rearing practices.
- Increasing the quality and quantity of specialty coffee and supporting coffee tree rehabilitation.
- Supporting the increased availability and use of agricultural inputs.
- Improving knowledge on good aquaculture practices and increasing the availability/use of commercial fish feed and fingerlings.
Tourism
- Supporting industry efforts to market Timor-Leste as an attractive tourism destination.
- Supporting the development of products and services, particularly in marine tourism (dive tourism).
- Supporting policy discussions and coordination between the private and public sector.
Papua New Guinea
Agriculture
- Supporting the development of value-chains for the export of high-grade coffee, cocoa vanilla and honey.
- Working with exporters to develop certified high grade commodity value chains, to tap into niche international markets.
- Working with multiple market actors to establish revolving fund facilities that increase liquidity in commodity value chains and enable aggregators/exporters to purchase greater volumes (of high-grade coffee).
- Supporting agribusinesses to measure their supply chains’ greenhouse gas emissions and accordingly reduce/offset these, enabling them to tap into niche markets for low-carbon coffee.
Pacific Regional (Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu)
- Supporting the establishment of a business accelerator programme for MSMEs in Tonga
- Supporting remittances through improving the uptake of mobile wallets and e-finance services in Vanuatu.
- Supporting fintech providers to address challenges around digital payments in Samoa and the Pacific.
- Exploring opportunities to increase connectivity between Fiji and the region for tourism and agriculture.
- Supporting market entry and uptake of new and better agricultural inputs.
Notable results (systemic change, poverty impact)
Results will be added as they come in.
[Uploaded June 2023]