Lasting roots: an ex post study in Senegal of Naatal Mbay and the integrated finance model

Ex-post study conducted three and a half years after the close of USAID’s Feed the Future Senegal Naatal Mbay Activity in 2019. It examines the scale and sustainability of changes resulting from Naatal Mbay’s introduction of an integrated finance model (IFM) in the domestic rice sector in Senegal.

The findings show a relatively positive evolution since project closure, with three of the four intended systemic changes enduring over time. The study also offers observations on implications for programming in both Senegal and for global practitioners.

The study focused on four questions:

• What systemic changes were the Activity trying to create, to what extent had these changes been achieved when intervention activity stopped, and which of those have been sustained?
• Has the performance of the system's focus functions been maintained, deteriorated or improved relative to their status at Activity closure?
• Have there been sustained and scaled gains to the ultimate intended target populations as a result of the systemic changes?
• Are there lessons about approaches to implementation that can be learned from the sustainability of outcomes (and the reasons why)?

This study is one in a series of ex-post evaluations that are being conducted between 2023-2026 on USAID-funded MSD interventions around the world.