Market Development Facility Market Development Facility

What we do

MDF is active in

6 countries

It has leveraged

USD 25.7 million

in private sector investment since it started

and has benefitted

444,152

people across its countries.

What is MDF?

Market Development Facility is a multi-country initiative that promotes sustainable economic development by aiming to increase incomes for women and men in our partner countries.

We support partners from both the business and government sectors to identify and grow commercial opportunities that are profitable, scalable and deliver social and environmental value.

MDF is supported by the Australian Government. It is implemented by Palladium, in partnership with Swisscontact.

Monitoring, results and market intelligence

MDF is committed to regular and accurate monitoring of all activities, and the program invests time and resources in ensuring quality. MDF’s Quality and Inclusion (results) team ensures that relevant data is collected before, during and after interventions. The team’s inclusive approach also collates information on the impact of MDF activities on WEE, disability and the environment.

The impact of this work is measured in three ways. ‘Actuals’ show the current impact of an intervention; ‘projections’ show what that intervention can realistically achieve under the current market circumstances; and ‘estimates’ represent what the whole program – so all interventions together – can reasonably achieve over its lifetime. MDF's measurement framework adheres to the guidelines set by the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED).

The rich information gathered through MDF’s activities and networks contributes to the program’s growing market intelligence function. This intelligence serves to provide valuable, actionable insights to our funders and partners.

To understand MDF’s approach to monitoring and results, watch ‘Results Measurement in Action':

For published MDF market intelligence, visit MDF Now!

View Infographic

How it works

MDF starts by scouring the economy for markets which involve large numbers of poor people but, for some reason, are underperforming. We work hard to understand the reasons why things are going wrong and then provide money or technical advice to market actors to address these obstacles. Most of the time, these solutions require innovation and are, by nature, risky. MDF’s co-investment helps to reduce this risk.

But it doesn’t end there. We want to make sure that our help reaches beyond a single actor in a single market.

MDF therefore replicates its activity with other actors, exposing more people and more businesses to this way of working and encouraging them to follow suit - until it becomes standard practice across the industry. This ensures that the added value injected by MDF is not limited to a few but is spread equitably to a broad community. This is how we achieve systemic change.

What’s in it for the market actor? Profit, and the ability to adopt innovative business models.

What’s in it for farmers, fisher communities and other vulnerable groups? Increased income, sustainable livelihoods, and economic opportunities for women.

This is the Market Systems Development approach.

Inclusion

Women’s Economic Empowerment

Close to 50 per cent of MDF’s beneficiaries are women. MDF uses the Six Dimensions of WEE approach when designing interventions to understand constraints to women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and how they may be addressed. Above all, for WEE-related interventions to be successful and sustained, we understand that they must make sound business sense. MDF’s work with partners has increased women’s access to opportunities, such as upskilling and employment, and supported greater agency through, for example, a greater say in household decision-making. Our Women at Work paper presents some of this work in WEE.

Disability

MDF is committed to disability inclusion and follows the DFAT guidelines on disability inclusive development. We focus on understanding the prevalence of disability among the target population and exploring viable opportunities to increase the economic participation of people with disabilities.

Climate Change

As the realities of a changing climate have become more evident globally, regionally and locally, commitment to finding solutions has grown. MDF's priority is to ensure that our team and portfolio are oriented to the challenges of climate change.
DFAT’s Climate Change Strategy for Action 2020–2025 directs all Australian development assistance to support the goals of the Paris Agreement to address climate change and strengthen socially inclusive sustainable development in our region. The strategy recognises the need to engage with the private sector in responding to climate change.
MDF works with partners to understand how climate and natural disaster risk are likely to impact their business and sector, as well as identify the emerging business opportunities to address these risks.

We then work with businesses to de-risk investment, pilot solutions and scale new business models with adaptation or mitigation solutions. To support this, MDF has developed a Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction strategy, which guides our approach, laying out three stages for integrating climate change across the MDF portfolio:

• Analysis and strategy development: incorporating an assessment of likely climate and disaster risks, effects and opportunities into sector scoping and strategies
• Intervention design: factoring climate-related risks and opportunities into interventions and support to partners, driven by a feasible business case
• Measurement and learning: capturing the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of MDF’s climate-related work and communicating insights to our stakeholders

Visit MDF Now! for investment case studies, or read more about how to partner with MDF on a commercially viable climate change adaptation or mitigation business model: MDF Sri Lanka’s Approach to Climate Change

Funding and management

DFAT is a proud funder of the Market Development Facility, which is currently in its second phase. MDF supports DFAT’s engagement with the private sector to leverage additional investment and extend the impact of Australia’s aid investments to low-income households through innovations which intend to be both scalable and sustainable.

Funding and strategic priorities for the MDF are managed between DFAT Canberra and Australia’s overseas missions in participating countries. An outline of the Australian Government’s aid priorities can be found on the country pages of the DFAT website.
https://dfat.gov.au

Palladium is a global impact firm working to link social progress and commercial growth. For the past 53 years, we’ve been helping our clients to see the world as interconnected – by creating strategies, building partnerships, and implementing programs that have a lasting social and financial impact. We simply call this “Positive Impact”.  We work with corporations, governments, investors, communities, and civil society.

With a global network operating in over 90 countries, Palladium is in the business of making the world a better place.
www.thepalladiumgroup.com

Swisscontact promotes economic, social and ecological development by giving people the opportunity to improve their living conditions on their own.

In its project work, Swisscontact facilitates access to vocational training, promotes local entrepreneurship, creates access to local financial services and supports the efficient use of resources with the aim of effectively promoting income and employment.
www.swisscontact.org

MDF is funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is implemented by Palladium in partnership with by Swisscontact.