USAID’s Private Sector Engagement Amidst Covid-19: A Landscape Study

In order to better understand how USAID engaged with the private sector to improve firm resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic — and to what extent the agency was successful in doing so — USAID commissioned research through the Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Hub in collaboration with the Bureau of Policy, Planning and Learning’s Office of Learning, Evaluation and Research (PPL/LER), as part of a series of learning activities related to USAID’s COVID-19 Learning Agenda. This research was funded through a buy-in from USAID’s PSE Hub and implemented by DAI with support from MarketShare Associates through the Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships Activity (MSP). The findings will be used to inform future USAID programming and prepare the agency to respond effectively to future shocks.

This report presents findings from the first phase of this research, a landscape review of 30 USAID-funded Activities active between January 2020 and March 2022 and working in over 20 countries, as well as across four regions. As detailed more in Exhibit 1 (p. 7), the Activities represented work by 16 different implementing partners facilitating diverse forms of PSE programming across a variety of agricultural and non-agricultural sectors (e.g., tourism, ICT, finance).

Source: USAID
Year: 2023