Improving Economies for Stronger Communities (IESC)
2000 M Street NW
Suite 250
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-589-2600
Email: iesc@iesc.org
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Market Linkages
We support enterprises across an array of sectors to connect to new markets—whether domestic or international—to catalyze private sector growth and generate employment. We help enterprises meet industry standards and market requirements, support supply chain integration, secure opportunities for value addition in global value chains, and access and utilize new technologies. We advise and mentor enterprises on product quality, design, pricing, and packaging and marketing for target markets. Through trade shows, buyers’ and trade missions, road shows, and business-to-business networking, we facilitate lasting business relationships between buyers and sellers.
Program Examples
Dominican Republic (DR)
Exporting Quality (EQ)
Funder: USDA Food for Progress
Chocolala business owner and EQ program participant Nelfi García
Program overview: EQ increased productivity and sales for high-value fruit and vegetable value chains (such as pineapple, avocado, and cocoa). The program used a combination of technical assistance and intensive farmer training to ensure that food products being sold in local and export markets were grown, harvested, and handled under sanitary conditions with accountability.
Relation to IESC expertise: IESC prepared and supported Dominican Republic exporters to participate in trade shows, host buyer visits to the Dominican Republic, and undertake exporter visits to the U.S. and Europe. IESC leveraged major international platforms such as Fruit Logistica Berlin and the North America Producer Marketing Association to showcase products from program participants, promote new product branding, and network with buyers. These efforts generated tens of millions in new transactions and transferred market knowledge. Program participants generated more than $8 million in new sales for every $1 in market access program funding spent.
Vietnam
Linkages for Small and Medium Enterprises (LinkSME)
Funder: USAID
Attendees at the Sourcing Fair for Supporting Industries in Ho Chi Minh City
Program overview: LinkSME built the capacity of Vietnamese business support organizations to advance linkages between Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and lead firms, thereby enhancing the capacity of SMEs to participate in global supply chains. Improved and increased business linkages help Vietnamese firms generate jobs, improve livelihoods, and encourage entrepreneurial innovation. Additionally, the program reduced major barriers limiting SME growth across Vietnam and helped to institutionalize key reforms.
Relation to IESC expertise: IESC strengthened the capabilities of Vietnamese SMEs to meet the needs of foreign firms producing goods in Vietnam and large domestic firms that are turning to the local market for parts, supplies, and other intermediate goods rather than importing them from abroad. Through LinkSME, IESC worked directly with SMEs to help them understand and respond to lead firms’ requirements and meet their specifications for product quality, order volume, and pricing. IESC partnered with business associations, manufacturing support centers, and SME promotion agencies to facilitate business-to-business networking events and opportunities for SMEs seeking to supply to lead firms.
Ghana
Ghana Trade and Investment (GTI)
Funder: USAID (IESC is a subcontractor to Nathan – a Cadmus Company)
Attendees at GTI workshop on Good Manufacturing Practices in Ghana. Photo from Nathan – a Cadmus Company.
Program overview: GTI helps Ghanaian farmers, aggregators, and processors export agricultural-based products worldwide through improving the quality of high-value agricultural goods, strengthening compliance with international standards, facilitating linkages with buyers and sources of finance, and reducing the time and cost to trade. IESC’s role as a subcontractor to Nathan – a Cadmus Company, is to advance Ghana’s food traceability system, build the capacity of government to enforce food safety standards/regulations, and align Ghana’s SPS standards with international standards.
Relation to IESC expertise: In Ghana, IESC is working with micro, small, and medium enterprises, including agro-processors, growers, packhouses, and their smallholder outgrowers to adopt international standards necessary to access US, EU, and UK markets. We build firms’ capacity to obtain international standard certifications demanded by international buyers, including GlobalG.A.P., HACCP, FairTrade, African Growth and Opportunity Act, EU Organic, and British Retail Consortium. IESC is also working with the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate to develop a user-friendly, geo-referenced, Global Standards 1 electronic traceability system for Ghanaian agribusinesses to improve their access to buyers demanding product traceability.