Adapting Evidence-Based Design Tools for Malawi's Private Sector

Malawi’s Lower Shire River Valley poses significant and persistent development challenges – chronic food insecurity, vulnerability to frequent weather shocks, and disproportionately high rates of malaria and HIV. Donors, development partners, and private sector firms have invested heavily in community services; however, poverty rates remain stubbornly high. USAID’s Feed the Future Malawi Agriculture Diversification Activity (AgDiv) partnered with Illovo Sugar Estate, a large anchor firm with long-standing ties to the Lower Shire River Valley communities, to adapt development data collection and analysis tools to the private sector context. AgDiv and Illovo conducted a Community Baseline Survey that allows for evidence-based design of new approaches and interventions to address the region’s many intractable development challenges. Interviewing over 1000 surrounding households, the Community Baseline Survey tested long-standing assumptions on the root causes of these challenges—land use discord, prevalent crime, and crop and livestock theft—all of which significantly impact the ability of community households to build wealth. Findings from the baseline resulted in a shift in strategy for both the private sector and development partners, who are now approaching development challenges in new and more cost-effective ways. By adapting rigorous research tools from the development space to private sector needs, AgDiv helped Illovo see the value of evidence-based design and motivated the company to co-invest in data and learning activities that benefit both development and business objectives. With support from AgDiv, Illovo launched its Thriving Communities Foundation, an evidence-based organization that embeds data for learning and adaptive management into its core mission and designs shared-value approaches to uplift Lower Shire River Valley communities.