MESPT is the secretariat to the Business Development Services ((BDS)) Donor Coordination Group (BDCG), whose purpose is to maximize the effectiveness and impact of donor-led activities in market development and value chain facilitation through active coordination and information sharing.

Membership includes principal donors, donor contractors, and key government officials that are involved with large, multi-year market development initiatives that will provide significant impact at the micro- and small-enterprise level. The current membership consists of USAID, DANIDA, DFID, World Bank, IFAD, UNDP, GTZ, MESPT, SNV, ACDI VOCA, ASCU, TechnoServe, Land O'Lakes, SwissContact, Heifer International, and Aga Khan Foundation.

Rationale for the BDCG

Increasingly, there has been a change from more traditional approaches of BDS service delivery to an approach that develops local service markets through facilitator-based interventions. These interventions strive for leverage based on commercial incentives, hence, are sustainable in the long run. Such facilitation often requires working with numerous partners through a variety of relationships for meaningful systemic change.

Critically important is the fact that markets in developing countries, especially those that are the poorest and least developed, are often fragile, having been subject to a variety of few positive influences over many years. Developing successful business service markets (as well as functioning and growing value chains) cannot hope to succeed if donors do not agree to basic ‘facilitation' tenets and, if not in harmony, agree not to undermine each others efforts.

This places greater pressure on donors to work meaningfully with each other, with the private sector, and with the government to create a consensus over the long-term picture and how we can get there. To this end there is need to initiate a process of bringing together like-minded donors engaged in market development and value chain facilitation in Kenya.

Activities of the BDCG

Committee members meet on a bimonthly basis to:

1. Discuss ongoing or planned activities in market development and value chain related facilitation, to avoid duplication of effort, and to maximize donor resources
2. Share opportunities, challenges, and constraints in market facilitation, for value-added input and advice from Committee members
3. Serve as a forum for future donor programs to vet value chain and market development activities
4. Explore synergies in program design and implementation, including intervention design, and monitoring and evaluation
5. Advance the learning agenda in market development and value chain facilitation through the sharing of practical field experience
6. Organise the annual National BDS Conference