Experience
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand support in MERL, 2023-current
The Mazi Group has signed a four-year agreement with MFAT New Zealand to provide support in monitoring, evaluation, research and learning. Under this agreement, the Mazi Group is supporting MFAT’s organisational learning, transparency and accountability through a range of consultancy and advisory services such as the design of M&E frameworks, program, country and thematic evaluations, and building the capacity of MFAT and its partners in developing, managing and using effective results measurement systems. The support will focus primarily on MFAT’s International Development Cooperation Programme in the Pacific. This engagement provides the Mazi Group with a unique opportunity to contribute to evidence for the policy and programme priorities for New Zealand’s International Development Programme.
Technical Advisory Group (TAG) support to Australia’s PHAMA Plus engagement in the Pacific, 2023-current
Australia’s Pacific Horticulture and Agricultural Market Access Plus Program spans ten Pacific countries and provides market systems support to improve the export of horticultural and agricultural products. The current Phase runs until June 2026. The Mazi Group has been contracted by DFAT to provide external technical services to support their management of the program. Four Mazi Group members are involved in reviewing, strategies, plans, and outputs to ensure that the program delivers high quality outcomes for Pacific people. Mazi support covers agribusiness, Pacific market systems, monitoring and results measurement, climate change and GEDSI (gender, equality, disability and social inclusion).
Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED), Global, 2008-current
From 2008, the Mazi Group team members were part of the core group of consultants that developed the DCED Standard for Results Measurement in Private Sector Development (PSD). Since then, we have continued to work with and support the DCED in the development and implementation of the Standard. Refer to our Publications to see some examples of our work. Some of our team members are also auditors and consultants for the DCED Standard for Results Measurement.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Global, 2021-current
The Mazi Group team members are supporting CRS' homes and communities (H&C) strategic change platform (SCP) to clarify their response to the housing challenges faced by crises affected households and communities in recovery and development situations. We developed a framework for leveraging housing markets to deliver safe and dignified housing to communities at scale, and a full suite of tools to operationalize the framework in diverse contexts. We are working with CRS country programs in Malawi, Indonesia, India, and Greece to pilot this framework- from developing implementation strategies to designing interventions with public and private sector market actors. Piloting the framework is part of a longer-term engagement with CRS’ H&C platform that includes building the capacity of technical advisers in the Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) and CRS country program staff on implementing the framework.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Global, 2021-2022
The Mazi Group team members supported an interdepartmental steering committee with CRS to institutionalize Market Systems Development across the agency. We developed a tailored MSD approach for CRS that can inform post emergency humanitarian relief efforts, peace building and market development. This enables the organization to preserve continuity and create synergy between different development phases as diverse development efforts are informed by a shared systems perspective of how to create inclusive and resilient impact at scale. We also defined the benchmark practices that inform this approach and the efforts CRS needs to undertake to institutionalize the approach in country teams, management systems (e.g., operations, MEAL), and capacity development.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Global, 2021-2022
The Mazi group supported CRS to articulate a global level theory of change that articulates how Private Sector Engagement (PSE) will be integrated across all appropriate areas of CRS programs and operations in different countries as well as the agency level. We helped develop the theory of change, key metrics to assess the impact of CRS’s PSE work and a learning agenda which would help guide research and data collection that ultimately help improve the effectiveness of PSE projects and interventions.
Habitat for Humanity International’s Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter (TCIS), Kenya and the Philippines, 2019-2020
As part of a global learning program for Habitat for Humanity International’s TCIS, the Mazi Group supported their Kenya and Philippines programs to formulate strategies for housing market system development targeting low-income households. We also mentored strategy development and implementation in the construction labour practices subsector and provided technical assistance in monitoring and results measurement. In the Philippines, we subsequently facilitated the development of a three-year strategic plan for the program and built the capacity of the team in Market Systems Development (MSD).
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands) and the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), Uganda, 2020
The Mazi Group team members led the End-of-Program Impact Assessment (EPIA) for the Dutch funded Resilient Efficient Agribusiness Chains (REACH) project in Uganda. This is an MSD initiative implemented by the IFDC and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands). The Mazi Group prepared a detailed Evaluation Plan that brought together current thinking on the conduct of remote evaluations. The team then prepared the EPIA findings, undertook stakeholder workshops, and finalized the EPIA. Particular attention was given to the impact of COVID 19 on women and men farmers, the overall value chain and broader market performance.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (New Zealand), Pacific, 2019-2020
The Mazi Group team members assisted MFAT to undertake a series of strategic studies. In 2019 we joined a team from Coffey Ltd to undertake a strategic review of all New Zealand engagements in the agriculture sector for the period 2012-2019. This was potentially a very large, staged study. As part of the Inception process we developed a plan, undertook a strategic analysis and finally assessed the evaluability of the work. The team recommended to MFAT not to go ahead with such a large and ambitious review as its utility was flawed. Instead, a series of smaller studies were proposed. Subsequently, in 2020 we worked with the MFAT Agriculture team to develop a strategic engagement framework for their global agriculture engagements. We wrote the strategy which has now been adopted within MFAT. Following this we helped the MFAT agriculture team to better understand the opportunities in the Pacific for food and nutrition security interventions by studying the principles that underpin this area of engagement and the opportunities that present themselves in the Pacific. The study gave particular attention to differentiating Melanesian and Polynesian interventions.
Market Development Facility and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia), 2011-2018
The Market Development Facility (MDF) is the Australian’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s flagship programme to introduce the MSD approach to some of its most strategic bilateral partner countries in the Asia-Pacific region such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Timor-Leste. Mazi team members led this effort, which entailed the following key efforts. We recruited and built up the capacity of local teams often with no prior exposure to MSD. We conducted the market systems analysis in each country and develop strategies for each. We tailored the MSD approach to work in small island economies, very shallow markets and post-conflict economies. We managed a portfolio exceeding one hundred partnerships with market actors. We managed relations with host governments and designed a communications strategy to broadcast the approach and its achievements. Finally, we built up a strong development organization able to implement MSD in a growing number of very diverse countries primarily through talented local teams.
Samarth-Nepal Market Development Program, Nepal, 2014-2016
The Mazi Group team members provided long-term backstopping support in monitoring and results measurement for Samarth. We worked with program staff to craft practical and context specific solutions to challenging results measurement issues. We also conducted regular health checks of the Samarth results measurement system, which was successfully audited against the DCED Standard for Results Measurement in 2016.
Markets for the Chars (M4C), Bangladesh, 2012-2016
The Mazi Group team members supported the Making Markets Work for the Jamuna, Padma, and Teesta Chars (M4C) project in the development and implementation of a practical results measurement system that supported program management and accountability. The results measurement system was successfully audited against the DCED Standard for Results Measurement in 2014. We also supported M4C in its work on Women’s Economic Empowerment and capturing the impact of systemic change.