Programme Intelligence · Development
Getting development programme research to the investors and partners who needed to act on it
UK Aid (FCDO) programme · Élan RDC, implemented by Adam Smith International
2018–2021 · Democratic Republic of Congo
- content platforms targeted
- 92content platforms targeted
- high-priority publication success
- 68.4%high-priority publication success
- reach across committed platforms
- 333Kreach across committed platforms
The challenge
Élan RDC, a UK Aid programme raising the incomes of smallholder producers and entrepreneurs in the DRC, needed its research and results to reach national, provincial and practitioner audiences, and to show its funder credible impact.
What we did
- Ran three weeks of interviews with programme staff in Goma and Kinshasa, and designed and delivered two adaptive management trainings.
- Identified the programme’s three audiences (business stakeholders in the DRC, market development organisations elsewhere, and the programme’s funders) and tailored content on access to finance, mobile banking, agriculture, coffee and renewable energy for each.
- Targeted 92 content platforms to publish Élan RDC’s research, then tested and refined the content strategy based on what worked.
- For the programme’s extension, researched the constraints on solar adoption in the DRC and wrote the renewable energy strategy and implementation plan, prioritising tests of new products, business support, risk-mitigation finance and stakeholder dialogue.
- Produced outreach and knowledge-management tools for the closing phase, including a stakeholder contact database, a coffee cooperative process map and a market orientation guide.
Results
- 68.4% publication success for high-priority documents.
- 333,000 total reach across committed content platforms.
- Across both phases, the programme reached over 400,000 Congolese households with increased income in 2020 alone, despite COVID-19 and political instability in its final year.
“Discovered Markets came in and had a tremendous impact on the programme. They worked with our teams across access to finance, renewable energy, and agriculture — helping us organise our thinking around key impacts and lessons. They made it comfortable to talk about challenges. One of their most important contributions was their work on Adaptive Management — they really helped us capture the essence of our approach to working in such a complex environment. We had confidence in their grasp of the programme and asked them to present to DFID in a learning workshop. I would recommend them without hesitation.”
Jason Eaves wrote the programme completion report for Élan RDC’s first phase (2018) as an individual consultant. In the extension (2019–2021) he returned individually, and Discovered Markets was engaged separately for the research dissemination and outreach work.
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