From Donorship to Partnership: Applying CLA for Meaningful Engagement of Private Sector Businesses in Egypt

The Egyptian economy is experiencing multiple challenges—rising interest rates, devaluation of the Egyptian pound, foreign currency shortages, and frequent tax regulation changes—which combined pose an acute threat to the country’s micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Confronting these conditions, USAID’s Business Egypt program (BE), a five-year program implemented by DAI, seeks to increase revenues, investments, and employment among MSMEs. Central to BE's market systems approach is building sustainable partnerships with ecosystem actors via a Partnership Development Fund (PDF) intended to enhance services provided to MSMEs. Despite the diverse growth opportunities offered by the PDF model, BE anticipated implementation challenges, as most Egyptian private sector companies are accustomed instead to receiving cash grants.  
Understanding the novelty of this fund in Egypt, BE saw an opportunity to pilot the PDF using several CLA approaches—including Before and After Action Reviews, internal and external collaboration, co-creation with individual stakeholders, and adaptive management—to adapt implementation for the local context. Through these approaches, BE supported applicants to reach more businesses and integrate sustainability into their funded activities. Standout results include support for 900 MSMEs/micro and small business merchants with e-commerce services, tools, and/or training and pivots in partner concepts from one-off activities with short-term benefits to more sustainable outcomes. Use of these CLA approaches also contributed to BE’s ability to achieve greater development impact over time, as productive, collaborative working relationships were established with private sector partners than can be re-engaged and built upon during BE's remaining 3+ years.