Bill Grant served in many senior positions at DAI between 1986 and 2025, always focusing on cutting edge approaches to economic development. During his last 20 years he was a leader in the promotion and tehnical delivery of Market Systems Development. Bill’s family has been involved in leading new trends in international health and economic development for more than 120 years, so it is not surprising that Bill has followed in the family footsteps. Since joining DAI he has been focused on bringing new models of market-led, sustainable economic development to bear around the world. During this time he has worked in more than 50 countries, including 35 in Africa, concentrating on designing, evaluating, and implementing market driven solutions leading to broad-based, pro-poor development. He applies market systems development methodologies (value chain and M4P) to identify the major systemic constraints that are handicapping equitable economic growth and then design and implement market led solutions. He is currently advising ten systemic development programs for USAID, DFID, the Swiss Development Agency for Cooperation (SDC), and private corporations to link major investment opportunities into sectors with strong pro-poor growth potential.
Contributions
Resources
- Market systems continuum [2022]
- InovAgro’s voyage of learning and adaptation for MSD in Northern Mozambique [2021]
- InovAgro’s voyage of learning and adaptation for Market Systems Development in northern Mozambique [2021]
- Facilitating inclusive growth in Ethiopia: think systemically, act strategically, adjust frequently for best results [2020]
- Design and implementation of impact evaluations of MSD projects: the case of InovAgro [2020]
- Market systems resilience mitigates COVID-19 impact on smallholder farmers [2020]
- Innovations in savings led input finance - the Fundo Agricola [2020]
- The deal note [2014]
- Business Services Market Development Programme (BSMDP) completion review [2008]