Research and analytics

The Agent Network Accelerator (ANA) program identifies the factors responsible for the success or failure of specific agent networks across the world. Our ANA partners comprise leading providers, including M-Pesa, MTN, Orange, Vodafone, Tigo, Airtel, BKash, and EasyPaisa, as well as the Gates Foundation and UNCDF. MSC teams analyze the data and produce country reports and customized business analytics. The ANA baseline research has been completed in 14 countries, while second-wave surveys have been completed in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

MSC studies the financial behavior of people in multiple countries and contexts. A key project in this area has been the MetaMon Research undertaken in India and Bangladesh. The design firm IDEO.org collaborated with MSC to use our expertise in human-centric research, country context, and behavioral design. The research led to the development of eight design principles for financial institutions for designing inclusive digital savings products.

MSC has studied the implementation and impact of government-to-people (G2P) programs in South Asia to apply the lessons in other developing countries. In a recent engagement, MSC supported the Government of India to explore pathways to better nutritional outcomes through the National Food Security Act.

MSC’s expertise in working with low-income people helped us conduct multiple customer segmentation and market-sizing projects. Our recent work in this area spans Bangladesh, India, Qatar, and Cambodia. In Bangladesh, MSC highlighted a market of 12.5 million additional users by 2020. MSC’s research in India highlighted a USD-155-billion annual deposit potential among 600 million people from the low- and middle-income (LMI) segment. In Qatar, MSC’s research has helped segment 2.69 million people to develop a financial inclusion strategy. Our market segmentation research in Cambodia helped improve our client’s product offering for around 700,000 clients.

MSC conducts research on behavior, financing, and assesses development needs for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). We evaluate programs that aim to promote the MSME sector through landscaping studies and quantitative and qualitative methods based on market sizing and segmentation. MSC’s significant work on MSMEs spans a number of countries, including Bangladesh, India, Malawi, Uganda, and Rwanda, and Fiji.

MSC received a contract to work on a key component of a World bank-funded pro-poor tourism development project of the government in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. MSC identified and developed roadmaps for select creative industries in three regions of the state—Agra, Braj region, and the Buddhist Circuit. The rest of the project revolved around providing ecosystem services to these creative industries. The output of our work feeds into the next stage of implementation of a proposed USD-10-million program.