Nearly 80 % of the world’s extreme poor live in rural areas, where subsistence or small-scale farming is the lifeline of their livelihoods. Enhancing smallholder farmers’ access to markets — through more reliable, equitable, and efficient linkages — is central to boosting productivity, incomes, food security, and ultimately, rural prosperity.

Over the last two decades, development actors have increasingly prioritized “market access” interventions as a poverty reduction strategy. Yet major barriers persist: high transaction costs, distance to markets, limited capital, weak bargaining power, structural market inefficiencies, and risk exposure.

In an era of constrained development budgets, it is critical to ground interventions in the best available evidence. In that spirit, 3ie has commissioned a new systematic review covering five types of market access interventions and their effects on agricultural, socio-economic, food security, and nutrition outcomes for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries. With 289 included studies, this is the most comprehensive review ever conducted by 3ie — offering rich insights for policy, practice, and research.

This Evidence Dialogue will feature (i) a concise presentation of the review’s key results, followed by (ii) a high-level moderated panel discussion probing the implications for policy, program design, and the evidence ecosystem.

Chair: Birte Snilstveit, Director Synthesis and Reviews and Head of London office, 3ie

Presenter: Shannon Shisler, Lead Evaluation Specialist, 3ie

Panellists:

  • David Spielman, Director, Innovation Policy & Scaling Unit, Development Strategy & Governance Division, IFPRI. 
  • Antonio Scognamillo, Economist, Agrifood Economics and Policy Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
  • Hope Michelson, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. 

Speaker bios

Antonio Scognamillo

Antonio Scognamillo, PhD, is Economist in the Agrifood Economics & Policy Division of the FAO, focusing on agricultural policy, inequality, climate vulnerability, and food security. He previously served as a research fellow at the University of Salerno and has collaborated with UN‑DESA and the World Bank. His research covers both micro- and macro-level analyses of agricultural markets, climate impacts, and poverty, with publications in journals such as World Development, Food Policy, and Empirical Economics. 

Birte Snilstveit

Birte Snilstveit is Director of Synthesis and Reviews and Head of the London Office at 3ie. She leads the production of systematic reviews, evidence gap maps, and other synthesis products to support evidence-informed policy. Her work spans education, WASH, social cohesion, and land-use change. She has developed methodologies and platforms for evidence mapping and manages the Development Evidence Portal. Birte holds an MA in Political Economy of Development and is pursuing a PhD in Global Public Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

David J. Spielman

David J. Spielman is Director of the Innovation Policy & Scaling Unit at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He leads work on agricultural innovation systems, seed and input markets, ICT for extension, and scaling interventions. Previously, he headed IFPRI’s Rwanda Strategy Support Program and led the science, technology, and innovation policy theme in Washington. His research spans impact evaluation, institutional design, and scaling of agricultural interventions across Asia and Africa.

Hope Michelson

Hope Michelson is Associate Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana‑Champaign. Her research focuses on smallholder farmers’ engagement with markets, adoption of agricultural technologies, gender, and food security. She has studied supermarket supply chains in Asia and Latin America, soil fertility interventions in Africa, and linkages between inputs, productivity, and nutrition outcomes. She holds a PhD in Applied Economics from Cornell University and is affiliated with the Harris School of Public Policy and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Shannon Shisler

Shannon Shisler is Lead Evaluation Specialist at 3ie, where she directs systematic reviews, evidence gap maps, and rapid evidence assessments. She has over 20 years of experience in maternal and child health research and is an expert in quantitative methodologies, including meta-analysis. Her synthesis work covers women’s empowerment, child immunization, nutrition, migration, and agricultural markets. Shannon also leads EGMs on food security, sexual and reproductive health, and anemia. She serves as an editor for the Campbell Collaboration International Development Coordinating Group and provides training in evidence synthesis methods.