Small Merchants Research Co-Design

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) required a strategy to address the challenges small merchants faced in accessing financial capital in Somalia and Uganda. The project’s central question was: How do we design an intervention to help vendors access cash grants and loans to improve the Dangorayo market? This work involved building the HCD capacity of local IRC teams while executing a rigorous, community-led design process. The goal was to research the market, co-design financial access solutions, and create robust, scalable implementation strategies.