In Kenya, the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the small- and medium-sized enterprise (MSMEs) ecosystem to the brink, exacerbating pre-existing challenges such as limited access to credit, while introducing new challenges. Pandemic-induced restrictions, including work-from-home arrangements and no-movement policies by the government nearly crippled global and last-mile supply chains. These restrictions not only amplified uncertainty among businesses but also created expenditure contractions, heavily impacting businesses that depended on walk-in customers. Workers feared for their health and safety, thereby complicating normal operations.

The Mastercard Foundation-funded COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program (CRRP) was conceived to directly address challenges. The project assisted institutions and communities, especially youth- and women-led MSMEs, to weather the immediate, negative effects of the pandemic while simultaneously strengthening recovery journey and resilience.

The CRRP project provided finance and funding for MSMEs through credit instruments with a focus on enterprises owned by, or largely impacting, young women and young men. This objective was to counter the pandemic's immediate negative economic impacts on MSMEs while simultaneously fostering long-term resilience. The project used several holistic mitigation approaches, which included financial inclusion strategies, strategic partnerships, capacity building and business development support, technological integration and communications, and partnership capabilities strengthening.

The CRRP was designed to mitigate the short-term economic shocks of COVID-19 on Kenyan (and in extension to African) institutions and communities, specifically targeting MSMEs. Its overarching goals were to sustain jobs; support vulnerable businesses including those women- and youth-led; and strengthen the capacity and resilience of individuals, communities, and local systems against future crises. DT Global supported financing and funding for micro and small enterprises through a loan facility by establishing an IT platform for application process management and conducting due diligence on MSME loanees to enable fund disbursement. In addition DT Global supported the coordination and delivery of the technical assistance programmes through implementation partners. As a result, nearly 43,000 jobs were sustained during the pandemic period and beyond, with significant impact on women- and youth-led businesses, demonstrating an effective model for crisis response and resilience building in the development sector.