We go where people live and work, listen closely, and turn what we learn into products, policy and practice.
For twenty years EA Consultants has spent time in kitchens, market stalls, farms and storefronts around the world, mostly in developing markets and the United States, staying long enough to understand how households, farmers and small business owners earn, borrow, save and get through hard times. We bring that understanding to governments, development partners, financial institutions and business owners themselves.
We carry what we learn in communities into four kinds of work
Research and evaluation
Long-term field research, financial diaries and program evaluation for private, public and international institutions. Small Firm Diaries, with the Financial Access Initiative at NYU Wagner, follows small businesses in six US cities month by month.
Policy and systems
We advise governments, regulators and development partners on insurance regulation, disaster-risk finance and learning systems.
Products and institutions
We design and launch insurance, credit and savings products with lenders and insurers, from parametric crop insurance to contingent credit for disaster recovery.
Small business practice
Through Level Ground, we work directly with small business owners in the Hudson Valley: a financial-health reading of the business, coaching and peer cohorts.
We work across four transversal topics that touch everything we do
Gender equity
Finance and insurance designed for women-led businesses, gender strategy for financial institutions, and more women in leadership. Overlooking women’s talent is a market failure, and correcting it makes institutions stronger.
Climate response
Insurance, risk finance and recovery lending that reach farmers, households and small firms, and lenders and governments ready to act when a drought, flood or storm hits.
Resilient communities
Financial services, tools and support that let households, farmers and small businesses absorb a shock and keep going, from microfinance clients in developing markets to Main Street firms in the United States.
Markets with purpose
The private sector brings capital, distribution and well-designed products to people that public programs miss. We design products that show clients they matter, and we work with public institutions where financial returns can’t capture the full value.
