This policy paper highlights the persistent evidence gap surrounding the “hidden middle”—the midstream and downstream services that connect smallholders to markets. Despite their growing role in agrifood systems, these segments remain largely overlooked in impact evaluations. As food systems evolve with urbanization and shifting consumer demand, midstream and downstream actors—including, processors, aggregators, retailers, wholesalers, and logistics providers—have become central to how food moves from farms to consumers (Reardon, 2015; Barrett et al., 2022).