Market systems and the poor

“Market system change is a change in the way core functions, supporting functions and rules perform that ultimately improves the poor’s terms of participation within the market system. Also referred to as ‘systemic change’ or ‘system-level change’.” Operational Guide for the M4P approach

Overview and Strategy Documents

• Shaping Inclusive Markets. How Funders and Intermediaries can Help Markets Move toward Greater Economic Inclusion, FSG, 2017.
  
• Getting to Scale: Lessons in reaching scale in PSD programmes, Gareth Davies, 2016
• The Operational Guide for the M4P Approach, The Springfield Centre, 2015 Definitive work
• Market Approaches that Work for Development: How the Private Sector can contribute to poverty reduction, by Urs Heierli, 2008
• Guiding principles for donor intervention in business development services, DCED 2001 Still surprisingly popular

The M4P approach in context: How does it compare to other PSD approaches?

• Forming partnerships with the Private Sector: A summary of lessons learned by Market Systems Development Practitioners, by Hans Posthumus for SDC, May 2019
• How can companies and market systems programmes engage effectively? The Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business, January 2017.
• Working with the mass media to improve educational and employment choices among young people in Albania, by Gavin Anderson for RisiAlbania, 2016
• Institutional Reform: Adaptive programming in practice: Shared lessons from LASER (Legal Assistance for Economic Reform) and SAVI (State Accountability and Voice Initiative), 2016
• Matching Grant Schemes and Systemic Approaches for PSD: Differences and Complementarities, DCED 2015
• Making Markets Work for Poor – Comparing M4P and Sustainable Livelihood Approach frameworks, SDC, 2008.

M4P, growth and poverty reduction

• A Systemic Approach to Creating More and Better Jobs, ILO 2019
• Market systems and job quality: what do we know and what can we do about it? ILO, 2017.
• Measuring productive employment: a “how to” note, ILO, 2017.
• Balancing Growth with Equity: The View from Development, Esther Duflo, 2011.
• Making markets empower the poor. Programme perspectives on using markets to empower women and men living in poverty, Oxfam Discussion Paper, 2011.

Design and Implementation

• DFAT Operational Guidance Note: Market Systems Development, 2017
• Managing MSD projects: Internal guidance paper for SDC head office and cooperation office staff, 2017
• DCED case studies on using the Standard for adaptive management, 2017-2012
• Getting there from here: Knowledge, leadership, culture, and rules toward adaptive management in market systems programmes, BEAM Exchange, 2016.
• Scaling impact: Extending input delivery to smallholder farmers at scale, USAID LEO, 2015.
• Click on this link for examples of value chain analysis

Discussions and Meeting Proceedings

• Market Systems Development (MSD) Peer Learning Event, Jakarta, November 2016
• Market Systems Development Donor Workshop, Dar es Salaam, November 2016
• USAID Peer Learning Event Case Study and Organisers’ Guide, 2015.
• DCED Report on the M4P Peer Learning Event, 2013. Covered practical issues like how to structure teams, and how to make deals.

Market approaches to social and basic service delivery

M4P in Education Programmes

Many education professionals (and others) feel that the poor have a right to education, and that it should be free at the point of access. In some countries, however, the public education system is not functioning well, sometimes with no incentive for teachers to even come to work. In such cases, it is suggested, low-fee private schooling can be a solution. The debate continues!

• What’s New in the Private Education Pandora’s Box? FP2P blog, 2019
• Can a PPP improve Liberia’s schools? CGD, 2017
• Private non-state sector engagement in the provision of educational services at the primary and secondary levels in South Asia: An analytical review of its role in school enrolment and student achievement, WB Policy Research WP, 2014.
• Low-cost private schools: Evidence, approaches and emerging issues. EPS PEAKS Topic Guide, 2013.

M4P in Health Programmes

Health professionals may have the same misgivings as education professionals (see above); nonetheless, the first point of contact for the poorest of the poor is often with commercial health care providers in one form or another. So it is suggested by some that it would be prudent to upgrade existing service provision, until it is possible to provide universal coverage that is free at the point of access.

• Knowledge Portal on Private Sector for Health by the Private Sector Innovation Programme for Health (PSP4H)
• Engaging with Health Markets in Low and Middle Income Countries, IDS for DFID, 2014.
• Primary Health Care at the Base of the Pyramid. RTT’s Unjani Clinic Model, A B4D Pathfinder Case Study, 2012.
• USAID Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS Plus) project website

M4P in Water and Sanitation Programmes

• Summary of best practices of iDE’s sanitation marketing approach, 2018
• A Market Led, Evidence Based, Approach to Rural Sanitation in India, Monitor Inclusive Markets, 2013.
• Tapping the Market: Opportunities for Domestic Investments in Sanitation for the Poor, World Bank Water and Sanitation Programme and IFC, 2013.

M4P Programme Websites and Case Studies

M4P Programme Websites

• Alliances Lesser Caucasus Programme Website
• Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Rural Economic Development (AIP-Rural)
• ENABLE Nigeria Website
• ILO Lab Website
• Katalyst, Bangladesh Website (archive)
• Kenya Markets Trust Website
• Making Nigerian Agricultural Markets Work for the Poor (PrOpCom) Website
• Making Financial Markets Work for the Poor (FinMark South Africa) Website
• Market Development Facility (Fiji, East Timor, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, PNG) Website

See the BEAM Exchange Programme Index for more M4P programmes

M4P Case Studies

• In search of the sweet spot in implementing MSD programmes, with particular reference to Fiji and Pakistan – The Messiness Series Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4, by Bear and Bekkers, MDF 2018
• Six case studies on financial market systems development on the FSD Africa website, 2016/2017. See also the Synthesis Paper The Art of Financial Market Facilitation: Learning from the FSD Network, July 2017
• Smallholder agriculture: Scaling Impact. Cambodia MSME Ex-post Assessment, USAID LEO, 2016.

Popular BEAM Exchange webinars on MSD

This section provides quick links to some of the most viewed webinars on MSD organised by the BEAM Exchange. To view BEAM’s full library of past webinars, click here.

• Using MSD to support public agricultural extension services, 2015
• Assessing systemic change, 2014
• Adaptive management in aid programmes, 2014
• Alleviating extreme poverty using a Market Systems Approach, 2018
• Getting to scale, 2016
• Applying BEAM’s MSD Competency Framework, 2019
• Systemic change in shallow markets, 2019
• Reviewing the evidence – how effective is the MSD approach?, 2019.

Other useful links

• Reports focusing on Inclusive Business Models that engage with the poor as producers and consumers can be found here.
• SDC’s M4P site and the separate Market Approaches to Development site of Urs Heierli