Market Systems Development
Market Systems Development is loosely defined in this context as working at the level of the value chain in shaping the poverty alleviation and economic growth opportunities for smallholders. Over and above a focus on specific value chains, development activities are increasingly focusing on strengthening the broader market system in which value chains operate.
The main features of the market systems’ approach include:
− Addressing the underlying reasons, incentives, and biases for how and why businesses, people, and networks (i.e., the system) have not adapted to come up with a solution themselves;
− Extending beyond individual value chains to build the capacity and resilience of local systems;
− Considering behavior patterns, flows of information and finance, relational networks, trust and dispute patterns, and interconnectivity and patterns of influence between market systems and other social systems (i.e., political, civil society, communal/friends and family, etc.).
The main features of the market systems’ approach include:
− Addressing the underlying reasons, incentives, and biases for how and why businesses, people, and networks (i.e., the system) have not adapted to come up with a solution themselves;
− Extending beyond individual value chains to build the capacity and resilience of local systems;
− Considering behavior patterns, flows of information and finance, relational networks, trust and dispute patterns, and interconnectivity and patterns of influence between market systems and other social systems (i.e., political, civil society, communal/friends and family, etc.).