New Primer on Market Systems Development Available

July 14, 2015

Bill Grant, DAI’s Global Practice Leader for Market Systems Development, has published a new summary paper—”Market Systems Development: A Primer on Pro-Poor Programming“—coming out of DAI’s recent economic growth conference in London.

The paper reviews the basic principles of market systems development programming, showing how it incorporates the complementary lessons of both value chain and Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approaches, with an emphasis on project implementation and reference to concrete examples from interventions in Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, and elsewhere.

“How do we ensure,” asks Grant, “that economic growth programming is benefitting the very poor? And at a scale that really makes a difference? Increasingly, the answer lies in an approach called market systems development.”

The article follows a DAI-hosted conference in London called “Pushing the Frontier: DAI’s Experience in Systemic Market Development for Inclusive Economic Growth.” See the video below for more about the conference.

“Pushing the Frontier” featured a headline panel that included Patricia Seex, Head of Profession for Private Sector Development for the U.K. Department for International Development; Alex Duncan of The Policy Practice; and David Elliott, a Director from the Springfield Centre, who addressed an audience of some 100 people at the Hilton Metropole.

DAI is implementing 36 economic growth projects with a combined budget of more than $1 billion, serving different clients and operating under different conditions but all with the ultimate goal of increasing sustainable and inclusive economic growth.