New research: Improved scaling up of market systems interventions

What can we learn from applying commercial investment analytical techniques to the market systems approach?

In a previous blog, I made the case that one of the biggest challenges facing market development projects is converting interventions into impact at scale. All too often we get stuck at the pilot stage (even when a pilot appears to show great promise), which is disappointing considering that 'impact at scale' is a key selling point of the market systems approach.

The suggestion that better systems analysis can lead to higher success rates and bigger impact has already been put forward by different donors and implementers. In a recent report, the ILO concluded that better analysis of systemic problems and causes can help to achieve the intended outcomes, echoing the guidelines that were set out in the M4P Operational Guide.

Now, we at Maxwell Stamp, would like to go one step further; we believe that there are additional benefits to be gained from applying tried and tested commercial investment analytical techniques to the market systems approach.

Our thesis is that these techniques can ultimately lead to substantially increased success rates if they are used to develop and test robust scaling up strategies from the very beginning of intervention planning. To test this idea and to deepen a shared understanding of what such analysis could look like, Maxwell Stamp has been commissioned by BEAM Exchange to explore the relationship between the quality, scope and depth of pre-pilot investment analysis and the degree to which pilot interventions have so far led to impact at scale.

Studying this relationship will allow us to develop a pre-pilot intervention investment analysis tool to help market systems practitioners select and design interventions in a way that increases the chances of market systems interventions achieving success at scale. It will also allow us to understand the conditions under which this type of analysis will be most useful. The added value of having such a tool is evident: considerable savings in time, energy and resources as the need for piloting interventions would be reduced.

The sample of market systems programmes that we will study hopefully includes programmes funded by different donors such as SDC, DFID or USAID, across a range of economic sectors and geographical locations (including fragile and conflict affected states). At all stages of our research, we will keep the market systems community informed through dissemination workshops, research papers and blogs on the BEAM Exchange website.

The success of our research therefore depends on the participation of market systems programmes; both the donors who are paying for them, and the managers and staff who are implementing them.

So please get in touch with us if you would like to participate in our research programme, email research@maxwellstamp.com.