BEAM

Tactical responses - how GROW Liberia delivered results in a thin and crisis-affected setting

Date
April 26, 2022
Location
Online
Organisation
BEAM Exchange

BEAM Grab the Mic webinar

Date: 26 April 2022
1pm (UK/CET), 2pm (CEST), 12pm (Liberia), 3pm (Kenya), 8am (NY/DC)  (time converter)

Speakers:
Alex Elphinstone, Africa Programme Director, Adam Smith International
Kim Beevers, Senior Strategy Advisor & Technical Director, GROW Liberia
Sabine Garbarino, Gender, Diversity & Inclusion Advisor, GROW Liberia
Umar Mohammed, Team Leader, GROW Liberia

Can the market systems approach be applied to thin and crisis-affected markets? Absolutely.

This webinar will focus on the tactics that enabled GROW Liberia to make a difference:

  • Rigorous and real-time data management
    A strong data collection and management system helped GROW set a responsive strategy, and adapt frequently (as often as weekly).
    Sabine Garbarino will discuss data and gender at GROW.
  • Influencing and coordinating markets and stakeholders by leveraging social networks
    Close-knit networks can be an upside to thin markets.
    Umar Mohammed will discuss how GROW leveraged these to influence the market and accelerate impact.

GROW Liberia invests in Liberia's agricultural markets, including cocoa and vegetables. As the nine-year programme comes to a close the team looks back on the tactics that helped it respond to its thin markets and crisis-affected contexts and achieve impact.

In its early years, GROW struggled to right-size its technical and operational approaches to Liberia. This is not uncommon; projects often employ similar implementation and organisational management tactics despite important nuances in the operating context.

A flexible budget, a close project-donor working relationship, adaptive management practices, and team talent helped GROW – like many MSD programmes – improve delivery and achieve meaningful impact in time. In addition, GROW tracked information to make sense of the context, inform its approaches and partnerships, and influence the market and stakeholders. 

Additional Information: