Tactical responses - how GROW Liberia delivered results in a thin and crisis-affected setting
BEAM Grab the Mic webinar
Date: 26 April 2022
Speakers:
Alex Elphinstone, Africa Programme Director, ASI
From GROW Liberia:
Kim Beevers, Senior Strategy Advisor & Technical Director
Sabine Garbarino, Gender, Diversity & Inclusion Advisor
Umar Mohammed, Team Leader
Can the market systems approach be applied to thin and crisis-affected markets? Absolutely.
This webinar focused 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 discussed 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 discussed 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.