Resilience and efficiency of the market systems offer a better outlook at sustainability efforts. There are clearly illustrated indicators on how to measure enhanced transformative , absorptive and adaptive capacities of the target clients in any MSD intervention.

Rachel Shah

I don't think I've come across the idea of conceptualising market system development as being about finding fixes/band-aids to specific problems in the system, or the idea of sustainability being about making a band-aid last, so I'm surprised to hear you think this is markedly different. Let's talk! Do you want to go for coffee? I think we live near each other...

I'm not sure I see that this position is markedly different to that expressed in at least one of the blogs you mentioned [https://beamexchange.org/community/blogs/2019/5/30/why-cant-we-measure-systemic-change/] Presumably the continuous learning and development you refer to can be conceptualised as functions (or systems) in their own right, and presumably these functions are currently underperforming in some way? And the intervention you'd introduce to change actors' behaviour in order to improve function performance would be based on a diagnosis of their incentives and capacities? Etc. Would be really interested whether you agree! I do certainly agree with your position that it's useful to focus more on the functions of learning and development (although given the results agenda and inevitable long time-frames to impact that would seem in practice a difficult one to swing by conventional donors). I'm just not sure that in terms of underlying concepts or approach this is particularly different to that advocated by what you call 'band-aiders'. I think we'd all agree that MSD principles can usefully be applied in these functions, as in others.