About the Evidence Map
How well does the market systems development approach work?
The BEAM evidence map is intended to support decision-makers and practitioners answer this question, guide the effective allocation of funds, and encourage future research.
Rationale
We have visualised our database of evidence resources as an easily accessible map to facilitate informed judgement and evidence-based decision-making. Use the map to:
- Find material to support an argument for the use of market systems approaches.
- Find examples and cases of successful programmes that can be used as inspiration or guidance to develop new market systems programmes.
Inclusion criteria
The evidence map presents publications that contain credible results from market systems interventions, categorised by intervention type. Evidence is defined broadly as: results associated with a market systems programme that are collected by projects, donors or other researchers.
For a resource to be classified as 'evidence' and included on the evidence map, it needs to fulfil our inclusion criteria.
How to use the Evidence Map
The axes
The map employs two axes to visually organise the material contained in the database.
- On the vertical axis, documents are organised into various intervention categories according to the Type of Intervention that the source programme used.
- On the horizontal axis, documents are arranged according to the results level of the evidence which the document contains .
Type of intervention
The documents are classified by the type of intervention the evidence document assesses. This typology is based on the most common intervention strategies used by programmes which apply a market systems approach. Resources appear multiple times on the map where they contain evidence for multiple types of interventions.
Results level
The documents are classified according to the results level of the change they provide evidence on. The results level framework used is based on the M4P results framework. Results at the ‘intervention’ level capture the immediate outcomes from an intervention. Results at the ‘systemic change’ level describe changes in the market system. Results at the ‘growth and access to service’ level describe changes in the way the market system functions for poor men and women . Results at the ‘poverty reduction’ level describe changes in the poverty (often income or employment) experienced by poor men and women (impact).
Resources appear multiple times on the map where they contain evidence at multiple results levels
What are the bubbles?
The bubbles represent evidence documents. They appear at the intersections between intervention typologies and results levels. Where a bubble is on the map indicates the results level of the change the document provides evidence on, and the type of intervention that created the change. By hovering over a bubble, you can see the number of evidence resources available. The bigger the bubble, the more evidence resources there are. Yellow bubbles tell you the total number of resources, orange bubbles tell you the number of ‘High Confidence’ resources, and purple bubbles tell you the number of ‘Low Confidence’ resources. Click on any of the bubbles to bring up details on the resources.
How to find what you are looking for
Hover over the confidence levels to filter for the grading of evidence you want to see. To see just the evidence for one intervention type or one results level, use the dark grey filter bar at the top of the page. Use the search function to find resources relevant to a specific country, sector, research method, data source, or type of document
How to get to the detail
Clicking on a bubble will bring up the titles of all the evidence products at the relevant intersection. Click on the title you want to learn more about and you will be taken to a summary page on the resource. This page will give you a brief overview of the document, its main findings and the methodology. You can also download the full document from this page.
Updating the evidence
We regularly update the resources on the map. If you have evidence to share, please email evidence@beamexchange.org.