MSD Competency Framework

What is the MSD Competency Framework?

MSD competencies

The MSD Competency Framework is a way to organise the knowledge, skills and attitudes found in high-performing practitioners of market systems development.

It helps:

  • practitioners improve their skills
  • managers support their teams
  • organisations hire and retain talented staff

This competency framework was created based on consultation with practitioners and team leaders of market systems development projects.

To get started watch this two minute introduction:


Choose your own path/adventure

Typically start at the main competencies page. You may want to keep this page open in its own tab. You can also use the yellow MSD Competency Framework block in the header at any time to get back to the main page.

From modes to competencies

If you start with a specific teaching or assessment mode, you can gain insight on the thinking and strategy behind developing that, before moving into specific examples. Typically, the examples will lead you through to the pages for competencies.

From competencies to modes

By starting with a specific competency that you want to understand, develop, or assess, you can first gain insight on how it is defined. You can see its related resources. Then you can look at specific ways of developing that competency by moving onto the teaching or assessment mode pages.

If you are new to the framework you may at first find it disorienting to never ‘end’ your journey on the website. This is normal. As the notes above show, you can move either from competencies to teaching/assessment modes, or in the reverse direction.

For more focused guidance, see the pages on specific use cases: