Getting off the ground: practical lessons for the launch phase of MSD programmes

The early stages of an MSD programme are some of the most chaotic: a flurry of new people, processes and information combines with pressures for updates, progress and even results. Market systems themselves are constantly changing, which requires effective MSD programmes to update prior assessments to provide an up-to-date analysis of systemic constraints. Gaining clarity on the complex functioning of markets is not easy in the midst of the operational challenges of getting a new programme off the ground.

This paper provides practical advice for programme managers about how to negotiate operational challenges encountered during the launch of any new programme that intends to use the market systems approach.

It focuses on the five common procurement and contracting challenges.

In the final section common funding mechanisms (from service contracts to fixed-amount grants) are reviewed for their practicality in the early months of programme implementation.

About the MSD Procurement Series

This paper is the third in a series of four. It is a collaborative product of a group of accomplished MSD practitioners and donors who worked together voluntarily in knowledge clinics over four months in early 2020 to synthesise their accumulated knowledge and experience of procurement arrangements for programmes that use the MSD approach. 

Watch the BEAM webinar - How to do MSD procurement: practical insights from donors and implementers - where clinic participants discussed their findings.

Links to the other papers are below.