Total systems failure: three lessons on how to avoid a 'blue screen of death' in your market systems development project

This brief thinkpiece, through the analogy of various computer failures, identifies three problematic areas in MSD programme design and start-up phases, along with some potential remedies, that can help ILO colleagues, other UN agencies and programme implementers start and launch new MSD programmes more smoothly.

It looks at:

• bringing in good quality hardware: staffing your team
• never booting-up in safe mode: moving from analysis to action
• keeping to one principal operating system: pairing MSD with traditional methods