Youth, women, and market systems development in agriculture and supporting markets

A landscape analysis and four case studies to explore the intended and unintended consequences of MSD approaches to youth’s and women’s inclusion in agriculture and supporting markets to understand more about:

• what gender- and youth-specific constraints and opportunities MSD programmes in agriculture and supporting markets have identified
• whether and how MSD approaches have been able to address gender and youth issues
• what the impacts or outcomes of gender- and youth-targeted MSD approaches have been, including results, shortcomings and positive and negative unintended consequences

Results reveal evidence that MSD programmes can:

1. meaningfully include women and youth in MSD through both mainstreamed and targeted approaches
2. overcome constraints and pursue opportunities that foster win-win benefits for and with women, youth, the private sector and other market actors
3. promote at least some social norms change to close gender and age gaps within the scope or related to the specific objectives of the projects, including by pursuing non-traditional (adult male-dominated) opportunities
4. involve risks that should be anticipated and addressed as power relations and markets shift with inclusive MSD trial and error

Notable gaps in MSD programming include the lack of focus on the intersections between youth and gender and a lack of approaches specific to young women’s inclusion.

Younger youth cohorts are not well served by MSD activities, with market actors lacking clear incentives to facilitate opportunities that respond to younger youths’ developmental needs. Where implementers attempt to facilitate opportunities for younger youth to develop skills and assets, they tend to use higher-intensity facilitation tactics to achieve this.

• Watch the related August 2020 Marketlinks webinar
• Read the Agrilinks blogs: Are we there yet? The quest for women’s economic empowerment at scale in agricultural market systems

Useful for:

Implementers and donors of MSD projects, and all implementers of youth or women’s economic empowerment programming in the agriculture sector and/or supporting markets.