How will the system continue to work better after you exit?
Key Principles and Steps
Sustainability is central to the market systems development approach. Sustainability is defined as the capability of a market system to continue to adapt and provide the means by which poor women and men can continue to derive social and economic benefits beyond the period of intervention
The diagnostic process has identified what is not working in the market system and why it is not working. Programmes must now look forward and think through how the system will work better in the future. Programmes should plan for their exit before intervening. This means developing a clear and realistic vision of how the principal, as well as any supporting market systems in which the programme intervenes, will continue to serve poor women and men effectively, after intervention in that system(s) has ended.
Functioning market system capability in delay by identifying: (a) market functions that need to work more efficiently and inclusively if the system is to benefit poor women and men and (b)specific market players who have the requisite capacity and incentives to perform those functions more effectively. In simple terms, this means answering two sets of questions:
- Who ‘does’ what currently, and who will do what in the future?
- Who ‘pays’ for what currently, and who will pay for what in future?
Taking sustainability seriously imposes discipline on a programme’s strategy and interventions. Without a clear picture of what it intends to leave behind, there is a risk that a programme’s actions will distort systems rather that develop them. Developing a credible vision of how market systems can continue to function in future entails four steps:
Step 1: Take stock of the current picture:
Review your understating of how the market system functions at present, in terms of who does what, who pays for what and their capacities and incentives
Step 2: Develop a realistic picture of how the system will work after intervention i.e. the future picture:
Define which players will perform or pay for which functions, to ensure that the system better serves the target group
Step 3: Decide the main focus of programme intervention needed to bring about the vision:
Specify the support required to strengthen the incentives and capacity of market players to take on new or improved roles
Step 4: Elaborate a more detailed strategic framework for the market system:
Construct a casual logic linking interventions to system-level change, benefits for the target group from economic growth or access to basic services, and poverty reduction