Determine the point(s) where the programme can focus its efforts on the greatest effect
Programmes have limited time and resources at their disposal. You can’t fix everything, so you need to prioritise. To prioritise which root causes to address, ask the following key questions:
- What is the opportunity for change?
- Is it definitely a cause of under-performance, system-wide?
- Is it feasible to address?
- Is it the most important constraint?
- Is sequencing important?
Prioritising is important. Programmes must strike a balance between what is feasible and where improvements and impact can be greatest .
The farther away from the principal market you work, the more complicated, slow, and perhaps political, intervention becomes. But it is also where the greatest rewards of intervention can be found. At this stage you should have sufficient understanding to inform what needs to change, but will not yet be able to articulate your vision of how the supporting and principal market systems, and the players within them, should operate in future.