Are your initial assumptions still true?
If you are an implementer, check that your funder’s data is up to date: the market may have changed dramatically between analysis and implementation. Begin by selecting which market system to focus on, ensuring it fits with your programme’s objectives.
The key questions you need to answer are:
- Is change in the market system likely to be feasible?
- Would the change significantly benefit large numbers of poor people?
Guidance for market system selection is provided in Chapter 1 using these criteria:
- Relevance to large numbers of poor people
- Opportunity to increase the poor’s performance in growing markets or their access to basic services
- Feasibility to stimulate system-level change
If you are an implementer and your programme is already mandated to work in a specific market system, you still need to examine the rationale for this choice to ensure that: (a) the original selection remains valid, and (b) your programme team understands the reasons for this choice. This verification is important because:
- Considerable time may have elapsed between the funder’s analysis and the actual start of your programme, leaving information outdated
- The funder’s analysis might have been rapid or under-resourced, basing market system selection on inadequate information
If you conclude that you have been tasked to work in the wrong market system, renegotiate with your funder. Try to provide evidence that the funder’s poverty reduction objectives stand a higher chance of being met by shifting within a market system or to another market system entirely.