Market Systems and Job Quality: What Do We Know and What Can We Do About It?

  • Partner: International Labor Organization (ILO)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: August 2017

If you’ve ever wondered (or been skeptical about) if or how the market systems approach can address job quality, we’ve mapped the evidence from the field to learn what’s been done, what’s been effective and what projects and donors can to better address job quality in the future.

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Marketlinks Value Chain Development Wiki: Vulnerable Populations and the Value Chain Approach

  • Partner: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • Publication Type: Wiki
  • Date: 2017

This wiki codifies good practice in applying the value chain approach to vulnerable populations. Vulnerable populations are defined as those groups of people who are typically excluded, disadvantaged or marginalized based on their economic, environmental, social, or cultural characteristics. This wiki focuses on three groups commonly targeted by development programs: very poor populations; disadvantaged women; and at-risk youth.

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Marketlinks Value Chain Development Wiki: Integrating Food Security and the Value Chain Approach

  • Partner: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • Publication Type: Wiki
  • Date: 2017

This wiki codifies good practice in value chain development and integrating food security. This wiki provides a synthesis of currently available information about the linkages between food security and value chain initiatives, with the intent of providing guidance to those seeking to integrate food security considerations with the value chain approach.

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Unpaid Care Work in Market Systems Development: Measurement Practices for Women’s Economic Empowerment

  • Partner: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • Publication Type: Brief
  • Date: 2016

This technical brief documents emerging thought leadership on measurement practices for unpaid care work. It presents a survey of current good practices, explores how practitioners can modify traditional tools and methodologies to complement the market systems approach, and identifies technical topics related to measuring unpaid care work that require further development.

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Social norms in market systems development: A practitioner-led research brief

  • Partner: The BEAM Exchange, ACDI/VOCA, ‎Habitat for Humanity International
  • Publication Type: Brief
  • Date: April 2017

Research brief capturing the experience of practitioners interested in integrating knowledge on social norms from fields outside of market systems into their work on identifying and measuring systemic change.

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The Theory Behind the Approach: Women’s Economic Empowerment in Inclusive Market Systems Development

  • Partner: The SEEP Network and UN Women
  • Publication Type: Webinar
  • Date: August 4, 2016

This webinar examines the implications for women's economic empowerment in inclusive market development based on a paper released by USAID's Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) project, presented by the report's authors. An expert commentator from the International Labour Organization (ILO) discussed potential implications, followed by an ample question and answer session.

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The Social Norms Factor: How Gendered Social Norms Influence How We Empower Women in Market Systems Development

  • Partner: BEAM Exchange
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: July 2016

This paper explores how social norms influence women’s economic empowerment in market systems development, and what practical lessons might be learned. It documents how gendered social norms are currently understood in academic research, then attempts to present the current state of practice for market systems programmes via two in-depth cases, and seven mini-cases.

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Scaling Impact: Cambodia MSME Ex-Post Assessment

  • Partner: Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: 2016

Over the course of the Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) activity, MSA discovered that there had been very analysis of the durability of the results created by market systems development initiatives following their completion. Consequently, MSA conducted this ex-post assessment of the USAID/Cambodia Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) project's work in the swine sector five years following its closure. MSME promoted the use by the private sector of an embedded training model, in which companies would provide technical information on input selection and application at no direct charge to swine farmers in order to increase input sales. MSA’s research found that the embedded training model has endured and indeed expanded since the end of the project, being used to varying extents by the majority of the firms in the sector, indicating that it has become an industry norm.

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Policy brief for donors and decision makers when designing and measuring the results of gender-responsive PSD programs: Key lessons and recommendations drawn from a pilot study of BMZfunded, GIZ-implemented interventions

  • Partner: Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED)
  • Publication Type: Brief
  • Date: 2016

This brief presents policy recommendations based on findings from a pilot study conducted by Marketshare Associates in Egypt and Morocco on the household level results of GIZ implemented, BMZ-funded private sector development (PSD) programs. The study design integrates innovative qualitative household level monitoring tools to develop a more complete picture of if, how and why interventions result in empowerment.

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Women’s Economic Empowerment in the MENA Region: Rapid Assessment of Household Level Results

  • Partner: GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: March 2016

This report presents findings from a pilot study using a qualitative Rapid Assessment tool designed to integrate household-level indicators of WEE into results measurement systems. It synthesizes findings from interviews conducted with women beneficiaries in Egypt and Morocco, and provides a preliminary understanding of household-level results of BMZ-funded women’s economic empowerment activities.

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