Crafting Kuza: Towards a Systemic Approach to Job Creation for Youth in Mombasa

  • Partner: International Labour Organization (ILO)
  • Publication Type: Case Study
  • Date: 2016

This case study examines the Kuza project, a 3.5 year initiative that operated in coastal Kenya, and distills lessons for initiatives seeking to facilitate inclusive job creation, as well as methods for understanding impact. MSA conducted an analysis of Kuza’s job creation and job measurement strategies with a specific focus on the micro-retail sector. The study profiles Kuza’s approach to capturing direct, indirect and induced job creation.

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Businesses create impact: adaptive management, feedback loops and the role of businesses in results measurement

  • Partner: Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED), The BEAM Exchange
  • Publication Type: Presentation
  • Date: February 21, 2018

Presentation at the 2018 DCED-BEAM Seminar in Nairobi, Kenya on the role of feedback in driving adaptation and improvement

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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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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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Social Norms and Systems Change: Final Performance Report

  • Partner: Leveraging Economic Opportunities
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: December 2016

This research brief captures the experience of a group of practitioners interested in integrating knowledge on social norms from fields outside of market systems into their work on identifying and measuring systemic change. This research brief outlines key ideas from social norms theory and explores implications for research and implementation by market systems development (MSD) programmes.

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Leveraging Economic Opportunities: Final Performance Report

  • Partner: Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: December 2016

This report presents key activities, lessons learned, and accomplishments of the Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) project. Over the course of three years (October 1, 2013 – November 13, 2016), LEO served as USAID’s primary vehicle for learning in the area of market systems approaches and a convener of knowledge and best practices amongst its implementing partners.

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What’s All the Fuss About? How USAID is Embracing Systems Thinking With Supporting Frameworks and Tools

  • Partner: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • Publication Type: Webinar
  • Date: November 9, 2016

This webinar sheds light on how the market systems development community can better understand indications of systemic change. Experts share findings from a multi-year trial conducted by the USAID-funded Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) activity that applied ‘complexity-aware’ monitoring tools in Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Georgia and Mozambique to assess their utility for capturing systemic change.

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Scaling Impact Through Agricultural Input and Output Markets: A Synthesis and Troubleshooting Guide

  • Partner: Leveraging Economic Opportunities
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: October 2016

Building on research conducted by the Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) activity on scaling impact through agricultural input and output markets, this paper provides: 1) a summary of empirical learning drawn from LEO's work; and 2) practical recommendations and references to outside resources to help guide projects achieve impact through technology and behavior adoption via agricultural input and output markets.

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Disrupting System Dynamics: A Framework for Understanding Systemic Changes

  • Partner: Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO)
  • Publication Type: Report
  • Date: October 2016

This paper builds on a literature review on evaluating systems conducted under the Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) project, which found issues with the existing frameworks and indicators used for measuring systemic change. It presents a framework that outlines a pathway for systemic change, and presents a complementary set of indicator areas, or ‘domains’, that signal systemic changes.

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Case Studies on Facilitating Systemic Change in Feed the Future: A Synthesis of Cases from Ghana, Senegal, Zambia and Rwanda

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

Feed the Future (FtF) is facilitating changes in core agricultural systems that contributes to more sustainable and scalable development objectives. This report summarizes the findings from research into four FtF projects, selected as illustrations of observable systemic change.

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