Transforming market systems: the BEAM Exchange offers a fresh angle on scale and sustainability for inclusive business
One year ago, Beyond the Pioneer deftly described the challenge of getting inclusive businesses to scale. Despite a flourishing of market-based solutions to global poverty, Harvey Koh and colleagues pointed out that social enterprises all too often encounter major structural and regulatory obstacles to growth and replication.
Realising businesses’ potential to fight global poverty, Koh argued, requires us to go beyond investment and support for individual firms. We need to encourage and support companies, impact investors and social entrepreneurs to tackle barriers at the level of value-chains, government policies and public goods.
This call to arms may not be an attractive proposition for entrepreneurs and investors. It requires effort of analysis, political skills and patience that distract from core business. But the good news is that there is a growing body of experience and success to learn from – it is just bottled under different labels.
Approaches that seek to build inclusive industries have been taking hold in the field of private sector development for at least a decade. The lexicon that 'market system facilitators’ use may be unfamiliar (e.g. M4P Operational Guide). However our approaches share broadly similar perspectives to Beyond the Pioneer on how to achieve lasting impact at scale.
There are now many programmes and practitioners looking to work alongside companies to transform market systems, so they work better for inclusive businesses and the poor people they serve. DFID alone has £700 m portfolio of programmes that use a market systems approach. Donors such as DFAT, SDC, USAID and GIZ are also backers. Foundations such as Aga Khan, Gatsby and international NGOs like Care, Oxfam, World Vision are increasingly persuaded.
All market development programmes rely on insight, knowledge and collaboration of businesses in the industries or sectors that they seek to transform. Without these, efforts to reform policies, support innovation and facilitate behavior change rarely hit the mark.
The BEAM Exchange is a platform for knowledge exchange and learning that DFID and SDC have set up specifically to encourage better understanding of market-systems approaches, and to support practitioners. We offer practical guidance, real-life stories and evidence of the impact of market systems approaches around the world. Our online forums, webinars and events connect individuals and organisations to discuss challenges, foster fresh thinking and solve problems together. Connecting practitioners in ‘market systems development’ and ‘social enterprise / inclusive business’ fields is one of our core objectives.
Practitioner Hub members may find BEAM Exchange’s webinar on ‘Collaborating with the Private Sector’ with speakers from Kenya and Bosnia, a useful introduction to the market-systems perspective. It also features a round up of lessons from a recent SDC-sponsored global discussion on the same topic.
If you want more detail, these case studies illustrate a market systems approach:
- Supporting agri-input markets in Ethiopia (Mercy Corps)
- Making tractor markets work for the poor in Nigeria (PrOpCom)
We like this very practical guidance for market facilitators
I welcome Practitioner Hub members to explore the growing body of knowledge in the BEAM Exchange resource library, and most importantly share resources that you find useful with the wider community.
This blog is a part of our May 2015 series on the role of Government and policy in inclusive business. To view all the articles in this series click here.