This handout provides some guiding factors for facilitating system change in market systems development.

1. Facilitating Systemic Change
M4P programmes are facilitative or catalytic: they try to bring about change which alters the way in which a
market system operates into the longer term. They do so by stimulating market players to perform market
functions that they are either currently not performing or performing inappropriately.
The strategy of M4P intervention is to determine a pathway which leads to ‘crowding-in’ of market functions and
players. Facilitators use their resources to leverage a response from players within a specific market system.
To implement this strategy successfully a facilitator’s actions need to be guided by consideration of five guiding
factors:

Where a facilitator intervenes in relation to functions in a market system.

Who a facilitator engages with in the market system.

How facilitators conduct their relationships when they engage with the market system.

How much support facilitators should provide in seeking to stimulate market change.

Consistency of their actions with a ‘pathway to crowding-in’.
Pathway to Crowding In
The strategy for M4P intervention is to determine a pathway which leads to the ‘crowding-in’ of market functions
and players to increase the breadth and depth of a market system.
Putting it into practice: main steps and factors
There are three main steps to pursuing a ‘pathway to crowding-in’:
Step 1: Assess and identify the key achievements from initial interventions - what is there to build on?
Step 2: Define the size and nature of the market system in the future, given initial intervention experience
Step 3: Design and implement supplementary interventions to stimulate wider market development