What does the current evidence base say about the impact of programmes using the market systems approach?
The BEAM Exchange regularly collates and analyses different types of published evidence documents that describe the results achieved by programmes. Currently, there are around 100 evidence documents in the BEAM Evidence Map, that meet our stringent inclusion criteria.
The 2017 review or ‘evidence synthesis’ was completed in May 2017. It analyses the trends that can be seen in the description of results. An expanded evidence base and our better understanding of it (thanks to new classification and analysis) enables us to build on the conclusions and recommendations from the 2016 review.
The key finding: there are now sufficient evidenced examples to validate the market systems approach for promoting economic development, improving access to services and reducing poverty.
However, application of the market systems approach is very diverse. The results describe a wide range of contexts using a wide range of intervention types and designs. Thus the evidence base still needs expanding for us to better answer in-depth questions about who benefits, and how and in what circumstances a market systems approach can be most effective.
This report is the second annual review of Evidence by BEAM.
Find out more about our work with the BEAM Exchange
