Effective market systems development requires equitable participation and benefits for men, women, and male and female youth. A market systems development approach targets the root causes of poor market systems performance and enables market actors to achieve inclusive growth.
Attention to the inclusion of youth and women in market systems development (MSD) is gaining traction around the world as part of work to strengthen inclusive agriculture-led growth, food security, poverty reduction, and improved employment. However, little has been known about the breadth of tactics, successes, and pitfalls of this emerging work. To bridge this knowledge gap and inform further research and practice, in 2019-2020, the Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment (AWE) Program undertook a groundbreaking landscape analysis and four case studies to explore the intended and unintended consequences of MSD approaches to youth’s and women’s inclusion in agriculture and supporting markets to understand more about:
- What gender- and youth-specific constraints and opportunities MSD programs in agriculture and supporting markets have identified
- Whether and how MSD approaches have been able to address gender and youth issues
- What the impacts or outcomes of gender- and youth-targeted MSD approaches have been, including results, shortcomings, and positive and negative unintended consequences
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