The Markets and Livelihoods Programme Impact Awards were set up in February 2011 as a competition amongst Practical Action’s international offices. They are an integral part of the Programme’s efforts to build effective and sustainable learning systems to improve the quality, impact and influence of our work.
On this page you can find out more about the Award’s background, and its objectives.

If you’re interested in applying for next year’s awards, click on the How to Apply link on the left for more details on eligibility and application guidelines. To find out more about this year’s winners, click on the 2011 Impact Awards link for case studies, information on the participants, and the winning posters themselves.

Objectives

The objective of the Impact Awards is to discover and share the most important lessons we learn about how to facilitate the transformation of markets systems –a transformation from markets that perpetuate or exacerbate poverty into markets that benefit large numbers of marginalised producers for generations to come and in ways that are environmentally sustainable.

Principles of the Impact Awards

• A process of iterative, mutual learning and professional growth: The Impact Awards are not an extractive, one-off, linear process where applicants send cases that are then selected or rejected. It is about periodic dialogue, reflection and feedback across the organisation that builds the skills and capacity of staff. It is also about an iterative process of continuous improvement of our current knowledge and experience.
• A focus on learning, not of success: The Impact Awards are not about identifying the good things but our ability to learn from both our successes and mistakes.
• A discovery of valuable knowledge, not good writing or pretty pictures: The Impact Awards are about capturing relevant knowledge and helping the applicants improve it. It does not have to be perfectly written from the beginning nor have the best pictures or graphic design.
• A recognition of the people behind the learning: The Impact Awards will not only recognise the lessons learned and shared but also the people who made the learning possible. The Awards are a national and international recognition of our determination, ingenuity and experience.

Learning Themes for the 2011 Impact Awards

The Priority Learning Themes for this year's awards were:

• Working with large and medium private firms (e.g. lead firms):  We are interested in learning more about how to work with large and medium firms who are leading or have the potential to lead structural and far-reaching changes in the market system.
• Market development in post-crisis contexts:  We are interested in learning more about how participatory market development approaches in post-crisis situations (such as natural disasters or conflicts) can be used to “build back markets better” rather than undermining them.

However in addition to these, the following are other relevant topics that were considered valuable to the Impact Awards:

• Strengthening market linkages through participation: Can participatory processes contribute to market development approaches for the poor?
• Small enterprise collaboration: What models of collaboration work for rural producers to reduce transaction costs and create stronger market linkages and relationships?
• Innovation systems and market systems: How do markets and innovation dynamics interact? How can a systemic approach help us to better understand these interactions? How can we use markets to enhance innovation in marginalised communities?
• Environmental sustainability and economic growth: Can both be achieved? What types of strategies, practices and indicators should we take into account to strike a balance between the two? What are the trade-offs between environmental sustainability and economic growth?
• Gender and youth: How do gender and youth issues impact pro-poor market development processes? What good practices are there to improve their participation in the benefits of market transformations? What are the key constraints to effective participation by women and youth in markets? How have you dealt with the challenges and what are the results and key lessons?
• Impact assessment: How to do effective Impact Assessment of transformation processes of complex and open systems, such as markets. What are the key indicators of successful market transformations. What data needs to be collected and how frequently to produce convincing evidence of market transformations that benefit poor producers?
• PMSD tools and processes: How to develop better tools (e.g. the Market Map, Relationship Matrix, Impact Assessment Framework, Technology Assessment Tool) and processes (e.g. Participatory Market Mapping, Participatory Video, promotion of Market Opportunity Groups and Interest Forums) to increase the impact and efficiency of PMSD