While economic growth and the development of the private sector are important, these approaches will only have positive impacts for the poor if they are driven and owned by the people who live the reality of this change. These are the 'market actors': the producers, the providers of services and inputs, the traders and the processors and the policy-makers and influencers who set the rules.

‘Solutions’ that pump subsidies into the market systems to fill the gaps and address the failures from the top-down have not worked.

Practical Action’s international programme for Markets and Livelihoods has learnt from its own past experiences and those of countless others. Our approach is now to help market actors to identify the challenges that they face themselves, to work together to solve problems and make the most of opportunities.

This means that we work with the entire market system, often focusing on helping poor farmers and producers to build their abilities to engage with people they do business with and get better deals for themselves and their communities.

But we also work with business and government leaders to find solutions that make financial sense and help hundreds of thousands of people. And in between we work with countless collectors, processors, service providers, traders and input suppliers.