Online: 9 May - 19 May 22
The 5th Annual Market Systems Symposium will bring together experts, practitioners, and donors from around the world to advance conversations exploring innovations in research and the application of MSD strategies. The purpose of the Market Systems Symposium is to provide the inspiration, capacity building, and connections you need to strengthen and transform your market systems development practice.
Core themes
- Food Systems
- Climate Adaptation & Conversation in Market Systems
- Market Systems Resilience
- Urban Market Systems
- Monitoring, Evaluating and Learning
Along with the five core themes, four cross-cutting themes of Private Sector Engagement, Financial Market Systems, Adaptive Management and Social Inclusion will also be explored.
Exciting event additions in 2022 include pre-Symposium training sessions, the launch of Innovation & Impact awards, scholarship opportunities and extended access to the virtual platform once the event officially ends.
Why are Practical Action involved?
Through our work on the ground with communities, we’ve seen that conventional agriculture, driven by market systems, isn’t working. It’s degrading soil, causing biodiversity loss, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and bypassing millions of smallholder farmers who are faced with food insecurity and vulnerable to climate change.
Our approach is based on regenerative agriculture. This sustainable alternative has the potential to create resilient farming and food systems that protect environmental resources, provide small scale farmers with suitable jobs and livelihoods, and create vibrant and circular rural economies.
We’re building a range of partnerships to further develop and expand our regenerative agriculture approach based on our decades of experience with communities. Our experts are taking part in the Market Systems Symposium to share our knowledge and represent the smallholder farmers we work with around the world.
When are Practical Action’s experts speaking?
16 May at 1pm – Turning the Tide: Food Systems
Our agricultural lead, Chris Henderson, will be on a panel exploring the importance of market systems development in improving food systems. Join this session to discover how a market system approach, underpinned by regenerative agriculture techniques can ensure a supply of reliable, nutritious food for communities.
16 May at 3pm – Technical Intensive – Thematic Sessions
Our market systems expert, John Chettleborough, chairs a session discussing the importance of shifting from dependence on artificial inputs and monocultures to a focus on circular production systems and care for soil, water and biodiversity. The session will include the presentation of recent practical examples and learning, followed by Q&A.
