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PMSD Examples and Adaptations

PMSD Toolkit

Participatory Market Systems Development (PMSD) was originally developed in the agriculture sector, similar to the wider field of Market Systems Development (MSD). In agriculture, the poor and marginalised are usually positioned as small-scale farmers in crop and livestock markets. This common system set-up leads to a sense of familiarity with particular combinations of market actors, supporting services and rules of the game. It also leads to similar looking market maps and common patterns in terms of the interventions or solutions.

However, in today’s environment we recognise that PMSD can be applied in any sector, so long as the project team is mindful of any adjustments or adaptations they need to make. Even in agriculture, where there is the most experience, shifts to focus on regenerative practices, that improve soil health and conserve water resources may change the way an agriculture market system is analysed.

This section of the PMSD toolkit provides a starting point for thinking about PMSD in several different sectors and operating contexts. Each subpage offers some suggestions on how to adjust PMSD to fit a specific context. In addition, a growing set of short case studies are included to provide examples of what this looks like in practice.

Click on any of the links in the table below to learn more:

Sector / Operating Context

Case Studies

Regenerative agriculture

Farmer saved seed systems – Malawi

Transforming Rural Economies and Youth Livelihoods – Kenya

Energy

Electric cooking – Nepal

Agriculture-energy nexus

​Solar irrigated vegetables – Nepal

Climate and resilience

Sugarcane for flood resilience – Nepal

Humanitarian settings

​Solar products for refugees – Burkina Faso