What is not green about market systems development?

ILO’s Systems Change Initiative (SCI) recently examined the potential contributions that MSD programming can make towards a just transition to spark dialogue within the MSD community around the sometimes overlooked employment dimensions of green transitions. In continuing on this journey, we now take a deeper look at MSD practice.

We strongly believe that the core MSD principles of addressing root causes through facilitative and adaptive interventions are well-suited to addressing “wicked” problems such as poverty or environmental degradation alike. However, we have begun to wonder: Could some of our MSD “customs” be holding us back?

In this think piece, we present three recommendations that put common MSD customs into perspective, and argue for a “recalibrated” MSD approach better-suited to tackling environmental issues.