mafi meeting at seep annual conference 2015 - report

SEEP Annual Conference 2015Inclusion and Resilience: The Next Challenge

MaFI Meeting

Coming Back Home

Welcome


Special birthdays are moments of reflection; moments to take stock of what life has been and moments to think about the future.

It is also a special moment for MaFI: • how can/should MaFI evolve to

respond to the changing landscape of market development?

• How can MaFI maximise its value to practitioners?


Welcome

In this meeting the main objectives were:• To take stock of the

achievements of the last year • To reflect about the future of

MaFI• To identify ideas that could be

part of MaFI’s 2016 work plan


• Dan Norell, World Vision: Moving from value chain to market systems development, need to observe and learn about market linkages

• How to influence the audience and facilitate donor participation?

• Kristin O’Planick - USAID: where are connections/overlaps etc. between different networks and how do we leverage these? Having a more focused agenda for MaFI, at least for the year. What is the biggest challenge for facilitation?

• Ken Wood, VSO: how can MaFI work better as a network, sharing tools, best practice, etc.?


Eileen Hoffman, Chemonics: • Would like to see actionable items to go

back to our organizations with. • Facilitation is somewhat in conflict with

data driven/randomized control trial trends in M&E. Need to find metrics that show facilitation is building networks & changing behaviour.

• We may need a big publication sponsored by influential institutions to convince donors of the merits of market facilitation approaches.

• Bridging institutions: great that Lucho is both in BEAM and MaFI but more people are needed to build bridges.


• We need a more focused agenda:• Stand alone projects • Aligned with needs and capabilities

of SEEP members’ teams• With large potentila to influence

practice and policy of non-SEEP members too

• MaFI will need a new (informal) organisational and support structure:• The facilitator working with contact

points and champions in key SEEP member organisations

• Better intel and comms with SEEP members to know their needs and possibilities in a more timely manner

• This section was added to the agenda for the benefit of newcomers

• The facilitator gave basic info about MaFI

• You can find more at http://bit.ly/aboutmafi(N.B.: this info will change soon!)

• The facilitator asked experienced MaFImembers to share their ideas and experiences about MaFI. This is what they said…


What is MaFI?

http://bit.ly/aboutmafi

• Chris Harwood, World Vision Australia: a place to connect with and participate in shared learning on tools and more theoretical topics with other market facilitation organizations. LinkedIn discussion groups particularly useful.

• Eileen Hoffman: Great thing about online forums is that a lot of the people asking questions and commenting are actual market facilitators working in the field; it’s very practical and up-front.


What is MaFI?

Is there a subject specialist who oversees LinkedIn discussions to assure quality of information?

• In 2007/8, MaFI had about 20 members. For a few years, the facilitator worked with other members to produce specific deliverables (e.g. e-discussion reports). Now MaFI has more than 400 members. Practically impossible to do centralised quality control. There is some organic, informal peer-revision but not perfect.

• The MaFI Knowledge Factory is designed to address this challenge. See: http://bit.ly/mafikf


http://bit.ly/mafikf

Structure proposed for the meeting

• Main achievements in 2015

• The future of MaFI

• Main opportunities for 2016

• Wrap up


Main Achievements in 2015:Collaboration with USAID’s LEO project


The webinar and e-discussion we produced together are

• “good examples of how to bring together organizations and push the envelope of where we’re applying market systems (wage labor, sustainable poverty reduction, etc.)

• “Nearly 250 people participated in the e-discussion over three weeks.

• “Good example of leveraging the value in networks –broad range of thinkers and backgrounds.”

(Anna Garloch – ACDI/VOCA)


Collaboration LEO-MaFI-BEAM

Main Achievements in 2015: Collaboration with LEO


Main Achievements in 2015:Collaboration with BEAM

E-discussion

Main Achievements in 2015:Collaboration with SEEP’s WEE Group


Main Achievements in 2015:The Facilitation Tools Portal

with the support of the LEO Project


Main Achievements in 2015:Mini webinars on facilitation tools


Main Achievements in 2015: Three-part webinar series on…


Main Achievements in 2015


Main Achievements in 2015:Blogs, syntheses and

collaboration with universities: MaFI Knowledge Factory


Main Achievements in 2015: Universities keen to pilot Research Alliances with MaFI in 2016

• Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe

• Economics Faculty Center for Research and Development, King's College, Nepal

• School of Economics and Public Policy, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand


MaFI’s Evolution


• MaFI grew and maintained high levels of vibrancy for 5-6 years. The main emphasis was on promoting the paradigm of inclusive market facilitation.

• In the last 18 months, it seems that its vibrancy has been declining in terms of creation of discussions and number of interactions between members (hard to prove quantitatively since LinkedIn eliminated its “stats” feature but it feels like it)

Time

Vibrancy

MaFI’s Evolution


This is a critical juncture for MaFI: it is the time to ask ourselves how should MaFI adapt to regain its relevance and vibrancy and maximise its value to practitioners and other key stakeholders in the field of inclusive markets.

Key changes during Transition

• Market systems facilitation is becoming mainstream amongst donors and program managers

–More knowledge codified

–More $ invested by donors

–More skilled practitioners needed



• Ongoing initiatives like Microlinksincreasing promotion of market facilitation approaches

• Emergence of new projects and platforms with similar objectives, such as USAID’s LEO and Learning Lab and DFID/SDC’s BEAM



• Growth of MaFI has taken it into a sort of limbo:–Relatively low number of members on

LinkedIn (compared to other similar groups)

–But large enough to have lost the feeling of “safe space” that has been so appreciated since its beginings


So...?

MaFI’s Evolution



The best gift we can give SEEP on its...


… is a renewed

… a MaFI that adds valueto SEEP member organizations

and

leverage their potential to reduce poverty worldwide

through market systems facilitation



How would a better MaFI be different?

Before From now on

Promoting market facilitation towards the outside

More promoting of market facilitation amongst SEEP members

Open to SEEP members and non-SEEPmembers

More focus, attention and investments on SEEP members

Helping individuals with their questions Helping teams with their questions

Helping individuals to network Helping teams to network

Top-down planning at beginning and then more organic and light touch

Bottom-up strategic planning but aligned with SEEP members needs and potential

Space for discussion and learning amongst individuals

Space for solution-driven collaboration between SEEP members

Focus on market development CoP only Focus on financial and market dev CoPs

No very clear strategic role for SEEP member organisations

Clear roles as mobilisers, translators and mentors – with focus on field-staff

Q - Dan Norell: Could MaFI go wider in terms of bringing in more SEEP organizations but also deeper – bringing in participants from field offices that might not have bandwidth to watch webinars, etc. but can access LinkedIn?• A: We should get MaFI to focus on SEEP’s 130+

organizations worldwide• A: MaFI’s success should be measured in terms of

its added value to the member organization's teams who are trying to adopt or improve their practice in inclusive market facilitation


Focus on SEEP and deep, long-term engagement with field practitioners


The power of SEEP

Eileen Hoffman: do you have advice for promoting institutional membership? I joined MaFI, but my organization is not a member of SEEP• The new MaFI strategy will focus on value addition to SEEP

member organizations

• Non-SEEP members will see that there is a value in joining SEEP. MaFI will work closely with SEEP’s comms team

• Committed individuals who have been a key part of MaFI’s life will continue to play a key role, even if they are not working for a member of SEEP. Ideal if those individuals promote SEEP within their own organizations.


Getting more organisations to join SEEP and participation of non-SEEP members

For the moment, MaFI on LinkedIn will stay open to whoever complies with the usual basic requirements to join (even people who do not work for SEEP member organisations) :• Invest at least 1 hour per month to contribute to

discussions on LinkedIn, etc.• Has relevant experience in any area related to MaFI’s

agenda/objectives (even young professionals can join)• Has a passion for inclusive market facilitation (but with

a critical mind)• Has an information-rich profile on LinkedIn


What will happen with MaFI on LinkedIn?

Anna Garloch: “One of the things I like most about MaFi is that it is individual, broad, and open. I can see the benefits of focusing on organizations, but could risk restricting things too much and damage organic, inclusive value.”• The idea isn’t to make MaFI exclusive to SEEP members

only –there are amazing individuals who do not work for SEEP member organizations- who have been part of the life and soul of MaFI for many years. They should stay.

• The key in the new strategy is that the limited resources of MaFI (funds, facilitator’s time, etc.) will be used to benefit SEEP member organizations; particularly the field teams who are trying to reduce poverty through market systems.


Protecting the “individual, broad and open” nature of MaFI

Eileen Hoffmann: “Strikes me to think about the difference between interacting as individuals (we’re professionals with shared concerns) versus interacting as organizations (some of us are competitors), but actually this is the exact problem we face trying to work in the field. Maybe MaFI can play a role in getting people to collaborate in useful ways in the field?”• Indeed! MaFI could explore ways to contribute to this

collaboration. Through better communication with SEEP member organizations, we will know where opportunities for useful collaboration exist –especially at the ground level.


Collaboration and Competition


• The comparison table above provides many clues about this

• Example: if a MaFI member (on LinkedIn) poses a question, the other members may reply and help, but SEEP’s resources such as the facilitator’s time, core staff and funds will not be prioritized in the promotion of these conversations, unless they can contribute to needs of SEEP members’ teams.

• The focus of MaFI’s efforts and investments will be on projects that have been identified and prioritized by SEEP member organizations and that contribute to their field teams’ capacity to use inclusive market facilitation effectively.

• MaFI will not invest resources in the production of documents and discussion topics that don’t directly address problems on the ground faced by SEEP members’ teams.

• We currently do not know all the details about what MaFI will or won’t do. The evolution of MaFI will be shaped by the most active representatives of SEEP member organizations and other committed members as we implement our plans.

What things would the new MaFI do that the current one does not do? (Paul Bundick)

Lorenz Wild, Mercy Corps: “on the importance of having field staff grasp market facilitation – it’s not just going deep within SEEP member organizations but also with local partners on the ground.”

• This is a great idea! These are precisely the insights that SEEP member organizations can bring to MaFI’s new strategy to make it work at the ground level

• The engagement of local partners can be enabled by the SEEP member organization acting as a local connector, mobiliser and translator.


Broadening the local scope

• After a 30-minute break, the group was presented with a list of six ideas

• Interest? Relevance?

• Good list? Need to drop ideas? Need new ones?

• Group decided which ideas to focus on


Breakout Groups

• Each group focuses on one idea

• Please discuss (20 min):– What you think about the idea. Interesting? Useful?

– How would you modify it to make it work for your organisation?

– What synergies with your organisation do you see?

– What risks do you see and how should we prepare for them?

• One person takes note and shares key points (max 5 min per group).


Breakout groups instructions

1. Adaptive management – what are the skills, capabilities and behaviours that organisations who show effective adaptive management are building and why?

2. The Art and Science of Market Facilitation – a set of minimum standards?

3. The Complexity for Scale Dialogues - From pilots to scale: Bringing market system facilitators, donors and complexity experts to discuss about the practical applications of complexity science to the design, analysis, implementation and M&E of market development programmes.


List of ideas – Part 1

4. Practitioner Learning Groups: a model to produce knowledge through a solution-driven approach, peer-support and networking.

5. The Systemic Finance Meeting Point: bringing the markets systems and financial sector together through facilitation.

6. Regional/Local market facilitation conferences: co-organised by SEEP member organisations –designed to learn and network around topics that matter in local contexts.


List of ideas – Part 2

Some participants said it would have been better to come up with a list of problems first, and then discuss solutions rather than starting from ‘good ideas’

• The list was designed as a starting point to discuss known, key issues and challenges

• The group was presented with the list to find out if some ideas should be dropped or could be the subject of further development

• This approach gave the participants some time to discuss concrete ideas to overcome the challenges they considered more important


Comments and questions before splitting into subgroups

Taking into account:

• pending issues from MaFI’s previous work plans

• work plans from LEO and BEAM

• inputs from MaFI members and SEEP staff

• inputs from field practitioners

• opportunities like the recent CGAP paper called “A Market Systems Approach to Financial Inclusion - Guidelines for Funders”

• changes and challenges in market systems dev.


How was the list of issues developed?

Margie Brand, EcoVentures: are these ideas things MaFIwould implement, or ideas of things members should find other organizations/funding to do? This affects the viability of strategies, and whether or not people will want to discuss them right now.

• The idea of this activity is to start a reflection about how we can all work together to implement those ideas we are most interested in and that can add the greatest value to our colleagues on the ground.

• If needed, MaFI will work with SEEP to raise funds to implement the solutions that members need the most


Comments and questions before splitting into subgroups

• Irina Ignatieva, Concern Worldwide: the discussion on complexity is appreciated but what I am experiencing in my work is that you actually need simplicity. – This is a very useful insight. Perhaps the term “complexity” is loaded

or has been abused/misunderstood and switches people off even before they have a chance of learning about it.

– In the past we tried different ways to get MaFI members to learn about complexity. However, we did not link that learning to practical challenges.

– This time the idea is to learn about complexity to see how it can help us to improve our capacity to promote scale up in our programs.

– Complexity can help facilitators to understand scale up processes that depend on self-organization (though not all scale-up processes are self-organizing)

• Paul Bundick: I agree; you can simplify some of complexity but you can’t reduce it to equations. It is linked to the adaptive management idea.


Yes to complexity, but…

• Lorenz Wild, Mercy Corps - PRIME: would be interesting to talk about how market facilitation tools apply in areas outside of market development (like nutrition, natural resource management, etc.)

• Eileen Hoffman, Chemonics: Similarly, it would be useful to delve into market facilitation, still in markets, but outside of agriculture. For example, working with SMEs, tourism, etc.

• Anna Garloch, ACDI/VOCA: the reality is that USAID is pressing ag, but I agree that if you look at economic development trends it’s a shame that we’re not contributing more to other industries; could also be a ton of learning for the ag. sector

• Sheldon Yoder, Habitat for Humanity: most market system development tools look at the poor as producers, but Habitat for Humanity looks at them as consumers and it’s difficult to find any literature/evidence on the poor as consumers.


Market facilitation beyond agriculture

After presenting the list of six original ideas, the group decided to focus on five. The one about regional/local market facilitation conferences was not discussed because it’s implementation is quite standard. However, it was seen as an important idea that we should try to implement.


So, what did the subgroups do?

• Participants: Glen Burnett, Eileen Hoffman, Laura Rovamaa, Elizabeth Fustos, Lorenz Wild, Anna Garloch, Karri Byrne, Irina Ignatieva

• Perhaps we could call it “Adaptive Program Management” to make it a bit more specific (focus on how implementers manage their programs and learn from them)

• Adaptive management is many times a buzzword but there are simple tools and good principles that can be applied on a management level.

• We need a literature review, basic tools and examples than can take us beyond the theory. We cannot separate this from facilitation!

• Donors are calling for this. Need to cultivate champions in these donors. USAID’s Learning Lab – PPL: enabling environment. PPL Case studies on CLA are important.

• Possible to do donor training on adaptive management to influence mission staff?• Amplify-Leverage-Advocate. How do we make this global?• Need to be gentle and go for baby steps because this is a major shift in many ways. • Webinars, e-discussions, and then more formal products. How about (sort of) TED

Talks on how adaptive management has worked in different spaces?• Is there a tension between adaptive management & donor requirements for

monitoring, etc.? YES – but practitioners need to come together & think about what they’re doing (involving donors) before advocating for change.

Adaptive management

• Participants: Hayden Aaronson, Margie Brand, Adam Keatts, Andrew Hull, Moses Ssimwogerere, Ruth Campbell, Sasha Muench

• Need practical guidelines for facilitators in the field – not only for agriculture but across sectors

• Current materials are too high-level and contain too much technical language.

• Need a market facilitation practical tactics working group with representatives from SEEP members.

• One priority would be quality control, done by a technical advisory group to supervise online content.

• Many resources on facilitation are too high-level and theoretical.

• MAFI should initiate a Market Facilitation Tactics Project.

The art and science of facilitation (1)

What would the Market Facilitation Tactics Project look like?

• Perhaps an on-line compendium of a range of market facilitation tactics and tools.

• Could be arranged by light and heavy touch, intervention point, or value chain/sector.

• Keep it simple and avoid market systems jargon. • There would also need to be guidance provided on how to

use each facilitation tactic. • It would also be useful to have some evidence base, even if

anecdotal, for how each tactic has worked previously. • We would not want to make the evidence barrier too high.



How could we make this happen?

• Send out requests to SEEP members to nominate a representative to the “Market Facilitation Tactics (MFT) Working Group”.

• The MFT Working group would agree on further details of the concept and develop a work plan

• The MFT would also agree on a Technical Advisory Selection Committee who would select well respected experts to sit on the Technical Advisory Committee and provide overall quality control to the project. Having recognized experts would also give the tactics tool gravitas and build excitement around it.

• The group felt this is an initiative that could be undertaken without external funding. There should be incentive for SEEP member organizations to contribute to the facilitation tactics project, by promoting their involvement, shaping the content, and utilizing it for their respective field projects.


• Participants: Ken Wood, Alyssa Casey, Frank Tembo, John Chettleborough, Bethel Tsegaye, Netsaalem Bahiru, Gareth Davies, Kristen Donnelly, Paul Bundick.

• There’s confusion around complexity. People are ascribing different meanings to it creating more problems than it’s worth. Maybe a better approach is starting with adaptive management and moving from practical issues to the more useful complexity-related concepts, methods and tools.

• Concrete examples of complexity would make it easier for practitioners to understand how to use it in their programs.

• How to use systems and complexity to make market analysis more cost-effective?

• We need to close the gap theory – practice and MaFI can be instrumental in that.


Complexity for Scale

• Participants: Dan Norell, Sovanna Yun, Vanhsy Chindavong, AdebiyiBode, Rommel Fuerte

• These can bring field workers together with key stakeholders to discuss both complexities and simplicities.

• Short, down-to-earth lessons with the primary goal of building trust.

• Exchange problems, develop case studies. • Tap into experience of the SEEP practitioner learning programs. • Not sure about the platform – virtual; field visits not always cost

effective? • Building trust is context specific, not just geographic but sector.

How do you build a system in which knowledge doesn’t remain with just a few stakeholders but really is shared?

Practitioner Learning Groups

• Participants: Ruth Odera, Justin Kosoris, Mario Moran, Sheldon Yoder and Julia Enyart.

• Microlinks is already doing some activities to fill gap between finance and market systems.

• CGAP guidelines are valuable but could be improved w/ case studies, examples, tactics and tools to show how a market systems approach can interact with finance and multi-sectoral approaches.

Systemic finance meeting point (1)

• Microfinance institutions are working with larger financial institutions to develop products for low-income clients.

• Document success and uptake of clients and how new products influence the regulatory framework

• More can be done to improve guidance and capacity building on financial inclusion

• How to inform and help visualize what market systems look like in different settings such as health & housing? For example, using market systems to increase access to finance for low-income housing builders and families.

Systemic finance meeting point (2)

• Convert the ideas discussed in the meeting into concrete projects with concrete deadlines and deliverables

• Build a map of SEEP members, their market development projects and their market facilitation champions

• Convene small groups of SEEP members who self-select to drive and support the implementation of the ideas discussed in the meeting

• Identify and put in place the right incentives and processes for the champions and their colleagues and partners


Next steps

• Thanks to SEEP for all its support to MaFI

• Thanks to the SEEP team for making this Conference possible

• Meeting facilitated by Lucho Osorio

• https://uk.linkedin.com/in/luchokool

• [email protected]

• https://twitter.com/alchemistbutter


Thank you all so much!

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/luchokool

mailto:[email protected]

https://twitter.com/alchemistbutter

mafi meeting at seep annual conference 2015 - report

Economy & Finance