BDS market development guide.pdf - PACA

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substantial questions remain unanswered. Many of these are the subject of applied research,
and this should generate useful insights in the coming period. In particular, under the
auspices of USAID Microenterprise Best Practices (MBP) Project, the performance
measurement framework developed in 1999 is being tested in different situations by a team
of researchers. 48 Many of these are also important considerations for the design of
interventions. Among the key issues where further work is required are the following:
1. How should markets be defined? Setting parameters—as outlined in Chapter Two—by
geography, product, consumer, or sub-sector or a combination of these brings with it
advantages and disadvantages. What guidelines should agencies follow in developing
such boundaries?
2. What are the most cost-effective indicators for assessing market development?
Potentially, markets are very large and trying to track changes in them may be expensive.
Are there useful proxies more immediately measurable through the supply-side, or is it
always necessary to go directly to the demand-side?
3. How can monitoring and evaluation methods be adapted to make sure that hidden
BDS are still captured as part of the overall market picture? Many important
services—often concerned with advice and knowledge—are offered without a financial
transaction but still within the confines of a transactional relationship. They are still BDS;
what tools make sure that we include them?
4. Can benchmarks be used in BDS in the same way as in normal industries? The
potential benefits of benchmarks are clear: they offer standard, objective ways of
comparing the performance of different organizations in different places. Under what
circumstances can benchmarking be pursued for providers (or others), and what
indicators should be used?
5. How can changes in organizations—who may not be direct partners of a project—
be assessed? Inherent in a facilitating approach to market development is the view that a
range of actors will be encouraged to behave differently—influenced by interventions if
not the focus of direct investments: how can we understand change here?
6. How can the ultimate impact of BDS on bottom-line indicators of SME
performance—profitability and productivity—as well as employment be assessed?
Methodologies to assess this relationship will be expensive, but can general, valid rules
about the relationship between BDS interventions and SME performance be developed
that obviate the (expensive) need to always try to measure this step of the chain from
intervention to final change? 49
7. How can the relationship among BDS, SME development, and poverty reduction be
assessed? Can valid proxy relationships be established between, for example, use of BDS
48 See www.mip.org and follow links to BDS Performance Framework Field Research.
49 ILO, supported by other bilateral donors, plans to assess impact of BDS on SMEs, employment, and poverty
reduction.
Microenterprise Best Practices
Development Alternatives, Inc.