Why do this course?

Market systems development programme support people living in poverty to increase their income, gain employment, and purchase basic goods. The approach can achieve sustainable impact at scale, but faces many practical challenges. For example, what sectors should you work in? Who should you partner with, and how? How can you learn from implementation and adapt your programme?

This DevLearn online training course will introduce the core concepts of market systems development and provide simple, practical tips to enable you to implement them in your context. Online training is cost-effective, interactive, and entertainingly delivered through videos, guided exercises, and group discussions. The course will take approximately four days to complete, but can be spread across multiple weeks and completed at any time that suits you.

Over one hundred people, including consultants, project managers, donors, and measurement specialists, have taken this DevLearn course and gained practical, effective skills in international development.

During this course, you will:

Learn what a market systems approach is, and how it is different (and similar) to other approaches.

Understand how to analyse sectors and markets, and identify the most important challenges in each area.

Find out how to develop interventions that are appropriate for the context. This includes developing a vision of success, partnering with appropriate actors and negotiating deals.

Learn how to manage interventions adaptively, gathering the most important information in order to help you and other market actors understand whether the intervention is working, and whether to change it.

Understand concepts of scale and sustainability. If the pilot is successful, how can market actors take it to scale in a way that is sustainable?

This interactive and participatory course is delivered entirely online. Participants are expected to spend approximately four days on the course while they are signed up, typically 1-2 months depending on how intensively they study.

How to apply ?

Please complete the registration form here. If you have any questions, please email adam@devlearn.co.uk

How much will the course cost?

If you are paying for the course as an individual, you pay the individual fee. This is £300 + 20% VAT (£360).

If an organisation is paying (or reimbursing you), you pay the organisational fee. It varies according to how many people the organisation sends on the training:

• £450 per person with 1-2 people from organisation.
• £400 per person with 3-5 people from organisation.
• £350 per person with 6+ people from organisation.

*An extra 20% VAT is applicable for UK registered organization. *

*** If you register before 15th of February 2021 then you are entitled to a 10% early bird discount ***

*** SEEP members benefit from a 10% discount. Mention your membership in the application ***

Course Activity

The course consists of 5 components:

1. Weekly recorded lectures. You will have access to recorded lectures, which introduce the course material in an interesting, accessible way.
2. Live seminars. We run one live seminar each week to share your experiences and learn from other participants and the facilitators.
3. Forum discussions. You can ask (and answer) any questions you want in the forum, and get answers from other participants and the course facilitators.
4. Assessments. There are two assessments, peer-assessed by other course participants and reviewed in the weekly seminars.
5. Guest presentations. In order to support ongoing learning, we organise online expert presentations in topics as diverse as women's economic empowerment, value for money, measuring systemic change, and using results for measurement.

The course typically takes four days to complete over the month. It is completely flexible (apart from the live seminars) - you can watch the lectures, participate on the forum, and do the assignments whenever you want.

You will receive a certificate at the end of the course.