PMSD stands for Participatory Market Systems Development. It is an approach designed by Practical Action to improve how markets work to reduce poverty sustainably and at scale.
PMSD tries to achieve this with the participation, ownership and leadership of the market actors who belong to those market systems; not with the leadership and ownership of the NGO. Participation is not just about the NGO consulting the market actors, coming up with the solutions that make sense for the NGO, and then convincing the market actors to implement these solutions. PMSD can only work if the NGO behaves as a facilitator. In other words, as an agent who makes it easier for market actors to transform their market systems in ways that make sense to them.
PMSD is also pro-poor (the term that is starting to dominate the jargon is "inclusive"). This means that the relative benefits for the poor (I prefer the term "marginalised") have to be greater than the relative benefits for the rest of better off actors.
So, what does this idea of "relative benefits" or gains mean? It means that the benefits are relative to the initial situation of each actor. For example, if the average marginalised farmer makes an average of 1 dollar/day at the beginning of the project and two years down the line they are making 2 dollar/day, their relative gain was 100%. Now, if we look at a successful retailer who was making an average of 1,000 dollar/day at the beginning of the project and two years down the line they are making 1,200 dollar/day, their relative gain was 20%. In this case, the impacts of the project are considered pro-poor.
PMSD is without doubt a fascinating approach to the field of Inclusive Market Development (IMD) that combines economics, sociology, anthropology, politics, business management, social communication, systems theory, complexity, psychology and even quantum physics and zen...
Personally, IMD and PMSD in particular are a manifestation of my ideals: collaboration, win-win outcomes, synergies, openness, fluidity, connectedness, tenderness, adaptability, and appreciation of the infinite complexity of the universe around us.
27 March 2011
11 March 2011
Compassion: building on imperfections is perfect
I saw the following quote in the signature of an email that Linda Jones, a great woman and development profesional, sent me:
"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."
(Leonard Cohen, Anthem)
What a powerful piece of poetry! My interpretation from a facilitation perspective:
Use what you have available
Build on top of what is there
It does not matter if it is broken
It does not matter if it does not run smooth
It is yours; perhaps the only thing you have
Offer it with an open heart
Do not worry about the reception
Nothing is perfect
But all is good
Because it is there, in the stain
That the best in us can flourish
"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."
(Leonard Cohen, Anthem)
What a powerful piece of poetry! My interpretation from a facilitation perspective:
Use what you have available
Build on top of what is there
It does not matter if it is broken
It does not matter if it does not run smooth
It is yours; perhaps the only thing you have
Offer it with an open heart
Do not worry about the reception
Nothing is perfect
But all is good
Because it is there, in the stain
That the best in us can flourish
Bet on the sprout
The following is a poem by Benjamin Gonzalez Buelta (thanks to my friend Rodrigo Quintero for sharing it with me). It makes me think of the spirit on which any sustainable development practice should be based (English translation below):
Apostaremos por lo germinal con toda la verdad
de un amor que se derrama como el agua,
que no pregunta cómo crecerá la planta
ni exige una altura a tiempo fijo,
ni impone una dirección precisa,
ni urge los frutos más temprano
compitiendo,
mirando de soslayo los otros árboles del huerto
que crecen a su lado.
Apostaremos como el agua
que cree en el poder de la semilla,
en el sol que guía el tallo en su estatura,
y en la tierra que la nutre sin descanso
Apostaremos por lo germinal como Tu,
como el agua de la Vida.
_____________________
We will bet on the sprout with all the truth
of a love that overflows like water,
one which does not ask how the plant will grow
nor demands a certain height at a fixed time
nor imposes a precise direction
nor urges to mature the fruits earlier
competing,
comparing it to the other trees in the orchard
growing beside it
We will bet on it like the water
which believes in the power of the seed,
in the sun that guides the stem in its height,
and in the soil that nurtures it restlessly.
We will bet on the sprout like You,
Like the water of life
Apostaremos por lo germinal con toda la verdad
de un amor que se derrama como el agua,
que no pregunta cómo crecerá la planta
ni exige una altura a tiempo fijo,
ni impone una dirección precisa,
ni urge los frutos más temprano
compitiendo,
mirando de soslayo los otros árboles del huerto
que crecen a su lado.
Apostaremos como el agua
que cree en el poder de la semilla,
en el sol que guía el tallo en su estatura,
y en la tierra que la nutre sin descanso
Apostaremos por lo germinal como Tu,
como el agua de la Vida.
_____________________
We will bet on the sprout with all the truth
of a love that overflows like water,
one which does not ask how the plant will grow
nor demands a certain height at a fixed time
nor imposes a precise direction
nor urges to mature the fruits earlier
competing,
comparing it to the other trees in the orchard
growing beside it
We will bet on it like the water
which believes in the power of the seed,
in the sun that guides the stem in its height,
and in the soil that nurtures it restlessly.
We will bet on the sprout like You,
Like the water of life
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