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Market systems development for Decent Work: the Lab – Phase II - Final evaluation

eval_number:

3210

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3210

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Organizational learning

category:

Organizational issues

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comments:

n/a

challenges:

n/a

success:

By getting to know people better, building relationships, learning their incentives and providing information about the approach, the Lab created a space for potential beneficiaries to translate the merits of the approach into their own context. The Lab then responded to the demand for their technical assistance when it arose from those people’s own ideas about how MSD could serve their interests.

context:

One of the Lab’s objectives was to promote a market systems approach to decent work. It aimed to do this through a) generating and disseminating knowledge that plugged key gaps in understanding about when and how a market systems approach can be used for decent work objectives and b) demonstrating the approach’s effectiveness in practice. This strategy does not – on its own – reflect a deep understanding of the institutional context and incentives that shape people’s behaviours. Some of the technical assistance the Lab provided to partners did not yield results, as the incentives were not in place for people to adopt a new approach. However, once beneficiaries started realizing the ways in which the market systems approach supported their interests, they had an incentive to learn more. The Lab could then target their technical assistance to align with the incentive. By doing this, they had much more success. The Lab’s most successful partnerships have been with those who were genuinely interested in how a market systems approach – or components of it – could serve their interests. Technical assistance, knowledge generation and knowledge dissemination can all be important, but they are unlikely to have significant behaviour change effects unless their use is informed by a deep understanding of incentives. Technical assistance (including capacity building, skills training, awareness raising etc.) is not enough to change behaviour unless it is targeted to link to incentives.

description:

Technical assistance is not enough to change behaviour unless it is linked to incentives.

administrative_issues:

SECO-funded projects, ILO, the MSD community

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/231978

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location:

country:

Inter-Regional

region:

Inter-Regional

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eval_title:

Market systems development for Decent Work: the Lab – Phase II - Final evaluation