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The Market Facilitation Initiative (MaFI): effective facilitation to make markets work better for marginalised producers
The Market Facilitation Initiative (MaFI): effective facilitation to make markets work better for marginalised producers
Related SEEP initiative: 
Market Facilitation Initiative (MaFI)
Open date: 
March 13, 2008
Close date: 
November 15, 2010

Latest News!!!
(Updated: 13 November 2009)

A face to face MaFI’s workshop took place in Washington DC during the SEEP Annual Conference. Check out the agenda here.

Brief description of achievements in 2009:

  • Growth of MaFI membership (300+)
  • Consolidation of learning teams on Subsidies, Linkages & Capacity Building
  • Quick Chats, Blogs, MaFI-licious.
  • Online discussions on Sustainable Livelihoods (SLA) and Pro-Poor Market Development (PPMD) Approaches and synthesis paper.
  • Meeting in DC and podcast on Lead Firms.
  • Subsidies Paper (working draft being discussed in the Subsidies Team).
  • Capacity Building webinar (with EWB and The Groove)

A small group of MaFI members met in August in Washington DC. We discussed about Lead Firms and networked. A podcast and an online discussion based on this meeting are coming soon!


From left to right: John Siodlarz (NCBA and Linkages WG facilitator), Jessica Elisberg (SEEP), Sabina Rogers (SEEP and MaFI assistant), Rachel Blum (CHF), Chris Brown (CHF), Lucho Osorio (Practical Action and MaFI facilitator), and Erick Derks (AFE).

  • MaFI promoted online discussions before and after an ESRC Seminar on Sustainable Livelihoods and Pro-Poor Market Development which took place at the Uni of Bath in the UK on the 21st July 2009. Some of the questions and issues posted by MaFI members were shared with the presenters. THE SYNTHESIS DOCUMENT IS READY (fresh from the oven)! Click here to open it in pdf format.
  • MaFI and its Learning Teams are in the process of testing a new and more user-friendly web platform.
  • MaFI-licious has now more than 80 online resources for pro-poor market dev facilitators! Check out the new resource: “Reaching the Unbanked with Sharía-Compliant Financial Products in Afghanistan” (What is MaFI-licious? See below)

MaFI Learning Teams: What’s up?

- Linkages: A podcast on Lead Firms is being edited and the group will soon launch an online discussion on the subject to learn more on facilitation techniques to engage lead firms of processes of pro-poor market development.
- Subsidies: A working paper is ready for the members of the team to produce a draft to launch a wide online dicussion on promising practices and tips to use subsidies effectively (with a focus on the promotion of agriculture technical knowlegde services)
- Capacity Building: the group recently organised a webinar with Engineers Withour Borders who have developed a guideline to build the capacity of facilitators in the field. The main issues discussed will help MaFI launch a wider discussion and promote testing of EWB’s guides in other contexts.

Do you want to contribute to MaFI? There are plenty of ways to do it:

  • Spread the voice and invite new members (free membership is over but if you’ve got what it takes to become a MaFIan, you are welcome)
  • Join one of the learning teams (it is challenging and demanding but you’ll make history!)
  • Provide comments to the SLA/PPMD synthesis
  • Participate in the upcoming online discussions on SLA/PPMD, Lead Firms, Subsidies and Capacity Building (make your ideas a means to poverty reduction)
  • Share documents, case studies, lessons, tools (both as attachments and as URLs)... why keeping those amazing tools in a hard drive or a drawer when someone out there can use them to fight poverty?
  • Promote a Local Learning Group. LLGs in Peru and Bangladesh are starting to take shape!

Overview: The Market Facilitation Initiative (MaFI) is a joint effort of the SEEP Network and the Livelihoods Network, with the support of Practical Action.



MaFI aims to assist practitioners working in Pro-Poor Market Development to move from market assessments and program design to implementation by advancing practical principles, techniques, and tools.

Currently, there is a wide body of resources on how to conduct market research and program design for market development programs. However there is far less available on the “how” in terms of program implementation.

What is Pro-Poor Market Development? Pro-poor market development can be understood as any process of change that contributes to the participation of marginalized producers and their families and to the benefits they get from existing and potential markets in which they do business, earn incomes and access products and services.

Learning Agenda 2009: MaFI is currently focusing on three areas:

  • Subsidies: with emphasis on agricultural technical knowledge (including extension services)
  • Linkages (vertical and horizontal)
  • Capacity building (of facilitators)

Examples of other resources produced by MaFI:

  • MaFI-licious: an online, live annotated bibliography on current practices, tools and methods used in pro-poor market facilitation. This resource uses the Delicious platform (Delicious is a popular bookmark service that allows people to share web-based resources). Only members can add and edit MaFI-licious but anyone can access its resources at: http://delicious.com/marketfacil

ATTENTION: GIVEN THAT MAFI IS MOVING INTO A NEW WEB PLATFORM, AUTOMATIC SIGN UP HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY DISABLED. REQUESTS TO JOIN MUST BE MADE DIRECTLY TO SABINA ROGERS AT rogers@seepnetwork.org

Facilitator:
Lucho Osorio, International Coordinator of the Markets and Livelihoods Programme, Practical Action

For more information: 
Sabina Rogers: communities@seepnetwork.org
AttachmentSizeHitsLast download
MaFI meeting Washington DC, 7 Aug 2009.JPG1.84 MB5406 hours 42 min ago
Learning+Agenda,+MaFI,+ver0.doc62.5 KB92 days 3 hours ago
Market Facilitation Synthesis- FINAL.pdf695.98 KB1061 day 9 hours ago
SLA-PPMD,synthesis,MaFIdiscussionFINAL,rev2,5nov09.pdf249.63 KB1112 hours 57 min ago