Combining Push and Pull Strategies for Greater Scale and Poverty Outreach: Key Takeaways from the 2014 SEEP Annual Conference

"Combining Push and Pull Strategies for Greater Scale and Poverty Outreach" was one of four learning tracks featured at the 2014 SEEP Network Annual Conference on Scaling Impact in Inclusive Market Systems. Co-sponsored by USAID’s Microenterprise and Private Enterprise Promotion (MPEP) and Food for Peace (FFP) offices, six peer learning sessions included practitioners and researchers from multiple organizations. This track highlighted field experience in applying elements of a push-pull approach to facilitate pathways out of poverty for very poor households through engagement in markets. In particular, all sessions were asked to address how push and pull strategies intersected—in both theory and practice—and how these strategies can work together to create more sustainable and scalable impact. 

This report describes the six push/pull sessions from the SEEP Network 2014 Annual Conference, noting the participating organizations, their focus region, and the content of the session. More detail on each session is found in the Annex. There is also a lessons learned section (III) that discusses the overall push-pull approach, targeting, implementation of push strategies in market systems programs, and project management. Each lesson learned is supported by field examples from the individual session presentations. The final section (IV) draws brief, preliminary conclusions.