A Framework for Inclusive Market System Development

Inclusive market systems development is the continuation of USAID’s evolution of thinking around private sector development. It builds on the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development’s identification of good practice in the delivery of goods and services through market actors; and on the subsequent value chain approach.

The Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) project aims to improve USAID programming by enabling the development of inclusive market systems. To support this process, LEO has developed a framework that defines market systems and provides general guidelines for interventions. The purpose of this brief paper is to describe this framework to USAID and implementers, promoting a common understanding of market systems, as well as some of the implications for project interventions.