Oz-Dev: Market Development Facility

The overall goal of the Program is to sustainably increase employment and incomes for poor women and men in rural and urban areas (which will be measured by national growth, poverty and employment statistics). The outcomes of the Program will be:

1) Increased competitiveness of sectors and industries that involve poor and marginalised women and men; this will be measured by increased productivity, market share, and business performance in the sector, including the social and environmental performance of businesses; 

2) Poor and marginalised women and men in these sectors benefit disproportionately from sector or industry growth; this will be measured by changes in poor and marginalised men and women’s (formal and informal) employment and income or non-cash benefits (that will be sustained) relative to wealthier groups;  

3) Select market systems able to adapt to maintain competitiveness and sustain benefits for the poor into the future; this will be assessed by the scale and extent of systemic change – that is changes in the rules and supporting functions of those markets that make it more effective, sustainable and inclusive – in those sectors or industries.

An estimate of the potential benefits of the Program was based on market development program experiences elsewhere in translating dollars invested in the approach – including into interventions and overheads – into sustainable income benefits and jobs. Calibrating these by the context of the three countries – including the scale and dynamism of their market systems – it was estimated that a program investment of AUD14million over a three year period could generate an approximate 15 per cent increase in sustainable income for 40,000 poor farm families and create in the region of 2,500 sustainable jobs.