Quality assurance advisor to the introductory Making Markets Work for the Poor training

An increasing number of development actors are showing an interest in inclusive market systems approaches – such as the "Making Markets Work for the Poor” (M4P) approach – as a means to facilitate pro-poor, sustainable and scalable growth in developing countries. Sida’s Department for Policy Support has prioritized to develop and disseminate knowledge about the M4P-approach in its operational plan for 2012 and aim to ensure that relevant Sida staff and partners gain knowledge about the approach. There is an increased demand within Sida and among core partners for an in-house introductory training about the approach.

Hence, to make sure that a critical mass of staff members and core partners obtains a basic understanding of market systems approaches, notably the M4P approach, there is a need for both in-depth trainings and introductory awareness raising sessions. Sida’s Department for Policy Support has therefore made a call of for developing a training package and carry out three short trainings in 2012. The framework agreement for market Development has been used for the procurement of this training package.

The overall objective of the trainings are to provide participants with an introduction to the role and functioning of market systems in growth and poverty reduction and to increase the understanding of the M4P-approach and its application in Sida’s interventions. An aim of the training would be that participants are motivated to learn more about the approach.

The trainings should be adjusted to each target group’s specific needs in terms of context, relevance to on-going and planned interventions, policy framework and current understanding and possible previous experience of application of the M4P principles.

In order to ensure the quality of these trainings, Sida has used the Market Development framework agreement for the call off of the quality assurance advisor that will assist Sida and the training team to develop a high quality training that meets the needs of the participants. The assignment of the consultant is to provide advisory support to Sida and the training team to ensure that the training package upholds highest quality possible corresponding with the specific needs of Sida (and the targeted departments/teams and partners in question). The advisor should also provide recommendations to Sida regarding how to continue the promotion of the M4P approach and make use of the training package in the coming two years.