The LAB: Market systems development for decent work

Following the topic of the last post on rural development and value chain extracted from the Volume 4.3, development, here is a presentation of “the LAB” project, an ILO initiative similar to the RNSF project.

The lab is a three-year research and knowledge generation project on how to measure and maximise labour market outcomes while working in value chains and sectors. The project is implemented by the ILO with funding from Swiss SECO and aims to advance knowledge on:

• Evidence of the poverty reduction impact of work in value chains, focusing on the number and quality of jobs created;
• How working conditions can be improved through intervening in value chains;
• How to best select sectors to intervene in to create more and long-lasting employment in future, particularly where a ‘business argument’ can be made for improving working conditions;
• How to transfer capacity for facilitation to national-level institutions.

The LAB promotes a systemic approach to working in value chains. Value chain are at the centre of a market system, consisting in the exchange of products and/or services and an array of players, roles, rules and relationships. The LAB seeks to identify and work on the root causes why sectors are not currently producing more and better jobs for the poors - intervening to build the incentives and capacities of key players in the system to uphold behaviour change in the long-term.

The initiative partners with projects and countries that want to co-invest to better understand and assess the sector they are intervening in and the results they are achieving through their work.  In fact, the LAB draws on a global network of practitioners in market systems and value chain development; and promotes an Enterprise Development Standard developed by the DCED (Donor Committee for Enterprise Development) initiative.

The nature of support from the LAB varies and consists in a mix of technical assistance (including in-country guidance and hands-on advice), co-investment to carry out research activities and fund-matching for national positions dedicated to furthering the LAB’s knowledge creation agenda.

Services provided include:

• Support to carrying out market systems analysis, with a ‘quick scan’ methodology to identify and understand those sectors with the highest potential for sustainable labour market impacts;
• Value-added services to ‘step up’ and improve M&E frameworks to both ‘prove’ and ‘improve’ results; as well as coaching to help projects comply with and pass audits against the DCED Standard;
• Support to embedding capacities for effective market systems facilitation within key national institutions;
• Support to projects interested in shifting from a narrower tool-driven focus to a broader market systems-driven focus in order to maximise prospects for sustainability and scale.

More information on how to collaborate with The LAB available at:

http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_ent/documents/genericdocument/wcms_366178.pdf.