New Guidance Paper: Multi Stakeholder Platforms as System Change Agents

17 June 2021: In collaboration with Wageningen University and Research and the Institute of Development Studies, we are proud to announce the publication of a new report titled, “Multi Stakeholder Platforms as System Change Agents – A guide for assessing effectiveness“.

Background: The effectiveness of multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) remains poorly understood, particularly in relation to their intended purpose and goals, and relative to other approaches to achieve these goals. This is, at least in part, due to the difficulty of assessing MSP effectiveness in a meaningful and robust way. The relationship between individual MSP activities and intended system level effects is neither simple nor direct. As a result, MSPs focus on tracking what can be measured, rather than reflecting on whether and how MSPs are contributing to system level results.

The Guidance Paper sets out how MSPs can better use existing and new evidence and processes to assess their system-change role. It comes from experiences with four agri-food MSPs:

Bonsucro
Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA)
Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement
Zambia Business in Development Facility (ZBiDF)

The reflections generated are intended to act as a vital input to strategic decision-making by those involved in implementing, brokering and supporting MSPs, as well as donors and other funders.

The guidance is presented as four steps for assessing effectiveness, plus six tips or lessons for putting these steps into practice. Armed with this guidance, the authors expect MSPs to become more deliberate in their own thinking, and in their engagement with stakeholders regarding how they are catalysing change over time. The authors also recognise the need for a greater collective urgency to address these questions, in order to generate a clearer understanding of the relative value of MSPs in delivering food system transformation.

Download Multi Stakeholder Platforms as system change agents : a guide for assessing effectiveness