There is a need to develop a common set of key indicators and measurement approaches to evaluate the success of market development approaches in increasing access to and choice of reproductive health supplies. This area of focus has been part of the Market Development Approaches (MDA WG) workplan and Terms of Reference for a consultancy assignment have been drawn up. It was agreed that this work should include the development of appropriate indicators (other than sales data and Couple Year Protection - CYPs) to measure the impact of private sector contributions. A key issue surrounds how to ensure adherence by stakeholders (both Coalition members and non-members) to the agreed indicators (once they are developed) to measure the effectiveness of market development.

This workstream will also seek to look at how to measure the success of, for example, a social marketing programme from the point of view of the total market. Recent discussions have mentioned the current measurement arrangements which create incentives that can undermine other development objectives. This was described as a type of “mission conflict” – when funding agencies require social marketing programmes to achieve ‘sustainability’ – which provides them with an incentive to achieve sustainability by increasing prices (which they do) with the result that the target group (the poor) that the social marketing initiative was set up to reach are priced out of the market and left behind. This workstream will focus on trying to ensure that measurement of market development approaches and initiatives do not create incentives that are disadvantageous to the poor.

MDA WG members Constella Futures, Population Services International, PSP-One, and the Secretariat are all contributing to revising the draft Scope of Work for this workstream.