Market Systems Development is loosely defined in this context as working at the level of the value chain in shaping the poverty alleviation and economic growth opportunities for smallholders. Over and above a focus on specific value chains, development activities are increasingly focusing on strengthening the broader market system in which value chains operate.
− Considering behavior patterns, flows of information and finance, relational networks, trust and dispute patterns, and interconnectivity and patterns of influence between market systems and other social systems (i.e., political, civil society, communal/friends and family, etc.).