Building the Social Structure of a Market
Inclusive Markets

Backed by multi-year qualitative research, this paper sheds light on how NGOs can work in developing country contexts to make markets and value chains work for poor producers.

Building the Social Structure of a Market

Abstract

Motivated by the question of how to develop viable new markets in the resource-constrained settings of least developed countries, we adopted multi-year qualitative methods to examine the intervention of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in developing the dairy value chain in Bangladesh. Consistent with the theoretical premise that markets and value chains are social orders, we found that the NGO’s success relied on building the social structure of a market wherein market participants could negotiate relationships and norms of production and exchange and embed them in practices and technologies.
Figure 3. Building the social structure of a market in least developed countries
Figure 3. Building the social structure of a market in least developed countries
Building the Social Structure of a Market

Backed by multi-year qualitative research, this paper sheds light on how NGOs can work in developing country contexts to make markets and value chains work for poor producers.