MSD Hub editor's note (Michael Field, Senior Systems Specialist, Vikāra Institute): The Author highlights the increasing importance of leveraging emerging AI tools to complement and improve the application of systems thinking approaches. Of particular importance is a recognition that complex social, political, and market contexts are dynamic requiring ongoing probing and learning processes. As a result, the author points out that AI is best utilized when perceived as a tool t

MSD Hub editor's note (Michael Field, Senior Systems Specialist, Vikāra Institute): The authors of the blog point out an important distinction between formal finance and finance that flows through market actor interactions and transactions. The blog makes an odd comparison between value chain finance and market systems finance that does not align with common definitions. Historically, value chain finance is a common type of financing that emerges within market systems like ba

MSD Hub editor's note (Michael Field, Senior Systems Specialist, Vikāra Institute): The authors provide an example of an agent model that they prefer to focus on when engaging rural farming communities. Agent models have been around for decades with varying degrees of success. Typically, the models that push agents as independent businesses tend to be the least successful, as they practicalities of smallholder purchasing habits, the extra costs of adding another layer of tr

MSD Hub editor's note (Michael Field, Senior Systems Specialist, Vikāra Institute): This blog explores how the widely used Market Systems...