The Enter-Growth Programme: A decade on

In market systems development programmes, is "sustainability" a realistic project objective or just a baseless buzzword? One of the core selling points of using a systems approach is that the results live on well after the programme closes. However, to date, little to no evidence has been collected to definitively show that the approach really delivers the goods - long-term sustainability.

To understand a bit more about if and how a systems project can bring about sustainable change, we revisited one of the first projects to use the core principles of a systems approach, 10 years after it closed.

In revisiting Enter-Growth in Sri Lanka, a micro and small enterprise development project principally working in agriculture sectors, The Lab uncovered some key lessons on project design, intervention facilitation and results measurement which can help projects using a systems approach drive toward more sustainable outcomes.