GEMINI Field Manual

From microLINKS Wiki

GEMINI Field Manual for Subsector Practitioners (1991)

This manual^[1] describes the procedures involved in conducting subsector analysis. Subsector analysis is presented as a tool for facilitating “small firm moves to promising technologies and market niches” by evaluating the dynamics and prospects for intervention. It develops a schematic map focusing on four key concepts: 1) vertical perspective; 2) competition; 3) coordination; and 4) leverage (ability to influence a large number of firms with minimal interventions).

Step 1. Selecting a subsector: Selection is based on three criteria: size, growth, target groups. Tool: Subsector selection criteria worksheet.

Step 2. Introduce yourself to the subsector: Encourages total immersion, visits, observation and interviews.

Step 3. Draw a preliminary map: Begins with basic actors/functions matrix and shows final markets, product flows. Identifies main channels.

Step 4. Specify the regulatory and institutional environment: This includes formal and informal rules and organizations that exist to support firms.

Step 5. Refine the subsector map: Second round of interviews to clarify and simplify.

Step 6. Quantify overlays of particular interest: Intensive data collection should be done only after you are confident that the latest subsector map shows the most important channels. Common size overlays include number of enterprises, employment, volume of product and sales value. These help to reveal where in the system small firms and major players and to identify widely used technologies and marketing outlets. Other overlays are income or price margins, returns to family labor, inventory holdings, technology, female participation rates and spatial distribution. A good method of estimating income is to select a standard output (e.g., sq. meter of cloth), and ask a series of producers how much yarn in requires, how much yarn costs, etc. This is in lieu of asking about income directly, which may be unreliable/inaccurate. Tool: “Technical pointers” annex explaining what consumption data reveals about size and dynamics.

Step 7. Analyze dynamics: Important step for moving from analysis to action. Key factors affecting change are market demand, technological change, profitability of niches, risk, barriers to entry, large firm behavior, input supply and policies. Tool: worksheet for evaluating subsector dynamics.

Step 8. Identify sources of leverage: These can be identified by looking for system nodes (where large volumes of product pass through few hands), geographic clustering or policy constraints. System nodes are easily identified by calculating “gearing ratio”—number of small enterprises divided by number of larger intermediaries.

Step 9: Explore opportunities for leveraged interventions: Where opportunities for intervention and points of leverage converge—sensible interventions.

Notes

1. ↑ A Field Manual for Subsector Practitioners, GEMINI, 1991

Back to Resources