An Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis study Changing Responses to the Haiti Earthquake

Good practice standards guidelines and evaluations all emphasise the importance of including markets in emergency situation and response analysis. While this approach has become more widely accepted by international organisations in recent years, in practice it is clear that support is still needed to develop the skills of humanitarian workers to ensure that they don’t overlook the role of markets in emergency and early recovery responses. Common challenges include not knowing what data to gather and from where (macro versus micro levels), how to interpret basic information collected, how to effectively present findings or how to translate analysis into programme decisions.

This case study presents the EMMA pilot assessment that had been carried out in Haiti following severe tropical storms in 2008. Considering the practical uses and advantages of undertaking EMMA assessments, it was felt to be appropriate to carry one out following the 2010 earthquake.

The EMMA was carried out from the 7th to the 17th of February, three weeks after the earthquake. In parallel, a rapid Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) took place covering the directly affected communes, from the 5th to the 12th of February, 2010. This was led by Haiti’s Coordination Nationale de la Sécurité Alimentaire (CNSA), in partnership with Action Contre la Faim (ACF), OGB, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) and the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP). This parallel activity was fairly well coordinated, and both teams found the work of the other assessment useful.

In Haiti the EMMA team was led by IRC and included a total of 18 staff members from 11 organizations including: American Red Cross, Haitian Red Cross, the International Federation of the Red Cross, Save the Children (SAVE-US), Mercy Corps, OGB, WFP, ACDI/ VOCA, ACF and FEWS NET. While EMMA is designed to be used by those without economic training, this team had a mix of those with significant market experience and those with none. Approximately two days of training was provided, with additional training throughout the course of the assessment on various aspects of the tool.

This case study gives a global overview of how the EMMA was lead and analyses its successes and lessons learnt.