Economic Resilience “On-the-Move” – New Tools to leverage local markets for basic needs through conflict-sensitive approaches
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A special look at Cash and Local Markets for Social Cohesion
Local market actors affected by (natural) disasters, pandemic lockdowns with movement restrictions and income loss – generally in Fragile Contexts – play a critical role in contributing towards communities’ basic needs with goods and services (including in refugee settings). Local market actors are part of the community themselves and are therefore essential first local as well as continuous responders in sudden-onset and protracted crises and conflicts. Cash facilitates choice and provides a springboard for tailored financial assistance and financial inclusion – pointing to a more dignified choice over priorities and needs by clients as well as cost-efficiency, and not least – strengthening and connecting local markets local communities to recover from shocks.
Local market actors and vulnerable customers/ buyers in this marketplace play a key role in maintaining and re-establishing economic resilience at household and community levels during and post-crisis – but they can also significantly undermine or inhibit communities and individuals from contributing to and benefitting from market activity in crisis contexts.
World Vision shares reflections from Colombia/ Venezuela Crisis Response and Afghanistan of first applications of its rapid conflict-sensitive market analysis tool (CoSMAT) to enable field practitioners and decision-makers (community-based civil society organisations, humanitarian, development, Government/ public, private sector) particularly in Fragile Contexts, to quickly analyse, monitor key aspects of local market and inter-communal trends, interaction to help design, implement and adapt a robust market-based assistance support building local economic and household resilience that is risk-informed and builds effective mitigation into humanitarian and recovery responses using Cash Voucher Assistance.
