Markets
When designing a humanitarian intervention and deciding whether to use CVA, a market analysis should be part of the overall response analysis. Supporting markets to function well has been shown to lead to faster recovery and increased resilience in disaster affected areas.
Many organizations have invested in the development of tools to support market analysis and are considering market-based programming more holistically. This includes interventions that use the market (such as cash transfers to affected populations), as well as interventions that directly support markets (such as conditional grants to traders to get their market back up and running).
Related initiatives
Featured content
Introduction to Market Analysis
Course
This 30 minute online course provides an introduction to the analysis of markets in emergency contexts, with input from some of the world’s leading thinkers on the topic.
A Practical Guide to Market Analysis in Humanitarian response
Course
A three to four hour online course designed to provide future humanitarian market assessment team members with a solid understanding of theory and steps of market assessments so that they can join...
Market Support Interventions in Humanitarian Contexts – a Tip Sheet
Guidelines and Tools
This tip sheet defines what market support programming in humanitarian contexts is, and what it can look like in practice. It enables humanitarian practitioners to systematically consider market...
Market Based Programming (MBP)
Guidelines and Tools
Market Based Programming (MBP) in Oxfam’s work means we always consider existing markets – through assessments, analysis and programming – across all phases of a response and across all...
Thematic lead
Latest
Dowa Emergency Cash Transfer, Malawi
Report
This case study looks at the innovative Concern Worldwide project which provided monthly cash transfers to beneficiary households using smartcards utilising mobile ATMs to deliver the cash. The report examines the choice of programme delivery mechanism, the targeting of beneficiaries, coordination, cost...
Growing Back Better: Rehabilitation of Tsunami Affected Cinnamon Industry in Southern Sri Lanka
Case Study
This case study looks at the Spanish Red Cross’ intervention in post Tsunami Sri Lanka which aimed at supporting smallholder cinnamon growers, whose fields had been destroyed by the Tsunami, to recover and improve their cinnamon production as a way to restore their means of living. Cash grants were...
Learning from cash responses to the tsunami: Issue Paper 5: Livelihoods Recovery
Report
This is the fifth of six issue papers which form part of a project to document learning around cash based responses to the Indian Ocean tsunami. The project was funded by the British Red Cross, Save the Children UK, Oxfam GB, Mercy Corps and Concern Worldwide. This Issue Paper looks at the use of cash in...
Trading in Turbulent Times: Smallholder maize marketing in the Southern Highlands, Tanzania
Report
The short-run effects of the 2007/2008 global food crisis on semisubsistence farmers’ well-being in low-income countries depends on whether they are net sellers or net buyers of the affected commodities. Realizing that farmers face volatile prices over the course of an agricultural year, this study...
Hard cash in hard times: cash transfers versus food aid in rural Zimbabwe
Report
This case study looks at Concern Worldwide’s pilot project to provide cash, instead of traditional food aid, to food insecure communities in Zimbabwe. The document briefly describes the conditions making it suitable for such a response, positive outcomes for the cash recipients, the cost effectiveness,...
Learning from Cash Responses to the Tsunami: Issue Paper 6: Monitoring and Evaluation
Report
This is the last of six issue papers which form part of a project to document learning around cash-based responses to the Indian Ocean tsunami. The project was funded by the British Red Cross, Save the Children UK, Oxfam GB, Mercy Corps and Concern Worldwide. This Issue Paper focuses on the question of...
Pakistan Emergency Food Security Alliance: Lessons Learned
Report
In response to the unprecedented scale of flooding that affected Pakistan in July 2010, six INGOs – Save the Children, Oxfam GB, IRC, CARE, ACTED and Action Against Hunger / ACF International – formed the Pakistan Emergency Food Security Alliance (PEFSA). Working together in order to maximise the...
Cash-Based Safety Nets for Livelihood Support in Northeastern Somalia: A Feasibility Study for Save the Children UK and Horn Relief
Case Study
This study looks at the need for and feasibility of cash-based safety net programming within the operational areas of Save the Children UK and Horn Relief in Northeastern Somalia. The success of recent emergency cash transfer programs in Somalia permit the question of whether cash-based programs are...
Making the Most of It: A Regional Multiplier Approach to Estimating the Impact of Cash Transfers on the Market
Report
This study examines the regional multiplier effect resulting from Concern’s emergency cash transfer programme in Dowa district in Malawi, which experienced a food deficit in 2006. It uses a Reduced Social Accounting Matrix to calculate and analyse the impact of the cash transfers on different economic...
Voucher Fairs: A Quick Delivery Guide (booklet version)
Guidelines and Tools
A Quick Delivery Guide to using voucher fairs to implement a market-based emergency response. Prepared as a practical tool, this guide provides a brief synthesis of the necessary preconditions and advantages and disadvantages of using voucher fairs. It also provides practical implementation tips. This...