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Markets

Well-functioning markets are a lifeline for people affected by crises. Effective cash and voucher assistance (CVA) uses and supports local markets. Market analysis must therefore be a key part of the response cycle, for cash programming and other forms of humanitarian assistance.

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).

Latest

MERS Guidance in Response to COVID-19

Guidelines and Tools

Markets play a critical role in how people survive, as well as being physical places where people meet to buy and sell goods. As COVID-19 disrupts the normal activities and relationships of communities we can look to the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards for some guidance on what to do. Now, when social...

30 March 2020

Sphere: Humanitarian Standards and Coronavirus 2020

Guidelines and Tools

Coronavirus is spreading globally. How can individuals, communities,
humanitarian actors, local and national authorities best respond to uphold the rights of all affected people?

26 March 2020

ICRC Tipsheet: Cash and Voucher Assistance and COVID-19

Guidelines and Tools

This tipsheet serves as guidance to help field teams think through different ways:
1) to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 through ongoing Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA);
2) inform the adaptation of CVA in the context of COVID-19;
3) promote sensitivity to evolving markets dynamics.
This tipsheet is...

21 March 2020

The Case for Cash in Responding to Humanitarian Crises in Malawi

Policy paper

A policy paper by the Malawi INGO Cash Consortium which makes the case for cash assistance as a response modality to humanitarian crises. It gives a brief overview of global evidence for cash and previous cash experience in Malawi, and makes several key recommendations. One of these key recommendations is...

12 March 2020

South Sudan Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI)

Report

In an effort to better inform cash-based interventions and understand market dynamics in South Sudan, the Joint Market Monitoring Initiative (JMMI) was created by the South Sudan Cash Working Group (CWG) in August 2019. The initiative is guided by the JMMI Technical Working Group (JMMI-TWG), led by REACH...

23 January 2020

It’s Planning Season Again – What CVA actors need to know about changes to the Humanitarian Programme Cycle

Blog Post

This time last year we wrote a planning season call to arms, urging Cash Working Groups (CWGs) and Clusters to work together for better inclusion of cash and voucher assistance (CVA) in the Humanitarian Response Plans (HRP). Well planning season has rolled around again, this time with some significant...

30 August 2019

Guidance on Market Based Programming for Humanitarian WASH Practitioners

Guidelines and Tools

The purpose of this document is to provide practical guidance in preparedness, assessment, program design, implementation and monitoring related to Market-Based Programming (MBP) in humanitarian WASH assistance, and more specifically on: How to identify linkages between markets and WASH services &...

12 August 2019