Theme

Tool

Uses

Where to find this tool

Market Analysis Standard

Minimum Standard for Market Analysis (MiSMA) (Sphere Partner Standard)

Establishes benchmarks for any market analysis exercise to ensure the quality of humanitarian response and associated contingency plans

Best for: market assessments of basic needs and humanitarian relief; crisis focus

Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP): http://cashlearning.org/ > Resources and tools > search Misma

Market analysis

Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis (EMMA)

Useful for understanding market trends for a specific market system in a crisis; can be useful for a wide range of intervention approaches to economic recovery

Best for: assessing specific markets for economic recovery, range of intervention options, range of crisis and recovery environments

EMMA Toolkit: http://www.emma-toolkit.org/toolkit

Pre-Crisis Market Mapping and Analysis (PCMA)

Extra guidance for EMMA created for pre-crisis time periods; can compare information from a PCMA (before crisis) to the results from an EMMA (during crisis) to plan market recovery strategies

Best for: assessing specific markets for economic recovery, range of intervention options, cyclical and predictable crises

EMMA Toolkit: http://www.emma-toolkit.org/what-pcma

Rapid Assessment for Markets (RAM)

Resource-light market assessment guidance for crisis contexts; focused on locations rather than specific markets

Best for: basic needs and food security (humanitarian relief); 48 hours to 3 weeks post-crisis

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRC): https://www.icrc.org > Resource Center

Market Analysis Guidance (MAG)

Includes guidance for full program cycle; can cover multiple market systems in target area (less depth than EMMA or MSD)

Best for: humanitarian relief and economic recovery; first year following crisis

ICRC: https://www.icrc.org > Resource Center

Market Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis (MIFIRA)

For designing market-aware, distribution-based activities for food security

Best for: food security (humanitarian relief); crisis focus, can also be applied to recovery

http://barrett.dyson.cornell.edu/MIFIRA/

Market Assessment Toolkit for Vocational Training Providers and Youth

Resources and activities to assist planning for vocational training and youth programming

Best for: economic recovery and employment programs, youth focus

Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC): https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org > Resources

Participatory Market Systems Development (PMSD) approach

How-to on participatory mapping tools and techniques

Best for: engaging marginalized actors and participatory planning; recovery contexts

Practical Action: http://www.pmsdroadmap.org/

The Operational Guide for Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) Approach

Useful for in-depth analysis to inform intervention strategy; aimed at long-run programming (no specific focus on crisis contexts)

Best for: selecting and assessing specific markets, facilitation-based economic recovery; recovery and development contexts

Beam Exchange: https://beamexchange.org/guidance/m4pguide

Political economy analysis

Department for International Development (DfID) Political Economy Analysis: How to Note

Guidance for understanding how power and resources are allocated, can be included with other market analyses

Best for: range of interventions; prolonged crisis, recovery, and development

Overseas Development Institute: https://www.odi.org > Publications

Understanding Policy Change: How to Apply Political Economy Concepts in Practice

Introduces the core mechanisms and logic of political economy and teaches readers to recognize these mechanisms in their daily development-related work

Best for: overview of political economy thinking

World Bank: https://www.worldbank.org > Publications

Gender and markets

Gender in Value Chains

Toolkit for integrating a gender lens into a market assessment, such as an EMMA, PCMA, or MSD assessment

Best for: ensuring gender is included in market systems assessments

Agri Pro Focus: http://agriprofocus.com/intro > Knowledge Base

Guidelines for Integrating Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action

Assists livelihoods actors and communities affected by crises to coordinate, plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate essential actions for the prevention and mitigation of gender-based violence (GBV) across the livelihoods sector

Best for: overall view of incorporating GBV issues across the program cycle

Global Protection Cluster: http://www.globalprotectioncluster.org/ > Tools and Guidance > Essential Protection Guidance and Tools > Gender-Based violence

CLARA: Cohort Livelihoods and Risk Analysis

Guidance and tools for field practitioners wanting to assess, design, and monitor safe, gender-sensitive livelihoods interventions. Annex 3 of Guidance expands on EMMA tools to cover gender risk analysis.

Best for: gathering and analyzing gender data; emergency, can be applied to recovery context

WRC: https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/ > Resources > Livelihoods

Seed markets

Seed System Security Assessment

Useful for in-depth seed assessments for food security or input-focused programming

Best for: seeds; crisis and recovery

Seed System: http://seedsystem.org > Assessment Tools

Household needs assessment

Household Economy Analysis (HEA)

In-depth analysis of household needs; helps to create wealth and livelihood profiles for target groups; thorough household data collection

Best for: range of interventions and contexts

Household Economy Approach: http://www.heawebsite.org/about-household-economy-approach

Context monitoring (prices)

MARKit

Price monitoring guidance and templates

Best for: ongoing market price monitoring; range of contexts

Catholic Relief Services:http://www.crs.org/ > Research & Publications > Emergency Response and Recovery

WFP: Market Analysis Guidelines

General guidance and tools on market analysis, with greater focus on analyzing price trends over time; for users with some experience in market analysis

Best for: ongoing market price monitoring and food market assessments; range of contexts

World Food Programme: http://www.wfp.org/content/market-analysis-guidelines

Monitoring and evaluation

DCED Standard for Results Measurement

Useful for monitoring programs in complex market systems in a standard, systematic way

Donor Committee for Enterprise Development: http://www.enterprise-development.org/measuring-results-the-dced-standard/

Multi-sector assessment

Multi Cluster/Sector Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA)

Covers the dimensions of status and impact, vulnerabilities and risks, and trends and information gaps in humanitarian crises

Inter-Agency Standing Committee: https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/> Resources

Post-disaster Needs Assessment / Joint Rapid Needs Assessment

Standardized, comprehensive, post-disaster assessment addressing recovery needs related to infrastructure, shelter, livelihoods, and social and community services

United Nations Development Programme: http://www.undp.org/> Publications > Climate change and disaster risk reduction

Glossary

This glossary provides definitions for the commonly used terminology in the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards. These definitions are reflective; the common lexicon is based on widely accepted definitions in work related to economic development, microfinance, enterprise development, livelihoods, market development, agriculture, and food security. Many of these definitions, if not otherwise cited, are adapted from the website of the Microenterprise Development Office at USAID: www.microlinks.org. Definitions cited as MERS were developed by contributors to the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards.

Access: In financial services, access is measured by financial institutions’ outreach (in numbers) to micro and small enterprises, with products and services they can use profitably. The definition is similarly applied in enterprise development, in that access is measured by the number of enterprises that can profitably access products and services required for their business, including markets.
Assessment: ‘Assessment’ refers generally to research (both in person and secondary) conducted before and periodically during an economic recovery intervention on market systems, beneficiaries, and surrounding conditions (MERS). (See also Evaluation.)
Asset protection: Most often refers to preventing the sale or consumption of assets by transferring cash or assets (e.g. vouchers, food aid), but may also describe activities to physically protect natural and household assets and ensure access to larger scale or group assets (such as land, water, or group-managed facilities), as well as efforts to ensure that local laws and cultural norms do not endanger people’s assets.
Business: An occupation, profession, trade, or entity engaged in an economic activity for profit (see also Enterprise and Microenterprise).
Business linkages: Business linkages are mutually beneficial relationships between businesses at the same level of the value chain (horizontal) or at different levels of the chain (vertical) which address constraints at all levels of the chain to support win–win relationships. Business linkages are sometimes also referred to as market linkages. (See also Horizontal linkages and Vertical linkages).
Cash-based interventions¹: All programs where cash (or vouchers for goods or services) is directly provided to beneficiaries. In the context of humanitarian assistance, the term refers to the provision of cash or vouchers to individuals, households, or community recipients, not to governments or other state actors. CBI covers all modalities of cash-based assistance, including vouchers, but excludes remittances and microfinance in humanitarian interventions (though microfinance and money transfer institutions may be used for the actual delivery of cash). (See also Cash transfer.)
Cash transfer²: The provision of assistance in the form of money (either physical currency/cash or e-cash) to beneficiaries (individuals, households or communities). Cash transfers as a modality are distinct from vouchers and in-kind assistance.
Child labor³: Often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially, or morally dangerous and harmful to children, and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
Cooperatives⁴: A cooperative is an autonomous association of people united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. The cooperative model of enterprise can be applied to any business activity. Cooperatives exist in traditional economic sectors, such as agriculture, fisheries, consumer and financial services, housing, and production (workers’ cooperatives). They are also found in a wide range of sectors and activities, including car sharing, child care, health and social care, funerals, orchestras and philharmonics, schools, sports, tourism, utilities (e.g. electricity, water, gas), and transport (e.g. taxis, buses). (See also Group assets and Producer groups.)
Competitiveness: The ability of an enterprise or a country to compete successfully, based on price, quality, uniqueness, and/or other socially or environmentally valued standards, with other businesses or countries. Competitiveness is also referred to as sustainable growth in productivity that results in an improved standard of living for average citizens. Achieving and maintaining competitiveness depends on the ability to innovate. Since the competitive advantage of an enterprise depends on the business system and policy environment in which it operates, competitiveness at all levels is interdependent. Success at achieving competitive performance depends not only on enterprises’ ability to innovate but also on the performance of both upstream and downstream links in their respective value chains.
Coping strategies: Specific efforts that households employ to address disruptions to their sources of income. Common examples of potentially negative coping strategies are reducing daily food intake; consuming cheaper food; reducing household expenditures on necessary items, such as clothing, medical care, and education; and reducing the number of dependents in the household.
Corruption⁵: The abuse of entrusted power for private gain, including financial corruption, such as fraud, bribery, and kick-backs. Corruption also encompasses non-financial forms, such as the manipulation or diversion of humanitarian assistance to benefit non-target groups, the allocation of relief resources in exchange for sexual favors, preferential treatment in the assistance of or hiring processes for family members or friends, and the coercion and intimidation of staff or beneficiaries to turn a blind eye to or participate in corruption.
Decent work⁶: ‘Decent work’ sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace, and social protection for families; better prospects for personal development and social integration; freedom for people to express their concerns, organize, and participate in the decisions that affect their lives; and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.
Disaster risk reduction⁷: The concept and practice of reducing the risk of disaster through systematic efforts to analyze and manage causal factors. It involves reducing exposure to hazards, lessening the vulnerability of people and property, managing land and the environment wisely, and improving preparedness for adverse events.
Economic development: As a broad discipline, economic development is defined by different groups based on their target groups and fields of practice. Definitions of the term include: ‘Improvements in the efficiency of resource use so the same or greater output of goods and services is produced with smaller throughputs of natural, manufactured, and human capital’;⁸ and ‘the process whereby simple, low-income national economies are transformed into modern industrial economies. Although the term is sometimes used as a synonym for economic growth,⁹ generally it is employed to describe a change in a country’s economy involving qualitative as well as quantitative improvements.’¹⁰
Economic growth¹¹: ‘Quantitative change or expansion in a country’s economy. Economic growth is conventionally measured as the percentage increase in gross domestic product (GDP) or gross national product (GNP) during one year. An economy can either grow ‘extensively’ by using more resources (such as physical, human, or natural capital) or ‘intensively’ by using the same amount of resources more efficiently (productively). Intensive economic growth requires economic development.’
Economic recovery¹²: The process of stimulating the growth of an area’s local economy through developing markets, strengthening new and existing enterprises, and creating jobs in the private sector and public institutions, including reconstructing needed infrastructure that will allow for trade and commerce to take place in local, national, regional, and international markets. Economic recovery following conflict or disaster should be a transformative process of building back both better and differently, which requires ‘a mix of far-reaching economic, institutional, legal and policy reforms’ upon which to build self-sustaining development.
Enabling environment: An environment of policies, regulations, institutions, and overall economic governance, which allows for economic growth.
Enterprise¹³: An enterprise is any entity engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form. Enterprise development programs focus on self-employed people, family businesses, partnerships, or group businesses (e.g. associations, cooperatives, informal groups) that are regularly engaged in an economic activity. (See also Microenterprise for definitions of micro, small, and medium enterprises based on revenue and employee size.)
Enterprise development: Enterprise development entails supporting economic activities by individuals and businesses, ranging from self-employment to large commercial operations, whether formal or informal. This can involve directly supporting businesses but also refers to interventions that help an entire market system or value chain function more effectively and in a manner that helps the target beneficiaries to raise their incomes.
Evaluation: ‘Evaluation’ generally refers to post-intervention determinations of a program’s performance and effects, for example, outcomes or impact (MERS). (See also Assessment.)
Exit strategy: The plan or strategy for withdrawing relates to withdrawing from subsidizing an intervention, leaving behind sustainable improvements in the private sector.
Facilitator: This can be an institution or project that gives indirect support for private-sector development. Rather than providing services directly, a facilitator orchestrates interventions that build local capacity for providing commercial services and/or solutions (to recurrent constraints), preferably through existing providers in the private sector. Services and/or solutions can include access to markets, product development/design, technology access, training, consulting services, links to financial services, improved inputs, and/or advocacy services.
Fair wages¹⁴: These are wage levels and wage-fixing mechanisms that provide a living wage floor for workers, while complying with national wage regulations; ensure proper wage adjustments; and lead to balanced wage developments within a company (with regard to wage disparity, skills, individual and collective performance, and adequate internal communication and collective bargaining on wage issues).
Financial costs: Also called ‘cost of funds’, these are the costs of the funds raised by a microfinance institution to cover its lending. Depending on the context, this may include the interest costs paid to depositors and/or to other financial investors, the rate of inflation, or the opportunity cost of funds received as grants or soft loans from donors, governments, or charitable organizations.
Financial inclusion¹⁵: The provision of a full suite of good-quality financial services to all who are financially capable, by a range of providers.
Financial services: In the context of enterprise development, these services include credit, savings, remittances, insurance, leasing, and credit cards (see Microfinance). These services are generally targeted to low-income people but may also cover larger enterprises to create employment opportunities for low-income people.
Financial sustainability: The degree to which an organization collects sufficient revenues from its services to cover the full costs of its activities, including operating costs, cost of funds (see also Financial costs), and expected losses.
Formal sector / formal economy¹⁶: The formal sector or formal economy refers to regulated economic units (e.g. businesses) and workers that are regulated and protected. Put another way, the formal sector comprises economic activities and enterprises that are regulated and/or taxed by the government. (See also Informal sector / informal economy.)
Full financial sustainability: A situation in which the revenues an organization generates from its clients cover the full (opportunity) costs of its activities, thus allowing it to continue operating at a stable or growing rate without ongoing support from governments, donor agencies, or charitable organizations. When applied to a financial services institution, full financial sustainability requires that the interest and fees the institution collects for its lending equal or exceed the sum of its operational and financial costs, with the latter evaluated on an opportunity-cost basis.
Group assets: Assets owned formally or informally by a group of individuals engaged together in a business. Examples of typical group-managed assets are drip/sprinkler irrigation systems, packaging equipment, warehouses, and generators. Group asset transfers tend to be larger in scale (value and size) than individual asset transfers and more concentrated in one location; additional attention before the transfer must therefore be given to evaluating local market impact and implications.
Horizontal linkages: Market and non-market interactions and relationships between businesses or individuals performing the same function in a market system (e.g. among multiple wholesalers). Horizontal linkages tend to be longer term, cooperative arrangements among businesses that involve interdependence, trust, and resource pooling in order to jointly accomplish common goals. Both formal and informal horizontal linkages can help reduce transaction costs, create economies of scale, and contribute to the increased efficiency and competitiveness of a sector. Such linkages also facilitate collective learning and risk sharing while increasing the potential for upgrading and innovation.
Indirect interventions: Interventions that engage with traders, wholesalers, officials, or policymakers – any party that is not a targeted ultimate beneficiary of the intervention – and which lead to benefits for the ultimate target population. An example of an indirect intervention is the rehabilitation of key infrastructure links in order to increase trade and create jobs for crisis-affected individuals (MERS).
Impact: An intended change in a high-level program objective, such as enterprise growth or household income. It should be distinguished from intermediate outputs of projects, such as the number of producers organized or the number of trainings provided.
Impact assessment: Involves assessing the impact of a project and proving attribution by comparing actual outcomes with a counterfactual – an estimate of what would have happened if the project had not been implemented. The best way of assessing project impact is through a longitudinal sample survey that uses an experimental or quasi-experimental methodology to compare a sample of project participants with a non-participating but otherwise similar control group. Impact is sometimes measured by canvassing participant and/or expert opinion. While such qualitative inquiries can effectively supplement longitudinal surveys, they are not satisfactory substitutes for the longitudinal approach.
Implementing organization: In the context of economic recovery, any government or non-government organization that directly provides assistance to microenterprises, or performs other activities intended to improve the environment for microenterprise performance.
Interfirm cooperation: Defined as a strategic agreement between two or several businesses involving exchange and/or sharing or co-development of products, technologies, or services; and covering a variety of arrangements between micro, small, medium, and large enterprises, including licensing and sub-contracting relationships, technology, marketing, and other forms of strategic partnering. The primary motivation for this cooperation is to enhance competitive position or market power, decrease transaction cost, and provide access to organizational knowledge and learning. Interfirm cooperation could be an effective mechanism for capacity building in areas such as technology, product and process quality improvements, marketing, and managerial know-how, particularly for micro, small, and medium enterprises. (See also Business linkages, Cooperatives, and Producer groups.)
Internally displaced persons: Internally displaced persons are individuals or groups of people who have been forced or obliged to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border.
Informal sector / informal economy: The informal sector or economy, also called the ‘second economy,’ refers to work that is not regulated or taxed by the government. It covers a multiplicity of activities and different types of relationship to work and to employment. The informal sector may include the self-employed (in their own activities and family businesses), paid workers in informal enterprises, formal-sector employees with informal second economic activities, unpaid workers in family businesses, casual workers without fixed employers, and sub-contract workers linked to formal or informal enterprises. The vast majority of the world’s workers, including the poorest, are in the informal sector.¹⁷ (See also Formal sector / formal economy.)
Lean data: The process of embedding measurement and data collection in a company’s core business activities and using the right tools to rapidly gather information, to improve insights into performance while minimizing time and cost of traditional measurement approaches (MERS).
Livelihoods¹⁸: A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including material and social resources), and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustained when it can last through and recover from various stresses and shocks, and preserve or enhance assets and capabilities, while not undermining the natural resources base. UNHCR gives the following definition: ‘Livelihoods are activities that allow people to secure the basic necessities of life, such as food, water, shelter and clothing. Engaging in livelihoods activities means acquiring the knowledge, skills, social network, raw materials, and other resources to meet individual or collective needs on a sustainable basis with dignity.’¹⁹
Market²⁰: Also called the ‘marketplace’, the market is any formal or informal structure (not necessarily a physical space) in which buyers and sellers exchange goods, labor, or services for cash or other goods. The word ‘market’ can simply mean the place in which goods or services are exchanged. Markets are sometimes defined by forces of supply and demand rather than geographical location, e.g. ‘imported cereals make up 40 per cent of the market’.
Market analysis²¹: The process of assessing and understanding the key features and characteristics of a market system so that predictions can be made about how prices, availability, and access will perform, and decisions made about whether or how to intervene. The term ‘market assessment’ may also be used to describe this process. (See also Value chain analysis.)
Market assessment²²: This is a diagnostic tool that identifies current, recent, and pre-crisis market conditions and trends; supply and demand for goods and services; the characteristics and bottlenecks of supply and value chains; the impacts of crisis on markets; the viability of various income-generating opportunities, occupations and business development; and the extent of access and barriers for crisis-affected populations.
Market-based programming: Also called ‘market-based intervention’, this describes projects that work through or support local markets. It covers all types of engagement with market systems, ranging from actions to deliver a relief intervention to proactively strengthening and catalyzing local market systems or market hubs.
Market chain: See also Sub-sector, Value chain, and Market system.
Market development: Market development, as defined by The SEEP Network, is a sub-field of enterprise-sector development, in which development programs seek to help micro and small enterprises participate in, and benefit more from, the existing and potential markets in which they do business (including input and support markets, as well as final markets). Recognizing that micro and small enterprises do not operate in isolation but rather are part of a larger market, market development involves implementing programs that take market forces and trends into account. This may require that programs work not only at the level of individual small enterprises or households but also with larger enterprises, associations, or government institutions that engage in and influence markets. The ultimate goal of market development programs is to stimulate sustainable economic growth that reduces poverty, primarily by ensuring that small enterprise owners and their employees take part in the growth and reap high rewards.
Market integration: A market system is integrated when linkages between local, regional, and national market actors are working well. In an integrated market system, any imbalance of supply and demand in one area is compensated by the relatively easy movement of goods from other nearby and regional markets.
Market linkages: See also Business linkages, Value chain analysis, and Sub-sector.
Market rates: The prevailing interest rate or fee that is offered in the market reflecting the supply and demand for that service and the cost to deliver that service.
Market system: The complex web of people, trading structures, and rules that determines how a particular good or service is produced, accessed, and exchanged. It can be thought of as a network of market actors, supported by various forms of infrastructure and services, interacting within the context of rules and norms that shape their business environment. (See also Value chain and Sub-sector.)
Medium enterprise: See Microenterprise and Small and medium enterprises.
Microenterprise: A very small enterprise owned and operated by poor people, usually in the informal sector, with 10 or fewer workers, including the microentrepreneur and any unpaid family workers. This can include crop production, as long as the activity otherwise meets the definition (USAID). In addition, the World Bank defines a microenterprise as having total assets of up to US$100,000, and total annual sales of up to $100,000 (noting that these numbers, while broadly consistent with those used by most other international financial institutions, depend heavily on choice of this (or any other) definition).²³ The European Commission defines a microenterprise as an enterprise that employs fewer than 10 people with an annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total that does not exceed €2 million.²⁴ (See also Small and medium enterprises.)
Microenterprise development: Any activity undertaken by donors, host-country governments, or non-government organizations to improve the lives of poor people by encouraging the formation and/or improved profitability of micro and small enterprises.
Microentrepreneur: Owner and operator of a microenterprise, sometimes an individual who is economically, socially, or educationally disadvantaged, and who usually lacks access to the formal commercial banking system and traditional business development services.
Microfinance: The provision of financial services adapted to the needs of low-income people, such as microentrepreneurs, especially the provision of small loans, the acceptance of small savings deposits, and provision of payment services needed by microentrepreneurs and other people who may lack access to mainstream financial services.
Microfinance institution/organization (MFI or MFO): An organization whose activities consist wholly or in significant part of the provision of financial services to microentrepreneurs.
Modality²⁵: Form of transfer of assets (cash, vouchers, in kind, or combination.)
Operational costs: In a financial services context, the portion of a program’s costs that covers personnel and other administrative costs, depreciation of fixed assets, and loan losses.
Operational sustainability/self-sufficiency: A situation in which an organization generates sufficient revenues from clients to cover all its operational costs.
Opportunity costs: The value of a given set of resources in their best alternative use. In the case of economic recovery intervention beneficiaries, this refers to the value of other production they could have done with the assets in question (e.g. other activities they could have done with their time or another crop they could have grown on their land).
Phased approach: A programming approach based on the principle that any project may be broken down into a series of steps. Each phase has a clear start point, some well-defined tasks, and a defined end point.
Private sector²⁶: This comprises entities run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit. By contrast, enterprises that are part of the state are part of the public sector, and private, non-profit organizations are regarded as part of the voluntary sector. (Governments, state enterprises, and non-profit organizations are all involved in various market systems, however; for example, as employers, buyers of goods and services, and sometimes as providers of goods and services.)
Producer groups: Individuals who are engaged in producing similar products who are organized to achieve economies of scale and production or marketing efficiencies. By (cooperating) organizing into producer groups, micro and small enterprises are often able to: 1) improve their access to and reduce the cost of raw materials through bulk purchasing; 2) increase their efficiency by sharing production skills and resources; 3) enhance the quality and marketability of their products through common production standards and market-driven product specifications; 4) increase access to available financing; 5) obtain critical business services through embedded or fee-for-service mechanisms; and 6) improve their market position by having the quality, quantity, and types of products that multiple buyers demand. (See also Cooperatives and Interfirm cooperation.)
Productive assets: Productive assets are defined as resources that are used to generate income and profit. People can make use of assets in two ways: they can own or directly control them, or they can have access to resources that do not belong to them.
Rapid assessment²⁷: Rapid assessment is conducted through visits to a number of sites to collect primary (new) data through key informant and group interviews and, sometimes, through questionnaires to a limited number of households. Its purpose is to gain a sufficient understanding of the situation to decide on the type, scale, and timing of response needed, if any. A rapid assessment would normally produce a report within a week when the area is small and/or the population homogeneous, and up to six weeks when the area or population affected is large or heterogeneous.
Remittances²⁸: Defined as ‘income or goods received by individuals or households from other parties who live elsewhere,’ remittances typically consist of money that migrants earn abroad and send to their families at home through formal transfers (i.e. banks and transfer operators) or informal transfers (i.e. through social or unofficial channels).
Resilience²⁹: This is the ability of people, households, communities, countries, and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth.
Sensitive ecosystems inventories (SEIs)³⁰: SEIs systematically identify and map at-risk and ecologically fragile terrestrial ecosystems in a given area, with the purpose of encouraging land-use decisions that will ensure the continued integrity of these ecosystems.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs): The World Bank defines a small enterprise as an enterprise with up to 50 employees, total assets of up to $3 million, and total sales of up to $3 million, while a medium enterprise has up to 300 employees, total assets of up to $15 million, and total annual sales of up to $15 million.³¹ The European Commission defines a small enterprise as an enterprise which employs fewer than 50 people and has an annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total that does not exceed €10 million, while a medium enterprise employs fewer than 250 people, with an annual turnover not exceeding €50 million, and/or with an annual balance sheet total not exceeding €43 million.³² Also sometimes abbreviated as MSME – micro, small, and medium enterprises (see also Enterprise and Microenterprise).
Shock: Usually sudden, irregular events that significantly affect a household’s or enterprise’s ability to generate income by regular means. At the level of an economy or market, a shock is an event that disrupts established trading patterns and trends. The effects of a shock will vary among households, enterprises, and markets.
Social entrepreneurship³³: Social entrepreneurs drive social innovation and transformation in various fields, including education, health, environment, and enterprise development. They pursue poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal, business methods, and the courage to innovate and overcome traditional practices. A social entrepreneur, similar to a business entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable organizations, which are set up as either not-for-profits or companies.
Sub-sector³⁴: A sub-sector can be defined as all the businesses that buy and sell from each other in order to supply a particular set of products or services to final consumers. (See also Value chain.)
Subsidy: In the context of economic recovery, when all or part of the cost of a good or service is paid by someone other than the user (e.g. an NGO or the government) such that the end user does not pay the full price (MERS).
Subsidized credit: The provision of loans on the basis of interest rates and fees that fail to cover the full long-run costs of providing those loans.
Sustainability: The sustainability of a project impact requires the development of local capacity to address recurring constraints. Recurring value-chain constraints should be addressed with efforts at policy and/or regulatory reform and commercial solutions to supporting (business and financial) services and improved inputs. Moreover, interventions should be temporary and an explicit exit strategy needs to be developed upfront (not at the end of the project) to ensure that an impact is sustainable once project activities end.
Upgrading: Refers to a change in mindset, improvements in skills, development of new designs or products based on knowledge of final customers, employment of new technologies, adoption of new functions within a value chain, and other actions that lead to greater competitiveness. Upgrading can involve product development, technology transfer, workforce training, effective backward linkages to suppliers, and the use of information technology to enable businesses to identify and compete in new markets. Organizing micro and small enterprises is often a first step in establishing effective backward linkages to their suppliers.
Value added: See also Upgrading.
Value chain: Describes the full range of activities that is required to bring a product or service from its conception to its end use and beyond, and involves design, production, marketing, distribution, and support to the final consumer. The activities that comprise a value chain can be contained within a single enterprise or divided among different enterprises. Value chain activities can be contained within a single geographical location or spread over wider areas. Global value chains are divided among multiple businesses and spread across wide swaths of geographic space. Evidence shows that global value chains had become much more prevalent and elaborate by the end of the twentieth century. Today, the process of economic development cannot be isolated from these global systems. This means that companies and workers in widely distant locations affect one another more than they have done in the past. Some of these effects are quite straightforward, as when a business from one country establishes a new factory or engineering center in another country. Some are more complex, as when a business in one country contracts with a business in another country to coordinate production in plants owned by yet another company in a third country, and so on (see also Sub-sector).
Value chain analysis: This focuses on the dynamics of interlinkages within a productive sector, especially the way in which companies and countries are globally integrated. While it includes a description of actors in the value chain and an analysis of constraints along the chain (as do traditional sectoral analyses), a value chain analysis overcomes an important weakness of traditional analysis, which tends to be static and limited to national boundaries. Value chain analysis concentrates on interlinkages and, by doing so, uncovers the dynamic flow of economic, organizational, and coercive activities between producers within different sectors, even on a global scale. (See also Market analysis.)
Vertical linkages: Links between actors at different levels of a value chain or market system, for example, buyers and sellers. In addition to buying and selling activities, vertical linkages provide for the exchange of knowledge, information, and technical, financial, and business services.
Vulnerable groups: Vulnerable populations are defined as those groups of people who are typically excluded, disadvantaged or marginalized based on their economic, environmental, social, or cultural characteristics. While many groups fit this description (e.g. people with disabilities, people living with HIV, and refugees), very poor populations, disadvantaged women, and at-risk youth are the three groups commonly targeted by development programs. It is important to consider that these groups are not homogeneous and not all individuals within these groups are necessarily vulnerable. In particular, there are many women and youth whose social context and individual circumstances do not make them vulnerable.

Notes

1.

Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) (no date) ‘Glossary of cash transfer programme terminology’, <http://www.cashlearning.org/resources/glossary>.

2.

Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) (no date) ‘Glossary of cash transfer programme terminology’, <http://www.cashlearning.org/resources/glossary>.

3.

International Labour Organization (ILO) (2017) ‘Topics’, <http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/lang--en/index.htm>.

4.

International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), http://ica.coop/en/whats-co-op/co-operative-identity-values-principles

5.

Transparency International (2016) <http://www.transparency.org/>.

6.

International Labour Organization (ILO) (2017) ‘Topics’, <http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/lang--en/index.htm>.

7.

Sphere Project (2011) ‘Glossary’, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response, <http://www.sphereproject.org/handbook/glossary/?l=D&page=2>.

8.

UNESCO, <http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/extras/tlsf_glossary.html>

9.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/economic-growth>

10.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/economic-development>

11.

Soubbotina, Tatyana P. (2004) Beyond economic growth: an introduction to sustainable development. WBI learning resources series. Washington DC: World Bank, <http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/454041468780615049/Beyond-economic-growth-an-introduction-to-sustainable-development>.

12.

Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) (2009) Building Livelihoods: A Field Manual for Practitioners in Humanitarian Settings, New York: WRC.

13.

European Commission (2003) ‘Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (notified under document number C(2003) 1422)’, EUR-Lex, <http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32003H0361:EN:NOT>.

14.

Fair Wage Network (no date) ‘Definition of fair wages’, <http://www.fair-wage.com/en/fair-wage-approach-menu/definition-of-fair-wages.html>.

15.

Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) (no date) ‘Glossary of cash transfer programme terminology’, <http://www.cashlearning.org/resources/glossary>.

16.

Chen, M.A. (2007) ‘Rethinking the informal economy: linkages with the formal economy and the formal regulatory environment’, DESA Working Paper, no. 46, ST/ESA/2007/DWP/46, New York: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, <http://un.org/esa/desa/papers/2007/wp46_2007.pdf>.

17.

Women in Informal Employment, <http://www.wiego.org>, and the ILO (2017) ‘Informal economy’, <http://ilo.org/global/topics/employment-promotion/informal-economy/lang--en/index.htm>..

18.

UNDP, Guidance Note on Recovery, Livelihood, http://www.unisdr.org/files/16771_16771guidancenoteonrecoveryliveliho.pdf

19.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (2014) Global Strategy for Livelihoods: A UHNCR Strategy 2014–2018, <http://www.unhcr.org/530f107b6.pdf>.

20.

International Rescue Committee (IRC) (2016) Revised Pre-crisis Market Analysis (PCMA), <http://www.emma-toolkit.org/sites/default/files/bundle/PMCA_FINAL_WEB.pdf>.

21.

Adapted from Albu, M. (2010) Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis Toolkit, Rugby and Oxford: Practical Action Publishing and Oxfam GB.

22.

UNDP, Livelihoods and Economic Recovery in Crisis Situations, http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/crisis%20prevention/20130215_UNDP%20LER_guide.pdf

23.

World Bank, <http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/819161468766822276/pdf/multi0page.pdf>.

24.

European Commission (2003) ‘Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (notified under document number C(2003) 1422)’, EUR-Lex, <http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32003H0361:EN:NOT>.

25.

Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) (no date) ‘Glossary of cash transfer programme terminology’, <http://www.cashlearning.org/resources/glossary>.

26.

Wikipedia (2016b) ‘Private sector’, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_sector>.

27.

Sphere Project (2011) ‘Glossary’, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response, <http://www.sphereproject.org/handbook/glossary/?l=D&page=2>.

28.

Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) (2009) Building Livelihoods: A Field Manual for Practitioners in Humanitarian Settings, New York: WRC.

29.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (2015) ‘Resilience at USAID’, <https://scms.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1867/06.30.2015%20-%20Resilience%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf>.

30.

Ministry of Environment (2016) ‘Sensitive ecosystems inventories’, British Columbia Government, <http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/sei/>.

31.

World Bank, ‘Small and Medium Enterprise Development’, <http://www2.ifc.org/sme/html/sme_definitions.html>.

32.

European Commission (2003) ‘Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (notified under document number C(2003) 1422)’, EUR-Lex, <http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32003H0361:EN:NOT>.

33.

Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship (no date) ‘What is a social entrepreneur?’, <http://www.schwabfound.org/content/what-social-entrepreneur>.

34.

Lusby, F. and Panlibuton, H. (2004) Promoting Commercially Viable Solutions to Sub-Sector and Enterprise Development Constraints, Arlington, VA: Action for Enterprise.

Standards Development Task Force

The revision of the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards and the production of the third edition would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of all the individuals who have been involved, in one way or another, in this revision process. We would like to sincerely thank the 150-plus practitioners and leading experts that contributed to this broad consultative process and attended the regional consultation workshops held in Washington DC, Geneva, Dakar, Panama City, New Delhi, Beirut, and London. Acknowledgement should also be given to the expert readers who provided valuable comments on drafts for the MERS handbook. Finally, we would like to extend our utmost gratitude to the following people who have played such a pivotal role in this revision process by contributing their time, expertise, and energy to developing the third edition (note that some individuals have since left the organizations listed here; however, they are mentioned to give credit to the organization’s commitment):

Technical Working Group Members

Kyhl Amosson, World Vision International

Nicholas Anderson, Save the Children

Ziad Ayoubi, UNHCR

Dina Brick, Catholic Relief Services

Deena Burjojee, Access Alliance LLC

Karri Byrne, Independent Consultant

Oscar Caccavale, World Food Program

Ruth Campbell, ACDI/VOCA

Jerry Cole, Red Rose

Mayada El-Zoghni, CGAP

Alfred Hamadziripi, World Vision International

Nicole Hark, Lutheran World Relief

Shoshana Hecker, Hecker Consulting

Alison Hemberger, Mercy Corps

Christopher Herby, American Red Cross

Christine Knudsen, Sphere Project

Emma Jowett, Independent Consultant

David Leege, Catholic Relief Services

Meredith Maynard, Relief International

Scott Merrill, CARE

Lili Mohiddin, Independent Consultant

Jenny Morgan, The SEEP Network

Jan Morrow, Samaritan’s Purse

Stefanie Plant, International Rescue Committee

Zaki Raheem, DAI

Regina Saavedra, UNHCR

Tom Shaw, Catholic Relief Services

Barri Shorey, International Rescue Committee

Eaw Sierzynska, Global Communities

Emily Sloane, International Rescue Committee

Matthew Soursourian, CGAP

Louise Sperling, Catholic Relief Services

Alexa Swift, Mercy Corps

Alexi Taylor-Grosman, Trickle Up

MERS Steering Committee

Ziad Ayoubi, UNHCR

Karri Byrne, Independent Consultant

Alison Hemberger, Mercy Corps

Joseph Mariampillai, Relief International

Scott Merrill, CARE

Tom Shaw, Catholic Relief Services

Julien Schopp, InterAction

Lead Facilitator: Sarah Ward, Independent Consultant

About SEEP

SEEP is a global learning network. We support strategies that create new and better opportunities for vulnerable populations, especially women and the rural poor, to participate in markets and improve the quality of their life.

Founded in 1985, SEEP was a pioneer in the micro-credit movement and helped build the foundation of the financial inclusion efforts of today. In the last three decades, our members have continued to serve as a testing ground for innovative strategies that promote inclusion, develop competitive markets, and enhance the livelihood potential of the world’s poor.

SEEP’s 118 member organizations are active in more than 170 countries worldwide. They work together and with other stakeholders to mobilize knowledge and foster innovation, creating opportunities for meaningful collaboration and, above all, for scaling impact.

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