Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis Toolkit

In December 2013, conflict along tribal lines started in Juba, the capital of South Sudan and soon spread to six of the country's ten states. Unity State's Leer County was badly affected by active conflict at the beginning of 2014. In Leer, the county's capitol, large traders have fled, and the main trade routes are blocked by active conflict and localized flooding. This report presents the results of an EMMA that Mercy Corps conducted in Leer County on the livestock, sorghum and sheep and goat markets, which traditionally provide a means of survival for vulnerable households. It proposes a number of response options designed to support the food security of households in Leer County. Depending on how the conflict evolves over the next few months, it recommends one or more of the following options: direct support to conflict-affected households to access key food items and assets and to diversify income sources; support to a variety of market actors to restore market function and possibly strengthen market systems, including support services; and support to farmers to increase agricultural production.

The Syrian conflict and violent conflicts within Iraq have related in the movement of almost one million Syrian refugees and Iraqi IDPs into Kurdistan in recent years. The Danish Refugee Council commissioned this EMMA in order to assess opportunities in livelihoods generation and access to income for Syrian refugees and IDPs living in and outside of camps, in order to inform its livelihoods programming. The influx of refugees and IDPs has increased pressure on the labor market in KRI. This is exacerbated by a drop in demand for construction due to conflicts between the KRI and the central Iraqi governments and a drop in demand for hospitality services due to insecurity in the region and the relative economic standstill. Though many NGOs are offering humanitarian assistance and cash for work programs to the target population, these interventions are of relatively low economic benefit to beneficiaries and are not a long-term solution. This assessment recommends the following responses in order to improve access to labor markets and income generation for Syrian refugees and Iraqi IDPs: improved efforts to target IDPs and refugees in non-camp settings with humanitarian assistance; raising the target groups' awareness of locally available jobs and building their capacity to find decent jobs; promoting job placement mechanisms; partnering with private sector actors to invest in potentially valuable value chains; promoting innovation in small enterprises; conducting market analyses on access to credit for small businesses and on agriculture and related labor; and advocating with humanitarian actors for a phase-out of short-term interventions.

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On December 15, 2013, fighting broke out in the South Sudanese capital of Juba, and the conflict quickly spread to other areas of the country. Nearly 709,000 people were displaced within the country, leading to a food security crisis and extreme insecurity. Mercy Corps, Goal and SPEDP organized this EMMA assessment between February and March 2014 in Abyei Administrative Area, Western Bahr el Ghazal and Northern Bahr el Ghazal. Sorghum was selected as a critical market system for the assessment given its importance for food security for the local households. During the emergency year, the market was not only affected by the crisis, but also by a severe flood. This assessment recommends in-kind provision of sorghum to increase food availability; cash transfers to increase purchasing power; commodity vouchers for extremely vulnerable households; and direct distribution of seeds and commodity vouchers for tools during the upcoming planting season.

Very brief summary notes on an EMMA conducted on the olive oil market system at the start of the Syrian crisis.