Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis Toolkit

This Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis (EMMA) was conducted by Oxfam in Bangladesh, with support from national and local partners, with funding from the Empowering Local and National Humanitarian Actors (ELNHA) programme.

This Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis (EMMA) was conducted by Oxfam in Bangladesh, with support from national and local partners, with funding from the Empowering Local and National Humanitarian Actors (ELNHA) programme.

More than half of the population in southern Sudan lives below the poverty line. The high household reliance on cereals makes the population highly vulnerable to crop failure and abnormal price movements. This assessment applies learning from the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa to the South Sudanese context with the aim of supporting more effective, timely and appropriate responses to slow onset recurrent crisis via a pre-crisis market analysis. This study focused on the agricultural labor market system in Warrap and Western Bahr el Ghazal States. Its findings suggest that the agricultural labor market system is not sufficient to cover the gap in household income even in baseline years, let alone emergency years. The agricultural labor market is fragile, and floods, drought and insecurity all reduce the demand for labor. Given the complexity of the agricultural labor system and the high variability among states, and even counties, there is no simple solution to address the challenges noted. This assessment recommends more detailed research, including an HEA study, as well as the provision of agricultural inputs such as seeds and tools and appropriate food assistance.

The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is expected to exceed one million by the end of 2013. Tensions between host and refugee populations are expected to rise as competition over jobs and resources becomes even more important to the survival of both communities. This EMMA assessment was launched to analyze the key market systems upon which refugees and vulnerable host communities rely for income in the North and Bekaa Governorates of Lebanon in order to identify opportunities for humanitarian agencies to promote market-based income-earning possibilities for host and refugee populations. This report provides a summary of the findings for three market systems that are critical for refugee and Lebanese host communities as source of income, namely construction labor, agricultural labor, and service-sector labor. The opportunities for promoting or strengthening livelihoods related to the construction, services, or agricultural labor sectors are very limited. Each of these sectors has been significantly impacted by the crisis in Syria and is not capable of absorbing additional workers at a livable wage. Despite this bleak outlook, the EMMA makes several recommendations for narrowing the household income gap through vocational training, market-smart humanitarian programs, household financial assistance programs and the strengthening of local labor markets.

The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon is expected to exceed one million by the end of 2013. Tensions between host and refugee populations are expected to rise as competition over jobs and resources becomes even more important to the survival of both communities. This EMMA assessment was launched to analyze the key market systems upon which refugees and vulnerable host communities rely for income in the North and Bekaa Governorates of Lebanon in order to identify opportunities for humanitarian agencies to promote market-based income-earning possibilities for host and refugee populations. This report focuses specifically on construction labor and finds that this market system has been drastically impacted by the crisis in Syria and that construction-related income-earning opportunities are now very limited. It recommends building construction-related livelihood opportunities into humanitarian programs, particularly shelter and rehabilitation programs with construction components. It also suggests linking refugees and Lebanese workers with employment services and training.

This document presents the key findings and lessons learned from a pre-crisis market assessment that Oxfam conducted in Guatemala that attempted to look at how both emergency and long-term development needs can be addressed through markets programming. The impact of the assessment has been predominantly positive. It has led to been increased interest from other agencies in the region to both promoting and using cash transfer programs. Key successes included beginning the process with an HEA analysis, conducting a vulnerability and risk assessment and conducting a power analysis. Though both the GEM and EMMA approaches gave huge added value to the joint market analysis, there is still thinking to be done of better ways to integrate these for maximum impact. This integrated process can certainly help to approach programs that support sustainable livelihoods and resilience building. Yet agencies must be realistic in matching aspirations with capacity. Likewise, they must be ready – programmatically and financially – to take a long term approach to working with communities.

When a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, an estimated 220,000 people died, and a further 1.5 million people were displaced. This case study looks at the EMMA that was undertaken in Haiti three weeks after the earthquake and the emergency responses implemented as a result by both the IRC and Oxfam, before sharing key successes and lessons learned about how to make EMMAs as effective as possible.

This case study presents learning from an EMMA market assessment carried out in Liberia in April 2011, focused on imported rice and agricultural labor. It presents key findings for the rice market system before discussing successes and lessons learned from the exercise.

More than three decades of armed conflict in Sri Lanka led to a steady deterioration of the food security situation along with social and economic infrastructure in Sri Lanka's Northern Province. Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu are two districts in the north that were severely affected in the final phase of the war during January to May 2009. In mid-2009, resettlement programs began returning those displaced in the war to their home communities in these two districts. This report presents the results and recommendations of an EMMA of the masonry labor market that seeks to understand how well the current masonry market is functioning relative to the demand for labor and whether there are opportunities to promote job creation in the sector. It concludes that the masonry market is functioning well; however, there is a scarcity of skilled masonry laborers in the region due to the extensive training period and lack of interest in the local community. This assessment concludes with two main recommendations, namely to support vocational training service providers to train unemployed youths in masonry, and to link these institutions with chief masons for advanced on-the-job training opportunities. Such recommendations will speed the engagement of local unemployed workers in the masonry sector and benefit those resettled families in need of homes and public buildings.