The Emergency Market Mapping and Analysis (EMMA) Review and Case Studies
In recent years, international humanitarian agencies have been re-examining their responses to emergencies. Globally, most organisations now recognise the centrality of markets in sustaining
people’s lives and livelihoods. However, there has also been a subsequent realization that unless emergency responses (both cash and in-kind) are designed with a good understanding of key markets, they may inadvertently damage livelihoods, jobs and businesses, thus undermining livelihood rehabilitation, foregoing opportunities to lay the foundations for early recovery and development interventions, and prolonging dependence on outside assistance.
Developed for non-market specialists, the EMMA Toolkit was designed to be used in sudden-onset crises and has the concept of rapid and realistic, ‘good enough’ analysis at its core. Using a combination of existing tools, from seasonal calendars to market systems maps, the EMMA combines gap analysis (people’s uncovered needs) and market system analysis (markets’ core value chain, infrastructures and supporting services, and markets’ environment and rules) to offer a systemic and comprehensive understanding of the constraints and capacity of critical market systems. Based on this analysis, EMMA offers a series of response recommendations that detail how far the critical markets analysed can help deliver humanitarian assistance, which areas of the market may need additional support in this aid delivery and can further suggest ways in which interventions may strengthen the market systems in the longer term.
To refine the future priorities and strategy for the development and dissemination of the EMMA toolkit, to account for the large investment in the EMMA process and to further measure the impact of the EMMA toolkit on emergency work, an external review of the EMMA work was carried out in October – November 2011. The summary paper aims to summarise the key findings of the EMMA review.
Also available are three EMMA case studies.
For more information, please contact Emily Henderson (Oxfam) or Gregory Matthews (IRC).
To purchase the EMMA Toolkit: