Getting Practical About Market Systems Resilience: Learning from Three Case Studies

As crises become more global and frequent in nature and economies more interdependent, the need to elevate the ways that market systems adapt to and proactively prepare for shocks and stresses is becoming more important than ever. USAID and its implementing partners have responded to this need, developing foundational analytical and measurement frameworks and learning and training resources on market systems resilience (MSR) and a recent state of the field map that highlights 35 projects in 26 countries applying MSR through implementation and research. But what is MSR translating to in practice?

On Wednesday, September 28 at 9:00 am EDT, Marketlinks held a webinar featuring leading MSR practitioners who contributed their experiences and learning around strengthening resilience of market systems. Speakers covered examples of programs taking a systems approach to improve resilience for target groups, integrating resilience into the design and implementation of market systems programs, and how local systems strengthening and MSR are mutually reinforcing. 

Moderator:

Margie Brand
Vikāra Institute

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Margie Brand is the Executive Director of Vikāra Institute, specializing in supporting sustainable market systems development through learning and behavior change initiatives. Based between Washington, D.C. and Cape Town, South Africa. Among others, Margie supports market systems resilience programming, research, curriculum, and tool development Margie has worked in over 20 countries across Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, with a focus on her home continent of Africa.

Speakers: 

Sue Chávez
ACDI/VOCA

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Sue Chávez is a Tourism Professional with undergraduate studies in Tourism Administration and postgraduate degrees in Finance and Quality Management of Tourism micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). She has more than 10 years of experience working with the public-private tourism sector at the level of National Tourism Agencies, serving as Director of the National Chamber of Tourism of Honduras and as Marketing Manager for the Honduran Tourism Board, and as a professor in the Central America Technological University.

In the last five years, she has worked on economic development programs with a focus on tourism and non-agricultural services, currently serving as Tourism and Creative Industries and Labor Intermediation coordinator for ACDI/VOCA under the Transforming Market Systems Activity funded by USAID.

Senbeto Funte
Mercy Corps

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Senbeto Funte is a development practitioner with over 15 years of practical experience in a wide range of development activities mainly focused on supporting the livestock market system development in Ethiopia. Currently, Senbeto is leading the livestock production and marketing component of the Feed the Future Resilience in Pastoral Areas (RiPA North) program in Ethiopia. He has worked on programs led by local governments and NGOs targeting livestock market system development in the pastoral, agropastoral, and intensive crop/livestock production systems in the country. He has worked in live animal trade, milk, and livestock production inputs (feed and animal health) markets.

Bernard McCaul
GOAL Global

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Bernard McCaul is GOAL’s Deputy Director for Program Design and Innovation and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Bernard has an Honors degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering (1993), a Master degree in Engineering Science (1995 – Use of Advanced Technology in Engineering), a Diploma in Project Management from Engineers Ireland (IEI, 2005), is a Chartered Member of Engineers Ireland (2008) and has a Diploma in Markets for the Poor from Springhouse for Business in Development (2016). 

Bernard has 27 years of professional experience both as a consulting engineer providing design and contract management leadership for major water services and public-private partnership projects and also in international Aid and Development with International NGO GOAL Global. Bernard has led the design, management, and oversight of over 50 international aid projects since 2001, including projects in disaster risk reduction and Early Warning and Response, the Blue and Green Economies, Sustainable Urban Development, Social Infrastructure and Community Contracting, Governance, and Resilient Health. Bernard leads GOAL Global’s Program Innovation LAB and was the lead author of the Analysis of Resilience of Communities to Disaster (ARC-D) Toolkit, the Resilience for Social Systems (R4S) Approach, and the Resilient and Inclusive Neighborhood Approach (RINA). From May 2019 to September 2020, Bernard was Acting Director for International Programs for GOAL Global, managing an international portfolio of 115 projects and €160Million across Africa, the Middle East, and LAC. Bernard lives in Honduras with his wife and three daughters.

Gabriela Cáceres
GOAL Global

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Gabriela is the Program Innovation Advisor at GOAL. A Chartered Environmental Engineer with a master’s degree in Demography and Development, Gabriela has eleven years of experience in monitoring and evaluating of programs and resilience measurement at the community and systems level. Gabriela has supported local planning for development, market systems resilience, and urban resilience programming, training, and providing technical advice on resilience measurement in over eight countries across Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Gabriela collaborated with GOAL in the development of the Resilience for Social Systems (R4S) Approach and the Analysis of the Resilience of Communities to Disasters (ARC-D) Toolkit.

Hayden Aaronson
ACDI/VOCA

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Hayden Aaronson is a Managing Director overseeing ACDI/VOCA’s Market and Food Systems technical team, approaches, tools, and thought leadership. He specializes in project strategy development, systems thinking, Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting approaches to global development.  Prior to joining ACDI/VOCA in 2011, Hayden began his career as a volunteer with the Peace Corps in Bulgaria and later managed development projects as Deputy Chief of Party and Chief of Party in Serbia and Uganda. He has worked across many technical areas — from value chain development in the Balkans to business-enabling environment support in the Caucasus and post-conflict recovery in Northern Uganda.

John Rachkara
Mercy Corps

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John Rachkara is a systems thinker with over 12 years of experience in development practice, consulting management, strategy development, and execution of market systems development in East Africa and Nigeria. Currently, John is the Deputy Chief of Party for the Feed the Future Nigeria Rural Resilience Activity in Nigeria. He has served on several complex programs in thin, fragile markets as well as large and sophisticated markets. He has worked in commodity, service, and labor markets.