Market Systems Development in Fragile and Conflict-affected Situations

These policy papers address the need for the humanitarian and development communities to ensure that while specific immediate shocks are addressed, underlying systemic issues are not ignored or further undermined. They focus on the potential for humanitarian and market systems development (MSD) approaches to be brought together. In fragile contexts, market interventions range from actions that deliver immediate relief, to actions that proactively strengthen local market systems and key industries. In addition to asking 'how can we use local markets to deliver aid?' we should be asking 'how are communities using markets to meet their needs, and how can we help markets restore their ability to do that?'.  The papers also examine how humanitarian and MSD approaches differ and describe frameworks that are available to help us understand markets in fragile crisis.