Minimum standard for market analysis (MIMSA)

Most of the world’s population relies on markets to cover at least a portion of its basic needs. Due to rapidly increasing urbanisation, the central role that markets play in people’s lives is likely to increase. In the humanitarian sector, market-based programming (MBP) is increasingly becoming a routine option, in large part due to the increased uptake of cash transfer programming (CTP) across sectors. As a result, humanitarian organisations have progressively focused on understanding markets to determine the most appropriate response and modality. Humanitarian organisations are recognising both their role as market actors and the importance of the impact they can have on markets, especially for the crisis-affected population with whom they are working. Humanitarian responses, delivered either through CTP or in-kind, should be market-sensitive, and protect livelihoods, local jobs and businesses. They can even support markets, bridging the gaps between short-term relief interventions and medium- to long-term market development initiatives. To do so, humanitarian responses need to be informed by proper market assessment and analysis, starting at the design stage. Market analysis should hence be considered to be a key element of response analysis (Sivakumaran, 2011).