Rapid Assessment for Markets - Livelihoods Centre
Asset Publisher
In today’s market economies people’s livelihoods depend to a significant extent on markets: farmers sell their produce to consumers, retailers, or wholesalers; craftspeople produce various goods and sell them to consumers, retailers, or wholesalers; workers offer their labour to employers in exchange for money; households buy essential commodities from a range of retailers, and so forth. Markets are the principal means through which billions of people derive income and buy commodities to cover essential needs; they are therefore an essential element of people’s livelihoods.
This document presents a Rapid Assessment for Markets – henceforth called the RAM – designed to provide a basic understanding of the capacity of selected markets to provide people with key commodities in the immediate aftermath of a sudden shock.
The RAM is designed to provide a quick and basic first understanding of key markets in the immediate aftermath of a shock. The RAM strengthens response analysis by providing market data, essential for informed decision-making on appropriate transfer mechanisms (i.e. in-kind or cash-based)8 if relief is to be provided. The tools used in the RAM, such as market mapping tools, can also reveal possibilities for market-support interventions and identify entry points to support market recovery. Therefore, the RAM is not biased towards a specific form of response, but facilitates reflection about a wide range of response options.
