Despite the number of tools available and the amount of innovations in programme design, the humanitarian assistance community faces a number of challenges when conducting market analysis to inform broader programme planning in crises. This paper will address two key challenges arising from obstacles to more comprehensive and consistent detailed market analysis. By examining the capacity and current thinking within the sector this report discusses how we can improve the quality of market analysis, and its impact on humanitarian programmes.

The first of the two research goals is to better understand how markets can be approached in a manner that utilises their potential to ‘strengthen’ the impact of an intervention, rather than a more limited approach that is focused solely on ‘doing no harm’. At a minimum, of course, ‘humanitarian action [should] protect human life where this is threatened on a wide scale.

The second goal is to understand how institutions within the humanitarian sector can appropriately resource themselves to complete comprehensive market analysis well. They face not only constraints on resources, time and human capacity, but operate within an emergency context where markets, livelihoods and institutions are ruptured, baselines seldom exist and data collection can be very difficult. This report discusses ways in which investments can be made to achieve improved markets analysis through exploring different options for institutional and sector capacity building.