The Minimum Economic Recovery Standards (MERS) lay out a series of guiding principles, key actions, indicators, and examples for use in any sector. They are not exclusively for economic recovery. They are designed to be utilized across the disaster lifecycle – from preparedness to recovery – and can particularly support in HDP/nexus programming where practitioners my need to deliver on humanitarian and development outcomes simultaneously.
The MERS are grouped into six categories of standards:
1. Core Standards
2. Assessment and Analysis Standards
3. Enterprise and Market Systems Development Standards
4. Asset Distribution Standards
5. Financial Services Standards
6. Employment Standards.
The MERS is useful for programmatic staff but also for operational staff procuring and/or providing large volumes of goods for a specific area (such as non-food item distributions) to understand how to avoid a negative impact on local actors. Donors, governments, private-sector actors, proposal writers, and evaluation staff may also find it a useful resource for designing or reviewing project activities.
