This page focuses on the processes of organizing a market assessment exercise, such as getting agency buy-in, defining the scope and objectives of the exercise, assembling the assessment team, developing a communications plan, and arranging the logistical aspects of the assessment. Very often, the person who undertakes these tasks is not the same person who prepares for and facilitates assessment team workshops, oversees data collection and analysis and writes final reports, though of course it can be. These latter aspects are discussed further on the Leading an Assessment page.
Many of the leading market assessment toolkits and guidance documents include information about how to plan for an assessment. Another resource that may be useful is the initial version of the EMMA Leader’s Guide, a compilation of lessons learned from early EMMAs exercises, tips from EMMA leaders and some basic document templates.
Additional resources that may be useful for people planning to lead a market assessment include examples of TORs used for assessments and for recruiting assessment leaders and other team members, sample budgets and sample exercise timelines, are available on the EMMA page.
Some common considerations for those planning a market assessment exercise are discussed in further detail below.
Finding an assessment leader
Since the EMMA Toolkit was released in 2010, numerous people have developed the competencies and experience needed to lead market assessments, not just using the EMMA approach, and today a number of consultants are available for these types of assignments. The best ways to find a good consultant are through word of mouth (by asking other agencies that have recently carried out similar exercises for recommendations) and by sending a ToR to the Jobs section of the Markets in Crises forum. That said, every market assessment should be viewed as an opportunity to build the skills of promising staff within your own agency, and ideally each agency should have a growing pool of staff who are capable of leading market assessments themselves.
Timing
There is no standard length of time needed to conduct a market assessment. If you are planning a one-off intervention that involves relatively straightforward commodities, emergency market analysis will be much quicker than if you are planning a longer-term intervention involving the provision of goods and/or services with complex value chains. Similarly, the relative scale of programs compared to the size of the local markets will be an important parameter to determine the scope, depth, and scale of your market analysis. Table 4 of the MISMA provides a list of indicators you can use to determine the necessary depth of your analysis.
First, determine the necessary depth of the analysis; this will enable you to identify which tool/guidance you will be using. MSMA and RAM typically take around 3-5 days to complete. The timeframe for EMMAs and MAG is generally longer, ranging from 5 days up to 3 weeks. The time needed for pre-crisis market analysis (PCMA) depends on which tool you use as a basis for the analysis. One of the potential benefits of PCMA is that it can reduce the time needed to conduct a follow-up market assessment when crises do occur.
Other factors that influence the length of time needed to conduct a market assessment include the geographic areas and critical market systems to be covered and the availability of resources like staffing and vehicles. The timeframe may also vary depending on how much information already exists regarding the crisis-affected population’s needs and the critical market systems being studied and the assessment leader’s familiarity with the context. Bear in mind that some time should be allotted for defining the scope of the assessment with knowledgeable local stakeholders and for recruiting the assessment team (including the assessment leader) before the assessment team assembles on the ground.
Cost
As with timing, the cost of carrying out a market assessment can vary considerably, depending on the scope and expected duration of the assessment, and on whether it will be led internally or by an external consultant. Hiring a consultant and/or flying in international staff to help facilitate the exercise, if needed, is usually the single most costly part of a market assessment. Good preparations before deployment will lower costs by reducing the number of days needed in the field.
Logistics
Vehicles are critical for a market assessment. In the limited amount of time available for data collection, any time wasted wrangling drivers and vehicles can quickly have a significant impact on the quality and quantity of data collected. It is often more efficient for the assessment team to split into smaller groups, each covering different geographic areas or types of actors, during the field research, and an extra vehicle or two can facilitate this. If participating agencies are not able to contribute vehicles for an assessment, extra money spent on vehicles and logistics may be well spent and can actually decrease the total cost if it reduces the length of stay for the assessment team and/or consultant in the field.