This page includes a series of resources aimed at capturing practical guidance and applied experience in market systems resilience (MSR), developed through the Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships (MSP) Activity.

Resources in this series include:

• Demystifying MSR: An Introductory Brief: This brief offers a simplified explanation of MSR and its key drivers, as well as examples of interventions that can strengthen MSR and entry points for practitioners looking to apply an MSR lens. It discusses how an MSR lens emphasizes stressors (as well as shocks), seeks insights from enterprises and market institutions (not just households), applies a unique analytical framework, and designs interventions to influence the system.
• Cartoon-Based Learning Tools (Multiple Languages): available in English, French, and Spanish—in PDF, PowerPoint, and digital flipbook format—are teaching tools that offer a visually appealing, hands-on primer on MSR and analyzing markets through an MSR lens. The cartoons also include instructions on how they can be used in group and individual settings and some prompts to get the conversation going afterward as teams internalize the concepts for their specific context.
  • MSR: An Introduction introduces two characters, an implementer of a local donor development project and her new colleague, and follows them as they define markets systems and MSR broadly, discuss how an MSR lens emphasizes stressors (as well as shocks), and expand upon that role that businesses must play in improving market systems resilience. See the PowerPoint and digital flipbook formats as well. Also, check out the French and Spanish versions.
  • MSR: Analyzing Markets rejoins our protagonists as they discuss how to analyze a market using an MSR lens. Echoing the Demystifying MSR brief, the comic strip illustrates the structural and behavioral domains of a market system and explains how to look for patterns across all factors. See the PowerPoint and digital flipbook formats as well. Also, check out the French and Spanish versions.
• Case Study: How an MSR Lens Shaped Intervention Design and Adaptation in Northern Kenya: This case study explores how a USAID-funded program in northern Kenya has used an MSR lens to shape how it catalyzes more competitive, inclusive, and resilient livestock market systems that, in turn, strengthen household resilience within a highly vulnerable region. It illustrates how insights from a rapid MSR assessment early in implementation, conducted in two pivotal market towns, allowed a program to better understand what was driving the quality of relationships between market actors and the pace of change, and then use these insights to adapt programming. This case demonstrates that integrating an MSR lens does not have to be an assessment-heavy task and can happen at any stage of implementation.
• MSR State of the Field Map: A visual snapshot of where MSR is being applied globally across 35 projects in 26 countries as of January 2022.
• Using an MSR Lens to Support Household Resilience: A brief exploring three areas to focus on: protection and recovery, generating cash, and improving a household's long-term risk management capacity.