Market approaches to resilience

Part of the UK Government funded BRACED (Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters) programme, Market Approaches to Resilience (MAR) was an innovative three-year programme that tested market-based approaches to improve the resilience of vulnerable pastoralist and agro-pastoralist households to climate change in the Afar, SNNP and Somali regions. It was implemented by a consortium led by Farm Africa, with Mercy Corps, Lion’s Head Global Partners and LTS International Limited as partners.

A particular focus of the programme was to improve the economic participation and independence of women, who are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate shocks and trends. The MAR programme supported households, businesses and communities in better managing their resources and everyday risks. It worked with private investors to address climate risks by promoting appropriate economic opportunities, and designing financial models that help smooth risk.

Other approaches included strengthening climate information by funding weather station infrastructure and supporting participatory rangeland and natural resource management. It also supported microfinance institutions to incorporate climate risk into their risk management portfolios and help them develop innovative credit products. MAR supported financial institutions to expand mobile banking to remote areas. Overall, the MAR project directly benefited an estimated 178,620 people in Ethiopia.