More Than Markets

More Than Markets Building Resilience in Northern Uganda

FOR FIFTY YEARS, NORTHERN UGANDA HAS BEEN A PLACE OF PERENNIAL CRISIS. Decades of insecurity, a shortage of investment, bad infrastructure and, particularly in arid Karamoja, extreme climate variability have conspired to depress development. The next crisis always lurks around the corner. While today security is much improved, opening a window of opportunity, building resilience continues to elude development practitioners and their partners. As Mercy Corps has found, through its market systems development work in the Acholi and Karamoja sub-regions, even where single-sector programs succeed in raising incomes, they may not make communities less vulnerable to the cycles of crisis that exacerbate chronic underdevelopment. Building resilience requires we adopt a longer-term, multi-actor systems approach.

Failing that, our efforts are unlikely to be sustainable – and, in some cases, may introduce new, unintended vulnerabilities.

NATURE OF THE CRISIS For too long, northern Uganda was the poster child

Today, northern Uganda is no longer a place of

for political and economic collapse. The Acholi sub-

perpetual emergency. The LRA largely withdrew from

region, which occupies the northern-center of the

Acholiland by 2006. The IDP camps closed and,

country, was at the hub of a decades-long civil war.

throughout the north, Ugandans returned to looted

The brutal forays of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA),

villages and farms to start again. Similarly, in Karamoja,

inter-tribal conflicts and crackdowns by government

years of insecurity have largely abated. While

forces resulted in a severe and prolonged humanitarian

government disarmament campaigns were the subject

crisis: more than 100,000 people killed, more than

of much criticism, they, along with regional livestock

20,000 children abducted, more than 1.5 million people

branding campaigns, helped sharply reduce cattle

displaced. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) were,

raids and cross-border smuggling.

under the watch of Uganda military forces, uprooted and relocated to vast camps, disrupting livelihoods and education, and killing thousands: Epidemics of malaria and AIDS made the camps themselves some of the deadliest places in the world.1 Meanwhile, to the east, the neighboring Karamoja

of aid have spawned “ Decades a dependency, among many

communities, that continues to be a serious obstacle to progress.

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sub-region’s 1.2 million people consistently register the lowest, among Ugandans, on human development indicators. Since the 1960s, Karamoja has been a net

Nevertheless, achieving development progress has

food purchaser and a recipient of food aid. Moreover, the

proved complicated. Northern Uganda, it seems, is

sub-region’s climate woes are Biblical: A severe drought

rich only in challenges. Poverty and food insecurity

struck in 2006 and was followed by another dry season

are chronic and widespread. The agricultural sector is

and flooding in 2007, with 2008 bringing little rain. The

badly underdeveloped. In Acholiland, for instance, a

combination of shock after degrading shock left nearly a

generation raised in IDP camps lacks basic knowledge

million people in need of emergency relief in 2009. The

about how to cultivate crops, much less the tools to do

ability of Karamoja’s people to withstand these shocks

so. Meanwhile, climate fluctuations and unpredictable

has been undermined by years of chronic insecurity, inter-

weather plague farmer and pastoralist alike. The lack

tribal struggles, the impoverishing rise of professional

of veterinary care undermines the herds. Pests eat up

cattle raiding and military disarmament campaigns.

the crops; otherwise, poor storage, after harvest, may

2

spoil the farmer’s labor. A dearth of financial services IRIN, “UGANDA: 1,000 displaced die every week in war-torn north – report,” August 29, 2005. Available online: http://www.irinnews.org/report/56063/ uganda-1-000-displaced-die-every-week-in-war-torn-north-report 1

and lack of capital – or crippling terms – are among the biggest challenges to growth. Distant villages are

Ben Jones, “Why Have Aid Agencies Been in Karamoja for so Long?” The Guardian, January 31, 2011.

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isolated from larger markets by poor roads.

As if all that weren’t enough, decades of aid have

Transportation is expensive and slow, particularly during the rainy season, inflating the cost of food.

spawned a dependency, among many communities, that 31

continues to be a serious obstacle to progress. One-off handouts helped few graduate from direct assistance, but cycles of relief have choked off commercial investments that would sustainably address need.42

3 Isolation from markets has vital implications for resilience. Mercy Corps and TANGO International, in a study of household resilience in southern Somalia, found that access to markets was a key contributor to resilience: In the midst of a shock, households with access to markets had more opportunities to buy food and were less likely to rely on negative coping strategies. See Mercy Corps and TANGO, “What Really Matters for Resilience?” October 2013.

4 The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) has supplied food aid to Karamoja for more than 40 years, but it is significantly scaling back, weaning the region of food subsidies. From 2009 to 2012, WFP beneficiaries in Karamoja dropped from one million to under 150,000. See IRIN, “Uganda: Weaning Karamoja off food aid,” August 9, 2012; see also Kim Beevers, “Economic Market Systems Overview, Karamoja,” BRACED Assessment, July 2014.

SOUTH SUDAN

Mercy Corps in

UGANDA

Lamwo

Kaabong

Kitgum

Kotido Abim

Mercy Corps Office

DRC

Sub-region Acholiland

KENYA

Karamoja Kampala

TANZANIA

Revitalizing Agricultural Incomes and New Markets (RAIN) program (2011-2015)

Growth, Health and Governance (GHG) program (2012-2017)

- Funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture - Strategic objectives: • Enhance smallholder farmer production and profitability • Improve agri-business performance in input and output markets • Expand access to financial services in rural areas

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- Funded by USAID - Strategic objectives: • Strengthen livelihoods and improve market access • Improve nutrition for children (under age 2) and mothers • Enhance good governance and community engagement

THE MERCY CORPS RESPONSE: THE PROCESS IS THE PROGRAM Mercy Corps’ market facilitation programs in northern

established companies and financial institutions –

Uganda are committed to expanding economic

who have not, historically, worked with smallholder

opportunity for the poor. In Acholiland, the Revitalizing

farmers in the program areas – to smaller Savings

Agricultural Incomes and New Markets (RAIN) program,

and Credit Cooperatives. Meanwhile, working through

funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, seeks to

local agent networks of mobile traders, small retailers,

improve food security and economic growth in target

animal health workers and other service providers

areas through a focus on the agricultural sector. In

has been key to facilitating the adoption of new, more

Karamoja, the Growth, Health and Governance (GHG)

efficient farming practices, such as improved seeds

program, a five-year Development Food Assistance

and pesticides.

Program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Food for Peace program, focuses on expanding economic opportunity, promoting maternal and child health, boosting nutrition and improving governance.

Both RAIN and GHG utilize a ‘light touch’ market facilitation approach. Rather than provide direct services, facilitation can create market-oriented opportunities for the poor that are more sustainable and more cost effective than traditional direct-delivery approaches. Rather than focus on easily enumerated

“ Both RAIN and GHG utilize a ‘light

touch’ market facilitation approach.

Rather than provide direct services, facilitation can create marketoriented opportunities for the poor that are more sustainable and more cost effective than traditional directdelivery approaches.

”

indicators, designed during the proposal stage, our programs work to expand existing capacities, reframe opportunities and shape incentives. This shifts the

Mercy Corps’ program staff – having developed

focus from outputs to process: In facilitation, the

an understanding of local markets and actors

how is often as important as the what. The goal is to

– are well-positioned to pitch external private

identify leverage points, within communities, where

sector actors on the opportunities in the north. For

we can have a positive impact without creating a new

example, Mercy Corps provided data to national

system dependent on our programming.

veterinary drug supply companies on the untapped

To that end, we work primarily through partners.

Mercy Corps has cultivated private and public sector actors, creating a web of commercial relationships.

Members of these networks range from large,

market demand in the north and connected these companies to local sales agents. We also increased the supply of local tillage services by bringing in a tractor supply company, worked with a bank to provide connected loans to local businesses for

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the equipment and supported the development of tractor maintenance services.

These interventions are improving productivity. Prior to RAIN, agricultural input sales in program areas were negligible. In 2013, in Lamwo – RAIN’s first program area – 5,000 farmers purchased inputs through networks facilitated by Mercy Corps. The pace of adoption is accelerating: For a six-month period in 2014, from April to September, the number of farmers purchasing inputs more than doubled to 11,022. Allowing for some double counting, these numbers represent between 10 and 15 percent of all households in Lamwo. While a similar reach might have been achieved through direct service delivery, it would not have created a sustainable connection between the farmers and local merchants, or fostered income for local trading and retail households.

Meanwhile, Mercy Corps is leveraging financial partnerships to extend credit to underserved farmers and pastoralists and the local businesses that serve them. For example, rather than use program funds to give grants directly to beneficiaries, Mercy Corps has provided loan guarantees to banks – covering 50 percent of the individual farmer’s loan – to improve access to credit for “high risk” individuals with little or no collateral. To date, loan guarantees to Post Bank, a large regional financial institution, have triggered US$83,000 in loans to farmers. The practice of

Improving Livestock Health In Karamoja pastoralist communities, herds of goats and cows remain the essential bulwark against food insecurity. Herds, though diminished by drought and commercial raiding, are also a vital source of economic potential.52By one assessment, the value of the pastoral livestock trade for the Horn of Africa approached US$1 billion in 2010.6 Yet, according to a report from the Feinstein International Center, animal disease in Karamoja now has a greater adverse impact on livestock herds than cattle raiding, historically the bigger concern.

Improving animal health for the region’s pastoralists – through the increased availability of drugs and veterinary care – is a priority for Mercy Corps.

Unfortunately, the animal health and livestock sector in Karamoja is characterized by systemic inefficiencies.

The veterinary drug system is underdeveloped. Supply is sporadic and transaction costs are high: Local drug shops would make small orders at retail prices and travel many hours to pick them up. This raises costs for consumers, depressing demand. In Karamoja, pharmaceuticals have, historically, cost 60 percent more than in the neighboring Teso sub-region.

working through financial partners may also improve

But on the basis of Mercy Corps pitches to drug

repayment. Historically, when debtors knew their

suppliers, Norbrook, a global veterinary company,

loan was financed by international donors, some

entered the Karamoja market, offering free drug

would strategically default, confident there would be

delivery and credit to local drug distributors. As

no consequences. Under the current program, the

of December, Norbrook had shipped 6.5 million

repayment rate is 83 percent.

Ugandan shillings of drugs (approximately US$2,275)

A market systems approach has enabled Mercy Corps to facilitate local and regional actors in sustainably advancing development. Throughout the north, our efforts are improving livestock health, expanding agricultural markets and increasing savings rates.

to Karamoja. Offering wholesale drug prices to 5 This is not to diminish the decline of Karamoja’s livestock. In recent years, numbers have plummeted. According to a 2014 livestock census by the Food and Agriculture Organization, total livestock in the sub-region fell from 6 million head in 2008 to 1.8 million head in 2014, a 70 percent drop. See FAO/GIEWS Livestock and Market Assessment Mission to Karamoja Region, Uganda, Special Report, April 2014.

6 John Burns, Gezu Bekele, Darlington Akabwai, “Livelihood Dynamics in Northern Karamoja,” Feinstein International Center, September 2013.

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veterinary supply shops has reduced prices for the

purchasers. These storage facilities, combined

end user. For example, the main drug shop in Kotido

with Mercy Corps’ networks of local partners, have

cut prices 20 to 30 percent.

provided entry points: Agents could organize local

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harvests; agricultural produce could be cleaned,

Creating Markets for Agriculture

bagged and stored in a single place; and external

Historically, northern Uganda was too chaotic for

cost of doing business. By aggregating supply, Mercy

most private sector actors to risk entry. In many

Corps could more easily pitch large agricultural

communities, there was no centralized market where

companies on the commercial appeal of the north.

buyers could efficiently access markets that had been, previously, scattered among dozens or hundreds of smallholder farms. This drove down the

an outside buyer could inspect and purchase local crops. Going farm-to-farm was too time-consuming.

But by helping aggregate local production for external buyers, Mercy Corps’ agent networks are opening new markets for smallholder farmers.

Today, investment is following opportunity. A high global price for sesame, paired with Mercy Corps’ facilitation work, encouraged the Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADCO), a large Ugandan agrobusiness, to court smallholder farmers as

Early on, Mercy Corps partnered with local

suppliers. Eager to ensure a consistent, high-

communities to build agricultural storage facilities.

quality supply of sesame, GADCO offered pricing

Participating farmers could safely store their produce,

guarantees to participating farmers. These contract

which would protect it from incidental damage,

farming arrangements encourage investments by

while also serving as a bulking center for external

both sides. Farmers, confident of a return, have expanded planting and are investing more resources

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The Jie Community Animal Health Workers Association.

in production. Meanwhile, GADCO provides

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“ Northern Uganda, once a quiet

backwater, is participating in international commerce: Seeds grown on smallholder farms in rural Uganda can be found on buns in Germany and the Netherlands.

”

communities with supervision, training and new equipment, like tarpaulins, to ensure quality postharvest handling – all at no additional cost to RAIN. Spurred by growing global demand for sesame,

thank them. It’s crazy behavior.” Unfortunately, the financial hangover is painful. Shortly after the new year, farmers face some of the largest annual expenditures: February school fees come due, combined with the costs of planting for the new season. In the beginning of the year, households have the least cash on-hand precisely when they have the greatest need.

Money in the pocket is easily spent. One solution is to avoid putting it in a pocket in the first place. Mercy Corps is cooperating with private sector partners to facilitate mobile banking and direct deposit among smallholder farmers. It is still a pilot program, initiated in partnership with GADCO and Post Bank.

GADCO, rather than pay participating farmers in

GADCO’s investment helped catalyze a local sesame boom. From 2012 to 2014, the price of sesame more than doubled.84There are over 17,000 farmers registered with GADCO, representing a third of all farmers in Lamwo. In the 2014-2015 season, GADCO purchased 3,168 tons of sesame, valued at about US$3.1 million. For a single growing season, it was a dramatic injection of capital, and equivalent to almost half of RAIN’s four-year budget.

Northern Uganda, once a quiet backwater, is

“ In the beginning of the year,

households have the least cash onhand precisely when they have the greatest need. Money in the pocket is easily spent. One solution is to avoid putting it in a pocket in the first place.

”

participating in international commerce: Seeds grown on smallholder farms in rural Uganda can be found on

cash, will directly deposit sales to the farmers’ savings

buns in Germany and the Netherlands.

account. The program is good for Post Bank, which is expanding its customer base. And the money saved is

Increasing Savings

more likely to be productively reinvested back into the next season’s crop, which is good for GADCO.95It is

In northern Uganda, harvest sales are typically cash transactions concluded toward the end of the year, from November into January. Shortly after the harvest, it is a time of Yuletide celebrations and matrimonial

also, we hope, good for the farmers, providing them with greater resources for investment and a cushion for hard times. At this stage, 250 farmers are targeted by the program, with the goal to eventually reach 5,000.

revelries: Weddings are traditionally conducted in January. In other words, the party starts. “I see people drinking their profits away,” said one Acholi farmer. “They even pour alcohol on the plants to

8

From about 2,000 UGX per kilogram to 4,320 UGX.

9 In the behavioral economics literature, the notion of the “choice architecture” suggests that the manner in which choices are presented can have a positive or negative impact on outcomes. Nudging farmers toward better savings and investment can encourage productive investment. See Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein and John Balz, “Choice Architecture,” January 2012.

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THE BOONS OF MARKET SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT A facilitation approach takes time and flexibility. RAIN

This is the result of a “crowding in” effect. Once

started in 2011, and it took several years to pilot

GADCO started aggressively purchasing sesame,

and refine its programs. Working with donors and

its competitors entered the market: Yield Uganda,

recruiting a process-oriented staff allowed us to build the necessary partnerships, assist public and private actors in overcoming market constraints and perceived risks and, ultimately, help farmers and communities capitalize on their potential. Now, the program’s efforts are paying off. Across its program areas, RAIN has been associated with a striking increase in income and productivity. For approximately 36,000 households in the north, annual incomes increased, on average, by 82.5 percent, from approximately US$400 to US$730, or from a tad over a dollar a day to two dollars a day. By capitalizing on – and extending – the sesame boom and other agriculture opportunities, by

“ Across its program areas, RAIN has

been associated with a striking increase in income and productivity.

For approximately 36,000 households in the north, annual incomes increased, on average, by 82.5 percent, from approximately US$400 to US$730, or from a tad over a dollar a day to two dollars a day.

”

expanding links to markets and by improving input supplies, market development has catalyzed new

Export Trading Group and Olam Group started

wealth in northern Uganda.

A distinct, but related, measure of development is the cultivation of new farmland. Families who once planted two acres are now planting twice or three times that.

According to RAIN survey data from 2014, Acholi farmers reported opening 4.5 acres of new land.

Average farm size is now roughly 6.5 acres, and crop yields have, on average, improved 63 percent.106 Some positive impacts, however, are harder to measure. In the north, we are seeing the market take on a life of its own. Our programs in Uganda are

purchasing sesame. Meanwhile, another agricultural company, SAGE Uganda Company, eyeing untapped agricultural opportunities, entered the market to buy chia, a new cash crop for the north. Similarly, in Karamoja, after Norbrook entered the market to provide veterinary drugs, competitors Quality Chemicals Uganda and Eram Uganda followed suit, supplying pharmaceuticals through regional distributors. Vigorous competition is good for the market. It will continue to drive down prices and improve services for the local communities.

having impacts beyond our immediate partnerships.

Some crops have seen much bigger increases. Bean crops, for instance, which have benefited from extensive investments in improved seeds, have increased from 211 kilograms per acre to 648. See RAIN Mid-term eval.

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THE SHORTCOMINGS OF A MARKET-ORIENTED APPROACH In northern Uganda, market facilitation has grown

incomes, it appears, are also spawning new conflicts.

incomes and opportunity, prompted innovation and

Theft is on the rise, and domestic disputes over

catalyzed measurable growth in the agricultural

money are increasingly common. Conflict, however,

sector. It has not, however, improved food security.

is not confined to the home. Poor land management,

High levels of malnutrition are still evident. According to focus group discussions, this is in part due to parents working for long periods in potentially distant sesame fields, leaving young children on their own.

The high profitability of sesame has perhaps distorted priorities, encouraging farmers to grow the cash crop and, in some cases, reduced cultivation of vegetables

paired with the itinerant nature of planting, threatens to aggravate territorial feelings among neighbors.

Since most land is communal, the acceleration of non-sustainable cultivation may lead to a rise in tensions over land use, triggering local disputes, the foundations of which may have been laid after years of conflict-driven displacement.117

and other crops that can be consumed at home. And

Still, the worry that nags most is that the good times

while incomes have risen, much of the money earned

will end. The income boom in Acholiland is largely

is neither being saved nor spent on nutrition: Lavish

fueled by spiking sesame prices, and the turbine

expenditures – some non-productive, others on

that has dragged incomes up could very well drag

investments in tools and equipment – have been the

them down again. In 2014, sesame accounted for

bane of improving food security.

83 percent of total agricultural sales, dwarfing all other crops. In the event of a crash in global sesame

“ Farmers may find they lack enough

income-earning crops and, worse, in their shift toward sesame, they have failed to grow enough food to get through a lean time.

prices, this could be disastrous. Farmers may find they lack enough income-earning crops and, worse, in their shift toward sesame, they have failed to grow enough food to get through a lean time.

”

In addition, market development approaches may animate new vulnerabilities. Current farming practices, for instance, are environmentally unsustainable, exhausting the soil and leading farmers to annually migrate their fields. Rising

Throughout northern Uganda, land conflicts historically fell under the purview of the customary authorities: councils of elders, such as Karamoja’s akiriket, who are now much diminished by decades of conflict and the growth of the formal state.

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BRIDGING MARKET SYSTEMS AND RESILIENCE Market-oriented development remains a powerful

certainly, but also social and ecological systems.

tool for reducing vulnerability. As we have seen in

This explains, at least in part, why successful market

Uganda, it can improve efficiency, promote sustainable

development programs may achieve gains but fail

growth, broaden access to finance and increase the transparency of regional markets and prices. In short, using facilitative approaches, development actors can leverage good outcomes and, just as importantly, empower communities.

Certainly, facilitating increased access to information can mitigate risk. In Karamoja, GHG’s commercial platform linked kraal leaders with commercial traders who can provide daily updates on pricing information.

This, combined with a drought early warning system,

“ Market system development and

resilience are not synonymous.

Enhanced efficiency and increased incomes, the intended outcomes of market development, do not, in and of themselves, reduce risk. They may exacerbate it.

”

developed by the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development in partnership with the government of Uganda, can help pastoralists anticipate shocks and sell when prices are still high and livestock are healthy.

This will, we hope, enable livestock herders to better withstand market shocks resulting from drought.

Nevertheless, market system development and resilience are not synonymous.128Enhanced efficiency and increased incomes, the intended outcomes of market development, do not, in and of themselves, reduce risk. They may exacerbate it. Market system development will likely expose households and communities to new cycles of boom and bust, price and income fluctuations, environmental degradation, and social and cultural change.

to build resilience. In the case of northern Uganda, market-oriented programs facilitating the sesame boom improved incomes, but have run afoul of social constraints, such as rising land tensions rooted in communal traditions, or ecological consequences, resulting from unsustainable cultivation.

All development risks trading one vulnerability for another. Flexibility, however, and a commitment to learning can help mitigate the worst outcomes.

Working through our agent network, Mercy Corps’ programs are now educating farmers about the value of savings, the long-term importance of sustainability and the necessity of diversifying incomes through new cash crops, such as chilies and sunflower seeds.

Building resilience requires that we design interventions across multiple systems: the economic,

Rooted in ongoing learning about the places where we work, and enabled by a flexible program design, these are important adjustments.

USAID, Market Systems for Resilience, LEO Report #6, Washington, DC: USAID, January 2015.

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Mercy Corps’ Resilience Approach For Mercy Corps, resilience is a process, a way of thinking and acting, not just an end state. We work to build diverse connections and relationships between people, communities and the systems that support them to plan, prepare and manage for change in times of increasingly complex and dynamic crises.

Our approach is a direct response to our definition of resilience: the capacity of communities in complex socio-ecological systems to learn, cope, adapt and transform in the face of shocks and stresses.

We recognize that addressing recurrent crises and building resilience requires an integrated systems approach to humanitarian response and development programming. By understanding the root causes of vulnerability, our work can support a community’s capacity to cope with disturbances, adapt to changing conditions, and enable learning, innovation and transformation.

Mercy Corps’ role is to look across inter-connected social, ecological and economic systems to help determine how they influence the communities we serve. We work in partnership with multiple actors to identify which vulnerabilities and capacities are the most critical to address. Working through local champions, we strengthen existing opportunities for positive change.

Together, we learn how to ensure long-term development gains and build resilience.

For more, see Shannon Alexander, “Our Resilience Approach,” Portland, OR: Mercy Corps.

Available online: http://d2zyf8ayvg1369.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/Mercy%20Corps%20 Resilience%20Approach_April%202015.pdf

Yet they are not enough.

actors provide those drugs for free, or if local politicians,

In northern Uganda, building resilience is stymied by problems beyond the scope of any program or NGO.

eager to score points among the electorate, demand they be provided at no expense.

Generally speaking, these are problems of governance: ill-informed or incoherent development plans, poor infrastructure investments and sluggish regulation.

After all, expanding supply chains and building market linkages will mean little if, during the annual rainy season, the roads are flooded and goods can’t get to market. Or if poor regulation routinely undermines investment: when government-certified produce scales

Expanding supply chains and “ building market linkages will mean little if, during the annual rainy season, the roads are flooded and goods can’t get to market.

”

in the village are tampered with, for example, or when legitimate drug suppliers are squeezed by a black market in smuggled and expired drugs that Uganda’s

These are fundamental challenges. Good

National Drug Authority has, to date, been unable to

governance, broadly defined, enables a society to

police. Expanding veterinary drug availability among

appropriately organize and marshal its resources,

pastoralists, meanwhile, will not be sustainable if some

which is directly linked to resilience. The ability to

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withstand a crisis is rooted not in the household,

In the end, we need to change what we do, and how

but in the society’s collective assets: These include

we do it. Resilience demands a diversification of risk.

everything from infrastructure to relationships and

To that end, we need to throw out narrowly defined,

human capital. When those assets are coordinated

piecemeal programs in favor of more comprehensive,

to respond to a shock, they foment the potential for

integrated partnerships with local communities,

“collective action,” which has been identified as vital

governments, donors, the private sector and other

to pulling a community through a crisis.

development actors. We need to continually assess

139

In northern

Uganda, we are beginning to see how this might

vulnerability across economic, social and ecological

manifest through an approach that integrates across

systems. And, critically, rather than simply define our

programs and systems, and which harmonizes the

goals at the outset, and pursue them without reflection

efforts of local communities, governments, the private

to program’s end, we must be adaptive, empowered

sector, donors and NGOs.

to pilot new ideas and flexible enough to respond, quickly, to unforeseen challenges and opportunities.

Tim Frankenberger, M. Mueller, T. Spangler, and S. Alexander (2013).

Community Resilience: Conceptual Framework and Measurement Feed the Future Learning Agenda. Rockville, MD: Westat, October 2013.

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RECOMMENDATIONS •

•

Initiate multi-year programs that work across

Getting that balance right, however, requires new

economic, ecological and social systems.

partnerships between NGOs, which work in local

Programs need the time and space to adapt in

communities, and global multilaterals, like the

order to build the capacity and knowledge of local

World Bank or the International Monetary Fund,

staff, earn community trust and take advantage of

which have long prioritized improving government

ongoing learning. To that end, programs should

capacity. But we must also work to improve

be, ideally, five or more years in duration. And to

social accountability. We need to approach this

build resilience, programs should be based on

from two directions. Enhancing the ability of civil

robust, iterative assessments of risk across social,

society organizations to amplify local voices must

ecological and economic systems.

be paired with governmental mechanisms – at the local, regional and national level – to help

Anchor resilience programming in government-

integrate and respond to feedback.

led development platforms. One of the biggest challenges facing development actors in northern

•

•

Prioritize a market systems development

Uganda is incorporating a resilience framework

approach. Market systems development,

into national and regional government planning.

utilizing a facilitation approach, is vital to good

Specifically, donors must align their regional

development outcomes and enhancing resilience

strategies with government planning documents

among target communities. Using program

to ensure that resources are properly allocated

resources to catalyze new relationships, build

and their impact is maximized. While donors and

skills and extend services to underserved

NGOs may bring valuable functional expertise,

populations can be sustainable when those

government regulation and infrastructure are vital

interventions are market-oriented and

to development outcomes.

implemented through local partners. By contrast, where benefits are contingent on continued

As part of a resilience framework, build the

funding, programs are not building local

voice and transformative capacity of local

resilience. More likely, they’re contributing to long-

communities. In many communities, in northern

standing problems of aid dependence that render

Uganda and elsewhere, the local electorate is

local populations more vulnerable, not less.

not appropriately engaged: It fails to see the government as a service provider. Improving the

•

However, building resilience requires moving

capacity to deliver public services, while at the

beyond market development alone. While

same time improving the systems of accountability

a market development approach is vital to

that drive the delivery of these services, is vital to

sustainable development, it does not automatically

effective governance and long-term development.

build resilience. A market development strategy

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•

can emphasize new linkages and income

programs to be iterative, empowered to

opportunities that potentially increase vulnerability

pilot new ideas, and able to adapt, quickly,

to some shocks. By contrast, resilience demands

to unforeseen challenges (or opportunities).

a diversification of risk. Any resilience-building

Monitoring and evaluation should be re-

activity should increase coping and adaptive

conceptualized as an internal feedback loop

measures, which include finding ways to diversify

for management and impact, rather than a rigid

and protect incomes. Increasing systems analysis

measurement of quantitative outputs. Typically,

and adapting market systems interventions to

donor requirements limit program flexibility: The

consider risk can lead to gains in both incomes

desire for clearly defined indicators and outputs,

and resilience.

articulated during design, tends to undermine

Support adaptive management approaches.

Systems are complex and respond to variables in unpredictable ways, requiring mid-stream

innovative, community-led and market-driven solutions. Where possible, these constraints must be reformed.

adjustments. To this end, donors must allow

Resilience Capacities To build resilience, development programs must help individuals, households, communities and systems prepare for and respond to risk. Mercy Corps envisions resilience capacities as strands of rope, each made stronger when braided together. The capacities required for resilience are: Absorptive Capacity: The ability to minimize sensitivity to shocks and stresses. Examples include informal savings and loan groups, hazard insurance and disaster preparedness.

Adaptive Capacity: The ability to proactively modify conditions and practices in anticipation of or as a reaction to shocks and stresses. Examples include livelihood diversification, access to weather or market information, access to technical training and new skill development.

Transformative Capacity: Creates the conditions to facilitate systemic change and a positive environment in which people are willing and able to invest and innovate, while managing risks. Transformative capacity addresses the underlying cultural, institutional and learning dynamics within the system, enabling communities to absorb and adapt over the long term. Examples are: inclusive control over shared resources; equitable and transparent budgeting processes; and generation and adoption of knowledge.

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ABOUT MERCY CORPS Mercy Corps is a leading global humanitarian agency saving and improving lives in the world’s toughest places.

With a network of experienced professionals in more than 40 countries, we partner with local communities to put bold ideas into action to help people recover, overcome hardship and build better lives. Now, and for the future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank Mercy Corps’ country team in Uganda – particularly Sean Granville-Ross, Melaku Yirga, David Okutu and Tirhas Tsegay – for their invaluable help, time and patience. Many thanks also to Shannon Alexander, Sasha Muench and Ann Vaughan for their guidance throughout the research and writing.

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CONTACT KEITH PROCTOR Senior Policy Researcher kproctor@dc.mercycorps.org