This case study shows how the MERS were applied to a 2018 market study conducted by Catholic Relief Services, following displacement in Congo-Brazzaville.

In May of 2016, conflict triggered by post-election violence and subsequent government response in the Congo-Brazzaville department of Pool led to the displacement of an estimated 107,000 people.

Almost two years after the initial displacement, most internally displaced people (IDPs) had yet to return to their homes and still lacked basic necessities. In response, CRS and Caritas proposed an additional NFI distribution to those families not included in initial distributions. For this distribution, CRS wanted to examine the possibility of using a market-based approach.

A market assessment was conducted in March 2018. The main objective of the assessment was to determine whether local markets were operational and had the capacity to supply NFIs to the target population. In addition, the assessment would identify the supply chains of the different products to the markets and identify possible modalities and their potential impacts on local markets.

ICRC’s Rapid Assessment of Markets (RAM) 1 approach was used to conduct the market assessment. Interviews were conducted with wholesalers and retailers in the 10 markets visited. In addition, key informants on the market committees were also interviewed. Four enumerators from Caritas Brazzaville, Caritas Kinkala, and Caritas Nkayi were trained, and a test of the tools was conducted.

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