The SEEP Network is thrilled to announce our formal partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) Economic Inclusion Unit. The partnership was formed through SEEP’s Mainstreaming the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards (MERS) initiative. Launched in 2017, Mainstreaming MERS Partnerships builds the capacity of high-impact organizations to use and apply the MERS within relevant business development, programming, and operations functions. This positions Mainstreaming MERS organizations as leaders in market-aware programming and influences humanitarian and economic recovery actors to embrace market systems approaches as a path to resiliency in emergency and crises contexts.

Through the partnership with UNHCR, the MERS will be integrated with UNHCR’s operational guidance for economic inclusion for persons of concern. Economic inclusion -- broadly defined as access to financial services, employment and markets for those at the bottom of the economic pyramid – is a crucial factor for building self-reliance and resilience of persons of concern.

To this end, the Standards support diverse actors to work together to identify, define and operationalize context-specific approaches that facilitate economic inclusion in humanitarian aid and development projects. The third edition of the Standards reflect the expertise of over 175 practitioners and 90 organizations actively applying market systems approaches in extremely challenging contexts.

About UNHCR

UNHCR’s Livelihoods Unit (now Economic Inclusion Unit), has been a long-time friend to SEEP and partner to the MERS. Ziad Ayoubi, head of the Economic Inclusion Unit participated on the MERS Steering Committee for the third revision of MERS. The SEEP Network and MERS were part of UNHCR’s 2017 Annual Consultations with NGOs in a session titled “Enhancing Self Reliance and Resiliency,” and the MERS have served as the foundational guidance for UNHCR’s Minimum Criteria for Livelihoods Programming.

As a continuation of this collaboration, this partnership will engage the Economic Inclusion team at Headquarters and in the field through:

• A MERS opportunity analysis that will inform the development of a tailored MERS Mainstreaming approach that fits the needs of the Economic Inclusion Unit;
• A MERS Mainstreaming Workshop designed to equip key change agents in the organization with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to apply MERS in their work and to support others to do the same;
• Peer learning activities and technical support to facilitate the full integration of MERS into UNHCR operational practices.

Over the coming months, we will share updates and insights into this exciting partnership through our newsletter, tweets, and blogs. We hope you follow us on the journey!

If you’d like to learn more about MERS, visit: www.mershandbook.org. To inquire about Mainstreaming MERS partnership opportunities, contact Sonya Salanti, Senior Program Manager, Resilient Markets: salanti@seepnetwork.org.