“Facing Up to the Challenges: Blending Market and Humanitarian Support for Refugees in Uganda” reflects on the reality that as aid agencies look to help crisis-affected people by working through markets, they are caught between the competing demands of generating sustainable change and guaranteeing needs are met for the most vulnerable. Early attempts by aid agencies to implement market approaches in protracted crisis and displacement contexts have shown promise but evidence remains thin. Building off the experience of a Market Systems Development pilot responding to the latest influx of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda’s West Nile region, this paper reflects on the operational challenges and learning questions teams face when designing, implementing and evaluating market systems programmes in the context of wider relief efforts. While these reflections represent the experience of one team, in one location, they speak to broader themes in the ongoing global debates around coherence, self-reliance, and resilience.