Potential contributions of market-systems development initiatives for building climate resilience

This paper analyses the compatibility of market systems and climate resilience approaches to agricultural development, using USAID's Feed the Future programme as an empirical case study, drawing on case studies in Ethiopia and Honduras.

The study finds that the market systems interventions have contributed to climate resilience, but also evidence of significant limitations due to fundamental tensions between market system and resilience approaches in terms of what their goals are, who they target and how they approach their objectives.

It has important implications for the design and implementation of climate resilience programmes and policies, as well as the expectations that agricultural development programmes will be able to build climate resilience. Recognising the inherent tensions that exist between market systems approaches and resilience approaches and explicitly discussing the trade-offs between the goals, target audiences, and primary mechanisms of each approach would represent an important step forward if market systems programmes are going to contribute to climate resilience.