The MSRI uses a holistic approach to measuring the resilience of the market at multiple levels and accounts for various exogenous factors (e.g., the ecological environment), in contrast to similar tools available. It was first developed by International Development Enterprises (iDE) in 2018 as part of a market development project in Bangladesh. It has subsequently evolved and has been adapted in part based on the market resilience methods and guidance developed under the Resilience Evaluation Analysis and Learning (REAL) Award in the U
nited S
tates Agency for International Development (USAID) AID Center for Resilience
[1][8], and the contributions iDE made to the MSR framework for measurement released by the USAID Bureau of Food Security
[2][4]. iDE’s MSR model brings together core elements of resilience to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of any market system to anticipate, withstand, and adjust to external and internal shocks and stresses.
Guidance issued by the USAID for assessing market system resilience recognizes the positive synergies of enhancing participation between market resilience and market inclusion but delineates the two as separate entities to be measured and worked towards
[2][4]. In contrast, inclusivity is embedded in the MSRI from the standpoint of incorporating social dimensions and vulnerabilities into market resilience measurements. This allows the MSRI to capture human dimensions of resilience along with financial aspects, since markets are socially constructed. Integration and inclusion were chosen, recognizing that systemically excluded groups are integral to long-term resilience-building.
The MSRI explicitly includes households in the market system analysis, recognizing that households are a foundational element of market systems as well as an endpoint of these very same market systems. Without these farming households, the rest of the market would not be able to function. While the Self-evaluation and Holistic Assessment of climate Resilience of farmers and Pastoralists (SHARP) ARP tool measures resilience at the household level, it does not adequately capture systems-level domains of resilience. The MSRI overcomes this by including actors at various levels in the market system in its measurement. By including households and market actors in the market system analysis, the MSRI is able to capture a systems perspective of resilience.
The MSRI built upon the agroecological indicators identified in the SHARP tool to create a more holistic tool that acknowledges and ascribes to the theoretical concept of planetary and social boundaries
[3][23]. This sets the MSRI apart from other market systems tools because it bridges the sectoral divide that often delimits climate and the ecological environment as a separate or imposed policy issue. The MSRI recognizes that households, markets, and the ecological environment are interdependent; by including ecological indicators, the MSRI is able to better gauge the extent and effects of these relationships on the resilience of the market system.
Although the agroecological indicators of the SHARP tool were informative to the development of the MSRI, the developers of the MSRI recognized the operational challenges of existing frameworks and tools, the application of which may be cumbersome and time-consuming. Therefore, the MSRI was developed to be a modular tool that is adaptable to specific contexts without losing comparability. In emphasizing comparability, iDE concluded that it would not take the route of STRESS towards creating new individual measurements for each project.