Ask a Feasibility Question, Not Whether a Market Exists
A market can be open while the goods, purchasing power or safe access needed for a proposed response are missing. Define the item or service, users, place, period and decision before interviewing traders. Your output is a dated feasibility finding with conditions and unknowns. It is not a supplier award, a cash decision or an assistance entitlement.
The CALP market-assessment actions connect objectives, critical market systems, geographic scope, a competent team and suitable sources. The Programme Quality Toolbox separately routes market, payment-provider, risk and response-feasibility questions. One market visit does not complete those other assessments.
Specify the Evidence You Need
Use the assessment analysis plan to identify the decision-changing uncertainties. Examine the chain from supply and replenishment to the user's actual ability to buy or receive the good. Include existing customer demand, market links, competition, seasonal change, quality and access conditions. A quoted unit price is one observation along that chain.
Combine dated secondary information with proportionate interviews, observation and technical checks. Ask different types of traders and affected users, including people who cannot reach the main market. Record selection limits. Avoid publishing identifiable household details, exact sensitive supply routes or traders' confidential records without the appropriate decision.
A Fictional Supply Test
All figures, shops and conditions below are invented. A response team is considering an additional purchase of 800 kg of a specified staple over the next week. This quantity is supplied by the exercise's program brief; it is not a nutritional recommendation. Four visited shops report 300, 250, 200 and 150 kg in stock, totaling 900 kg. Their usual customers are expected to buy about 700 kg during the week. The exercise supplies no verified new delivery yet.
| Question | Supplied Observation | What Must Be Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Is current stock sufficient? | Visited-shop stock totals 900 kg | Stock is not spare capacity; ordinary demand and existing commitments still matter |
| Can traders replenish? | Each says restocking usually takes two days | All four depend on the same wholesaler and route; obtain current upstream evidence |
| Can people use the market? | The central market was open during one visit | Travel cost, opening times, disability access, safety and access for unvisited areas remain unresolved |
| Is there competition? | Four storefronts were visited | Common ownership, supplier dependence and alternatives are not established by the storefront count |
| Is the specified good suitable? | A matching product is displayed | Technical quality, quantity available for commitment and storage conditions still need their responsible checks |
The simple stock-minus-ordinary-demand illustration is 900 - 700 = 200 kg. It does not prove that exactly 200 kg is available to the team, because demand, commitments and stock figures are estimates. It does show why pointing to 900 kg cannot justify an extra 800 kg order without examining replenishment and effects on other customers.
Change the Assumption and Revise the Finding
After the visit, the team learns that the common supply route is interrupted. The previously assumed two-day replenishment is no longer supported. Four repeated trader statements are not four independent confirmations of upstream capacity.
The updated note says: "The visited market is trading, but the proposed additional volume is not demonstrated feasible within the stated week. Current stock is largely needed for ordinary trade; replenishment, user access and technical quality remain unresolved. The market lead will verify alternative supply and expected recovery with the responsible logistics roles. No purchase or cash modality is approved by this note."
Compare options such as a smaller staged purchase, another supply area or a different response mix, checking the consequences of each. Do not assume importing goods is harmless or cash automatically solves a supply interruption. The decision needs affected people's preferences and current technical, protection and operational analysis.
Hand Off a Finding That Can Be Used
Record the exact item specification, geography, observation period, sources, ordinary-demand assumptions, upstream dependencies, access exclusions, alternatives and owner of each unresolved check. Set a review trigger tied to the route, price, stock or planned scale, rather than a timeless "market functional" label.
Use Compare Cash, Vouchers and In-Kind Assistance for the separate response choice. Use local procurement feasibility when the organization itself would buy goods. Neither task should silently replace a market-system assessment with supplier selection.
Sources and Limits
The linked CALP pages' Market Assessment key actions and Situation Analysis/Response Analysis sections were read for this tutorial. They guide the question and evidence structure, not the invented stock or demand. Local cash/market specialists must check consequential feasibility judgments. This page does not certify markets, set transfer values, classify food insecurity or authorize a transaction.