Record-breaking population displacement in South West State as a result of the 2021-23 drought and continued insecurity has led to rapid urbanization, particularly in Baidoa Town, the interim capital.
Amidst concerns that too much of the rural population has left agricultural and pastoral areas and that the land is too degraded to recover its former productive capacity, and alongside uncertainty about how displaced people can generate livelihoods and incomes in their new urban context, durable solutions and resilience actors are asking: How can the existing capacities and connections of individuals and the overarching rural↔urban market system be leveraged to support recovery and enable resilience?
Informed by market systems resilience mapping literature and guided by the objective prompting this activity, this report defines the rural↔urban market system as a dynamic space that includes:
- the “connections and fluxes of goods, services, money, people, and information circulating between rural and urban displacement-affected communities (DACs) in Southwest State” (referred to here as the rural↔urban chain) as well as
- the surrounding enabling environment, including supporting functions such as inputs and services, relationships, and rules and regulations.
