Combining humanitarian and development approaches in Bangladesh

This document presents Oxfam's pilot project to combine Pre-Crisis Market Analysis (PCMA) – a typically humanitarian approach – with an approach more associated with development, Vulnerability and Risk Assessment methodology (VRA) to understand where there are mutual areas of benefit and corroboration.

The pilot took place in Tala, Bangladesh in November 2016. At that time, VRA had been conducted as a standalone process in 12 countries and PCMA had been completed in 7 countries. The pilot project was the first time both had been brought together which was seen as a key innovation in programmatic approaches for fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

The aim combining the two approaches is to ultimately support better collaboration and interaction between humanitarian and longer-term development actors and processes. There is a need to work more collaboratively and across silos which can only be achieved through the monitoring of vulnerability indicators, preparedness work and development activities to address vulnerability to identified hazards.