This paper focuses on resilience at the systems level.

It explores an approach to strengthening market-systems-resilience capacities based on the assumption that systems are dynamic, thus what is needed is an understanding of how to facilitate the direction of market system change away from what is defined as reactive and toward proactive structural and
behavioural characteristics.

The paper begins by examining markets as complex adaptive systems to better understand - at the system level as opposed to the individual, household, community or even enterprise level - how market systems respond to shocks and stresses.

With this understanding, the characteristics of market systems resilience are explored and a theory of change for how to strengthen market system resilience capacities is proposed. 

The paper ends with a tool for assessing market system resilience.