Hi Naim and Maha, Great to see this question on MERS/Localization. After working with local financial sector institutions for much of the past year, I think we might benefit from flipping the framing: *by working through local institutions, we are much more likely to meet the MERS standards*. A number of financial sector entities, such as the Social Fund for Development in Yemen and MISFA in Afghanistan, among others, are combining their role in financial market facilitation (e.g., supporting the microfinance industry), with roles in market based programming (from graduation to cash transfers to VSLAs). I've found it very inspiring to see what these local institutions can accomplish by combining their deep knowledge of the local financial sector (the supply, rules, actors), their staff, and a vision for not just surviving crises, but building a stronger/more inclusive financial sector for the future. They're just naturally much more easily positioned to meet the MERS standards and implement market aware programs, when compared with international agencies who have shallower and shorter-term engagement in a context, and a steep hill to climb just to understand market dynamics. I think really enabling these local institutions to do their best work requires us to go a bit beyond the standard design process that you're asking about, Naim (MEAL frameworks, etc.), and letting them take the driver's seat with funders. But being realistic about where we are with the localization agenda, perhaps a starting point would be to identifying and engaging these types of institutions in true co-design of programs. Eager to hear if others are seeing similar local institutions playing similar roles beyond the financial sector? Or if people in this group are part of local institutions doing the hard work of market facilitation + market based humanitarian programming? Cheers, Sara

Hi Naim, thanks for bringing up this discussion! This is actually a question we're currently exploring at the MERS advisory committee. I wish we can find good example, that would be really helpful. Also, if there are any suggestions on how to connect MERS with the localization agenda, or who are the stakeholders we can reach out to in order to kickstart this, let's discuss that too!

الموضوع: جدول أعمال المعايير الأساسية للتعافي الاقتصادي والتمكين المحلي Has anyone been using standards like the [Minimum Economic Recovery Standards](https://hspstandards.org/mers/) to ensure their teams work with/through local actors? How successful has this been? Have you built the standards into proposals or MEAL frameworks? هل استخدم أي شخص المعايير الأساسية للتعافي الاقتصادي لضمان عمل فرقهم من خلال الجهات المحلية الفاعلة؟ ما مدى نجاح ذلك؟ هل تم تضمين هذه المعايير في المقترحات للمانحين أو في خطط المراقبة و التقييم؟ :[الرابط لاستشارة المعايير الأساسية](https://hspstandards.org/mers/)