What do we know about resilience and food security? – Most recent progress in measuring and assessing resilience interventions

What do we know
about resilience
and food
security?
Most recent
progress in
measuring and
assessing
resilience
interventions

Measuring, and M&E of Resilience interventions
Background
- Social Protection –climate change
and disaster (DFID-Word Bank)
- Resilience Measurement Technical
Working groups (WFP-FAO)
- IFPRI Hunger Index
- Food for Peace (USAID)
- WFP (Bangladesh)
- Review the current state-of-the art
- Conceptual-theoretical
- Measurement
- Impact evaluation
- Some empirical examples
- Focus on Food security
(at the household level)
Objectives

 several disciplines [from
psychology to engineering]
 more than 100 definitions
 “not cast in stone” – evolved over
time [1940s – til present]
 several functions of resilience
Generalities and complications about resilience

1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
(resilire)
resilience
Child resilience
(psychology)
Ecosystem
resilience
(ecology)
Material
resilience
(engineering)
Social-ecological
resilience
Social
resilience
Climate change
resilience
disaster risk
reduction19th century
Modulus of
resilience
RobertMallet
Evolutionary path of the concept of resilience and emergence of the different schools of
thoughts and their lineage
Source: Béné et al 2014

Resilience used as…
 a goal (what to aim at)
 an analytical tool (to understand)
 an conceptual tool (to find the
solution)
 a metaphor (to help break silo)
 a buzz-word (to publish or
to get funded?)
 an indicator (of sustainability)
Resilience defined as…
 a clear (academic) concept
(relying on theory)
 a common meaning word
(“ability to bear hardship”)
 no definition
 no use beyond the title!

 Resilience is about people (individual, households, communities) and systems
 Resilience is about shock and stressors
 Resilience is about the way these people / systems respond to shocks and stressors
ability of a system and its component parts to anticipate, absorb,
accommodate, or recover from the effects of a hazardous event in a
timely and efficient manner IPCC 2012
ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist,
absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard in a
timely and efficient manner UNISDR 2013
ability of countries, communities and households to manage change, by
maintaining or transforming living standards in the face of shocks or
stresses without compromising their long-term prospects
DFID 2012
capacity that ensures adverse stressors and shocks do not have long-
lasting adverse development consequences
TWG FAO-WFP 2014
 Resilience is about the ability of people/ systems to respond to shocks/stressors
 Normative value of resilience – resilience is a ‘good’ thing

‘Operational’ definition of resilience
“capacity to handle appropriately*
shocks and stressors”
* = without LT negative implications
The main lessons from the last few
years….
 Resilience as a set of capacities
 Beyond the direct impact of shocks…
 Resilience as a mean (outcome)
rather than an end (impact)
Implications for measuring resilience

Resilience as a set of capacities

Beyond the direct impact of shocks…

… implications for
measuring/monitoring resilience
 Household characteristics (assets,
livelihood activity, access to information,
age, gender, etc.
 Resilience capacities at the hh and
community levels (infrastructure, social
capitals, external support, etc.)
 Shocks/stressors and their
characteristics (severity, frequency, etc.)
 Households’ responses (coping
strategies, adaptive strategies,
transformative strategies)
 Household welfare and wellbeing
indicators (z-score, quality of life
indicators, food security)
Panel data
High frequency data
CHANGE
Intermediate
outcome
Outcome
Impact

ResponseShock
Project / intervention
M&E of project input / activities / outputs
endline
- hh charac
- resil capac
- contextHigh frequency panel
- shock/stressor
- responses
- Δ in hh wellbeing
The Ferrari model…
Baseline
- hh charac
- resil capac
- context

 Economic wealth is key
Financial capital (income, assets)
are important for recovery
 Social capital as a critical
element of resilience
Reciprocity, collective action, etc.
usually expected to strengthen
resilience
 Perception matters
People’s decisions (e.g. type of
response) depend on perception
and subjective factors (e.g. self-
esteem, self-confidence, etc.)
Determinants of resilience capacities?
Empirical research (Ghana, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Vietnam)
Series of working hypotheses

Results : a brief overview…
 Economic wealth is key
 Wealth (assets) does influence the recovery
process but not the choice of responses
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Food
Expenses
Money
Assest
Support
Collaboration
Diversification
Migration
Exit
Change
Increase
Percentageofhouseholds(%)
Response typology (Vietnam)
Bottom 40%
Top 40%
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
Food
Expenses
Money
Assets
Support
Collaboration
Diversification
Migration
Exit
Change
Increase
Percentageofhouseholds(%)
Response typology (Fiji)
Bottom 40%
Top 40%

Measuring resilience in practice
 Social capital as a critical element of resilience
 Evidence about social capital is mixed / unclear
 no significant correlation between social capital and resilience
at the hh level
 strong positive correlation between social capital indicators and
resilience at the community level

 Perception matters
 Higher subjective resilience associated with a lower
propensity to engage in coping strategies
 The perception that people have of
their level of control over their own life
positively influences their ability to
recover from shocks/stressors
 higher subjective resilience also more likely to engage in
adaptive/transformative strategies

pastPsycho-social factors
aspiration, risk aversion,
self-efficacy, etc.
Subjective
resilience
Household and
community
characteristics
age, education, assets,
infrastructures, social
capital, etc.
Programme interventions
livelihood diversification,
climate smart agriculture
etc.
Resilience capacities
absorptive, adaptive,
transformative
Effect of
shocks/stressors
Responses
coping, adaptive,
transformative
Impact
Change in food security,
nutrition status,
wellbeing
current
- objective/tangible
component = assets,
social capital,
knowledge, access to
infrastructure, etc.
- subjective component = self-
perception, risk aversion, risk
perception, self-efficacy, etc.
Two components of resilience

 Objective and subjective
 Specific, yet generic/coherent
 Emphasis on shocks and
stressors
 Resilience as a combination
of capacities
 Combined effects of
shocks/stressors and the
responses
 Resilience capacity is
measured at multiple levels
and scales
 Resilience as a means
(outcome) rather than an
end (impact)
Series of “principles”

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