Screen 1 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand the concept of vulnerability. Appreciate the difference between vulnerability and food insecurity. Comprehend how the outcome of vulnerability is determined by exposure to risks and the capacity to cope with these risks.

Screen 2 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? INTRODUCTION a basic explanation of the concept of vulnerability and its main components; and an explanation and comparation of the main alternative ways of describing vulnerability. This presentation provides:

Screen 3 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? WHAT VULNERABILITY MEANS What does vulnerability mean? Vulnerability is used to predict how the welfare of individuals and households may change in future. Poverty and food insecurity are used to describe people’s welfare at the present time.

Screen 4 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? WHAT VULNERABILITY MEANS “Vulnerability represents defenselessness, insecurity and exposure to risks, shocks and stress... and difficulty in coping with them”. “Vulnerability is the exposure and sensitivity to livelihood shocks”. “Vulnerability is the inability of some communities or households to cope with contingencies and stresses to which they are exposed.”

Screen 5 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS Vulnerability is defined in terms of the following three critical dimensions: Vulnerability to an outcome... from a variety of risk factors...because of an inability to manage those risks

Screen 6 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: THE OUTCOME People can be vulnerable to: food consumption (kcal/day) below a certain level; malnutrition manifested by stunting, wasting or a low Body mass index (BMI); reduced access to a diversified diet. In the food security context, vulnerability can be defined as: “The probability of a person or household falling or staying below a minimum food security threshold within a certain timeframe”.

Screen 7 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: RISKS It important to consider the extent of the exposure to these risks. It is important to relate the probability of flooding to those whom it affects. If a flood occurs in an unpopulated area it will have minimal food security impacts. For example... Risks are natural or manmade phenomenon that may cause physical damage, economic loss and threaten human life and wellbeing. Examples of risks: earthquakes; droughts ; or conflicts. These risks have varying degrees of intensity and severity.

Screen 8 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: RISKS The two main types of risks are: There are changes to FS that occur more gradually over time. These may be described as trends or stresses. Shocks Trends (or Stresses) There may be a very rapid deterioration in food security as the result of a shock.

Screen 9 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? Technological VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: RISKS Can you think of examples of specific shocks under each of these headings? Political Natural Economic Health

Screen 10 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: RISKS Co-variant Risks affect many people simultaneously (e.g. droughts, earthquake or war). Idiosyncratic Risks affect individual households (e.g. crime, unemployment or sickness).

Screen 11 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: RISK MANAGEMENT CAPACITY the initial food security status and context; the level of assets and diversity of livelihood activities; and the existence of and the ability of households to access external risk management instruments. The determinants of risk management capacity include:

Screen 12 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: RISK MANAGEMENT CAPACITY Rural producers in the Sahel deal with unpredictable conditions all the time. They are experts in juggling multiple strategies, and the majority do not consider themselves “vulnerable”. Pastoral and agricultural strategies include various elements: Example: Risk management strategies in the Sahel Farmers’ strategies Pastoralists’ strategies Both Pastoralists’ and Farmers’ strategies

Screen 13 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: RISK MANAGEMENT CAPACITY 1 2 ex post coping that manage the consequences after a shock has occurred. ex ante prevention and mitigation that seek to anticipate the eventuality of shocks in advance (A) (B) Eating less meals Selling livestock Building up food stores Ex post coping 1 Growing drought-resistant crops Nurturing social networks Diversifying crops and income sources Seeking off-farm employment Making savings Removing children from school Migrating after crop loss Building up livestock herds Ex ante prevention/mitigation

Screen 14 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: RISK MANAGEMENT CAPACITY 1 ex ante prevention and mitigation These strategies help households to build up assets in order to provide a buffer against uncertain events. They also diversify activities to vary the exposure to different risks. Successful strategies will build assets over time, in which assets are traded up in sequence. For example... Shifting from chickens to goats, to cattle, to land; or, cash from non-farm income to farm inputs to higher farm income to land or to livestock. By increasing the financial ability to withstand losses, this will reduce people’s vulnerability over time.

Screen 15 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? VULNERABILITY’S CRITICAL DIMENSIONS: RISK MANAGEMENT CAPACITY 2 ex post coping These strategies often relies on accumulated assets to cope with the effects of shocks and negative trends. Typically in the early stages the coping responses will seek not to erode assets, such as: reducing consumption of non-food items; sending a family member to town to look for work; and gathering wild food, doing with less food. However, as a crisis deepens, assets may be sold, causing a downward spiral.

Screen 16 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? SUMMARY Vulnerability in food security terms can be defined as “The probability of a person or household falling or staying below a minimum food security threshold within a certain timeframe”. Vulnerability is not the same as food insecurity: food insecurity describes the current state of a person’s welfare, while vulnerability refers to chance of remaining or becoming food insecure at some future point in time. Vulnerability can be understood in terms of three critical dimensions: vulnerability to an outcome (outcome), from a variety of risk factors and because of an inability to prevent, mitigate or cope with the effects of those risks. There are two main types of risks: shocks (such as floods, droughts, job losses, wars, illnesses, accidents, etc.) and trends (such as deforestations, declining commodity prices, increasing accountability, etc). These can hit individuals (ideosyncratic) or many (co-variant) The ability to avoid that risks negatively affect food security, depends on the risk management capacity or the ability to prevent, mitigate or cope with a negative shock or trend.