1. Resilience Concepts and Measurement Workshop
1.1 Introduction to the Resilience Framework
Tim Frankenberger
TANGO International
Washington, D.C.
January 11, 2017

2. Welcome and Opening Remarks
Why are we focused on resilience?
Overview and structure of workshop
Participant expectations

3. Session 1.1 Overview Resilience: How is it defined? Key principles
Three resilience capacities
Conceptual framework
End of session discussion:
How do you conceptualize resilience?
Do we have a common understanding of resilience?
What are the differences with the framework presented here, or across offices/ organizations?

4. Background: Why resilience?
Increased exposure to complex risk scenarios
Reduce vulnerabilities
Promote sustainable development

5. Background: Contributors to vulnerability
Recurrent economic and environmental shocks
High levels of poverty
Weak governance
Scarcity of natural resources
Food insecurity & malnutrition
Gender inequality
Climate change
Population pressure
Conflict

6. Defining Resilience
Resilience has emerged to address chronic vulnerability of drought-prone populations in various contexts.
The ability of people, households, communities, countries, and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth (USAID, 2012)
The capacity that ensures adverse stressors and shocks do not have long-lasting adverse development consequences (FSIN RM-TWG, 2012)

7. Resilience Principles
Multidimensional capacity: Resilience capacity draws on a wide array of resources including:
human,
social,
economic,
physical,
programmatic, and
ecological resources.

8. Resilience Principles
Multi-level: observed at a given level (e.g., HH/community) but understood as a multi-level construct.
Systems-based: Interventions should be sensitive to nested dependencies between households, communities, systems and regions.

9. Resilience Principles
Two key features:
Shock dynamics
In both preparation & as a response to disturbances
Covariate /idiosyncratic
Capacities
Ability to absorb, adapt to, and if bad enough, to transform in order to deal with shocks

10. Three Resilience Capacities

11. Three Resilience Capacities
Absorptive capacity
The ability to minimize exposure to shocks and stresses through preventative measures and appropriate coping strategies to avoid permanent, negative impacts

12. Three Resilience Capacities
Adaptive capacity
Making proactive and informed choices about alternative livelihood strategies based on an understanding of changing conditions

13. Three Resilience Capacities
Transformative capacity
The governance mechanisms, policies/regulations, infrastructure, community networks, cultural norms and formal and informal social protection mechanisms that constitute the enabling environment for systemic change
[Session 1.2 discusses these capacities in more detail]

14. Outcome-indexed capacities
Resilience capacity should be indexed to a given well- being outcome
The outcome of interest may typically include some dimension of well-being such as:
basic health,
food and nutrition security, or
poverty status

15. Operationalizing Resilience Principles
Threshold
A set of capacities
Realized in connection with some disturbance
Indexed to an outcome
Operationalizing Resilience Principles

16. Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework for resilience integrates four types of frameworks/approaches:
Livelihoods: assets, structures and processes, livelihood strategies, and outcomes
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR): preparedness, prevention, response and recovery
Climate change adaptation (CCA): managing and adapting to long term trends and future uncertainty
Ecological: resource base, agro-ecological zones, natural resource management practices

17. Systems Perspective
Systems perspective: How can the many aspects of context reflect the interdependent relationships that exist across systems and influence capacities?
The resilience approach to build transformative capacity, while complex because of engagement with high-level and government systems, is useful for systems changes.

18. Conceptual Framework

19. Unpacking the Conceptual Framework
Components of the resilience conceptual framework:
Context
Level of aggregation
Shock exposure
Resilience capacities
Sensitivity and reaction: resilience and vulnerability pathways
Well-being outcomes/impacts

20. Context Matters
Environmental, political, social, economic, historical, demographic, religious, conflict, and policy conditions
Examples of positive and negative trends:
economies can improve or decline
environments are degraded/restored
long-term weather patterns change
Context affects, and is affected by, absorptive and adaptive capacities

21. Level of Aggregation
Unit of analysis for determining resilience of what? or resilience for whom?
‘Nested hierarchy’- Resilient individuals and households are the foundation for resilient communities
Resilience at one level does not automatically result in resilience at higher levels

22. Shocks and Stressors
Threaten lives and livelihood systems – rapid onset or regular and predictable (seasonal or disease)
Idiosyncratic / Covariate
Resilience to one type of shock does not ensure resilience to others
Exposure – magnitude, frequency & duration
Resilience can be measured before, during or after a shock

23. Livelihood Strategies
Adaptive capacity/livelihood strategies:
A range of livelihood strategies are used to secure quality of life and avoid exposure to risk: asset maximizing, risk reduction, and coping (negative and positive) strategies

24. Livelihood Strategies
Households form livelihood strategies based on:
Shocks/trends they are exposed to,
The combination of assets they possess, and
The overall environment of structures and processes

25. Sensitivity A cumulative outcome of adaptive capacity
Sensitivity determines the degree to which an individual, household, or community will be affected by a given shock or stress
Greater sensitivity = Lower degree of resilience
Lower sensitivity = Greater resilience

26. Outcomes
Resilience and vulnerability pathways lead to well-being (or livelihood) outcomes:
Nutritional security
Habitat security
Food security
Social network security
Income security
Personal security (physical safety)
Education security
Environmental security (healthy environment)
These outcomes/impacts affect future vulnerability to risk.

27. HADA Coordination
Coordination of humanitarian assistance(HA) to development assistance (DA) for building resilience
Reduces the need for humanitarian action, while protecting and improving development gains

28. Small group Discussion
Unpacking the resilience framework by contextualizing resilience components:
What do the various components of the framework look like based on your experience?
What are contextual considerations that influence vulnerabilities or capacities of households and communities?
Based on your own experience, how are household- level and community-level abilities to cope/recover related? (or other levels?)

29. Plenary Discussion
How does your organization (USAID office/Implementing Partner office) currently conceptualize resilience?
Do we have a common understanding of resilience across offices/organizations?
What are the differences with the framework presented here, or across offices/organizations?

30. References
USAID Building Resilience to Recurrent Crisis. USAID Policy and Program Guide. December.
Food Security Information Network (FSIN) Resilience Measurement - What is resilience and why measure it?. See: measurement/en/?page=4&ipp=7&no_cache=1
Béné, C., Godfrey Wood, R., Newsham, A. and Davies, M Resilience: new utopia or new tyranny? Reflection about the potentials and limits of the concept of resilience in relation to vulnerability reduction programmes. Institute of Development Studies Working Paper, 405, 21.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Horn of Africa Drought map. See:
TANGO Adapted from DFID Disaster Resilience Framework (2011), TANGO Livelihoods Framework (2007), DFID Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (1999) and CARE Household Livelihood Security Framework (2002).
World Health Organization (WHO). N.d. A man wades through a flood-ravaged area in Pakistan. Photo taken by Syed Haider. See:
USAID. N.d. Principles of Sequencing, Layering, and Integrating. Presentation.