If it’s a Safety-Net, is it Resilient?

Mara RussellApril 25, 2012

Improving Resilience in Food Insecure Communities

What is a Social Safety-Net?A social safety net is a system of providing resource transfers to low-income and other vulnerable individuals and populations who are unable to meet basic needs for survival and human dignity. Individuals may be unable to meet these needs due to a shock. Such individuals are often dependent to some extent upon outside resources to meet their basic food and livelihood needs. (Office of Food for Peace, Fiscal Year 2010: Title II Proposal Guidance and Program Policies)

3 Types of Social Safety-Nets

• Unconditional social safety nets provide resource transfers based solely on criteria of need.

• Conditional social safety nets provide a resource transfer contingent on certain behaviors, such as sending children to school or bringing them to health centers on a regular basis. Conditional social safety nets address both short-term protection objectives while promoting the longer-term accumulation of human capital.

• Productive social safety nets provide a resource transfer to chronically food insecure people who, in exchange for the transfer, provide labor to build community assets. Productive Safety Nets also help prevent households from selling off productive assets such as animals. In a chronic food insecurity situation, a productive safety net might be a seasonal intervention.

What is Resilience?• “…the ability of countries, communities, and

households to manage change by maintaining or transforming living standards in the face of shocks or stresses – such as earthquakes, drought or violent conflict – without compromising their long-term prospects.”

(UK Department for International Development (DFID). 2011.Defining Disaster Resilience: A DFID Approach Paper, in Frankenberger, et. al. “Building Resilience to Food Security Shocks in the Horn of Africa”, March 2012)

Are Safety- Nets Resilient?

• Yes:– Safety-net transfers help people maintain living

standards in the face of shocks or stresses – Enable/support people to protect assets– Meet immediate and life-saving needs

• What makes a safety-net effective?• Are safety-nets sufficient?

POVERTY THRESHOLD

Source: Christopher B. Barrett, Food Aid As Part Of A Coherent Strategy, Background Paper for FAO State of Food and Agriculture, 2006, March 2006

• Have assets, often insurance• Impact of shock – transitory• Immediate short-term

assistance• EWS

• Few, if any assets• Impact of shock – severe,

chronic• Difficult to maintain assets

with or without shocks• Require assistance to stay

where they are

Safety-nets prevent falls below the threshold

Safety-nets enable maintenance and survival

Types of safety-nets• Timeframe/Duration:

– Short-term, Medium-term, Longer-term– Seasonal or Cyclical

• Objective of Protection/Response:– Health/nutrition: WASH, medicines, food, safety/social, cash– Assets: food, feed, seeds/tools, cash, financial, animals– Infrastructure: Roads, Water, Natural Resources, Human

Resources, Markets/Commerce• Conditionality:

– Unconditional – transfer with no required pay back– Conditional – transfer with behavioral pay back– Productive – transfer with labor pay back

Conditionality Issues• Perceptions by households & communities:– Are transfers seen as more important than the assets

developed or behaviors incentivized?– Would beneficiaries have implemented the activity or

adopted the behavior without the transfer?– In some cases, behaviors, assets, and infrastructures

are seen as intrinsically valuable, while in other cases the value may not be clear as separate from the transfer

– Unless community/households empowered, may reduce the management or control the asset or infrastructure – seen as coming from outside

Resilience (Revisited)

• “…the ability of countries, communities, and households to manage change by maintaining or transforming living standards in the face of shocks or stresses – such as earthquakes, drought or violent conflict – without compromising their long-term prospects.”

Communities and Households Manage Change

• Implies communities and households have a stake and a say – i.e. governance

• Implies people are empowered to assert themselves, have agency

• Implies self-efficacy – a belief in one’s ability to make a difference

• Implies capability, knowledge, understanding of conditions and how to address them

Maintaining or Transforming Living Standards in the Face of Shocks or Stresses

• Implies potential for improvement above a baseline

• Implies potential to make positive changes in the face of adversity (…even because of it?)– People may change behaviors, protect household assets,

and build community infrastructure as a result of shocks and stresses

– Implies empowerment and efficacy in the face of adversity

What is a Cargo Net?

Cargo nets…help climbers surmount obstacles or can be used to lift people and communities, overcoming the structural forces that otherwise keep them down. Cargo nets are thus meant to lift those who fall below critical thresholds or to help them climb out of chronic poverty and food insecurity… Cargo net interventions aim at building chronically poor participants’ asset stocks and/or improving the productivity of assets they already possess.Source: Christopher B. Barrett, Food Aid As Part Of

A Coherent Strategy, Background Paper for FAO State of Food and Agriculture, 2006, March 2006

POVERTY THRESHOLD

Source: Christopher B. Barrett, Food Aid As Part Of A Coherent Strategy, Background Paper for FAO State of Food and Agriculture, 2006, March 2006

• Have assets, often insurance• Impact of shock – transitory• Immediate short-term

assistance• EWS

• Few, if any assets• Impact of shock – severe,

chronic• Difficult to maintain assets

with or without shocks• Require assistance to stay

where they are• Difficulties increase with

time/resources invested in safety-nets

Safety-nets prevent falls below the threshold

Safety-nets enable maintenance and survival

Cargo nets enable people to climb out of chronic poverty

and food insecurity

Resilience beyond Safety-Nets

• Safety-nets are critical and necessary for basic needs, survival, human dignity, and asset protection

However, more is needed for resilience:• Strong safety-nets build capacity, ownership, and

management capacity: Governance• Enable people to understand vulnerabilities and

respond appropriately• Focus on intrinsic value of behaviors• Focus on transforming living standards: “Cargo net”

interventions – building assets

Thank You!