Household resilience to food insecurity: shock exposure, livelihood strategies & risk response options

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to contribute to efforts to measuring and assessing resilience properties of household livelihoods, constructed in the risky environments, explaining why some households are more resilient than others. Based on resilience theory as applied to social-ecological systems with an application of Modern Portfolio Theory, this study adapted and measure the four properties of resilient livelihood systems and tested the expected relationships between system properties. It also examines risk coping behaviors of households and its role in shaping resilience trajectories of livelihoods towards a positive food security outcome. This study suggests that the major source of poor household resilience is both structurally constrained adaptive capacity and high shock exposure. Therefore, resilience programs that are designed in a similar risk prone and chronically food insecure districts of the country, should promote risk reduction measures while implementing programs designed to address structural causes of food insecurity.

El propósito de este estudio es contribuir a los esfuerzos para medir y evaluar las propiedades de resiliencia de los medios de vida de los hogares, construidos en entornos de riesgo, explicando por qué algunos hogares son más resistentes que otros. Basado en la teoría de la resiliencia aplicada a los sistemas socioecológicos con la aplicación de Modern Portfolio Theory, este estudio adapta y mide las cuatro propiedades de los sistemas de medios de vida resilientes y prueba las relaciones esperadas entre las propiedades del sistema.