Screen 1 of 16 Vulnerability What is Vulnerability? LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand the concept of...

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VulnerabilityWhat 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.

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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:

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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.

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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.”

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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

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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” .

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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.

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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.

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.

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Technological

Technological


Can you think of examples of specific shocks under each of these headings?

Political Political

Natural Natural

Economic Economic

Health Health

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Co-variant Risksaffect many people simultaneously (e.g.

droughts, earthquake or war).

Idiosyncratic Risks affect individual

households (e.g. crime, unemployment or

sickness).

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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:

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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

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1

2ex 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 employmentMaking savings

Removing children from school

Migrating after crop loss

Building up livestock herds

Ex ante prevention/mitigation

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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.

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2ex 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.

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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.

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