Resilience-building – easier said than done

With a view to climate change, raising the resilience of rural households and local communities is becoming ever more important. Practising climate-smart agriculture and establishing early warning systems are two elements employed in this context. However, limitations quickly become clear during practical implementation. Taking experiences from the Concern-led „Building Resilience in Chad and Sudan“ programme, the Rural21 author reports on success factors and obstacles.

Drought Cycle Management for building resilience and food security

With global climate change progressing rapidly, droughts are expected to increase in frequency, duration and severity. To combat the impacts, adequate vulnerability assessments, early warning systems, and efficient disaster relief must be combined with the long-term investment in drought mitigation and adaptation. In this article, the Rural21 authors describe what such drought cycle management could look like.

Make social protection schemes work for drought resilience: lessons from Ethiopia’s PSNP

During the last decade, social protection instruments have gained popularity among policy responses to drought. Several governments in sub-Saharan Africa have integrated cash transfer and public works schemes into their strategies for food security and disaster risk management. Looking at Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), one of the largest programmes of this kind in the region, the Rural21 author examines which structural bottlenecks have to be removed for social protection schemes to contribute to drought resilience in the long term.

Building resilient livelihoods through economic empowerment – An example from Malawi

One of the objectives of cash transfers is to improve household income to meet basic needs. Adding economic empowerment interventions to existing cash transfer programmes has the potential to reduce vulnerability and build the resilience of households in extreme poverty by creating assets, supporting income diversification and promoting financial inclusion – an example from Malawi.