1.3. Vulnerability Context and Access to Resources

The word resilience has become an important dimension of the DRR and this is what the DFID defines as the department for international development of UK. It says 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, droughts or violent conflict without compromising their long-term prospects.

Resilience refers to how well a community can withstand shocks like natural disasters or conflicts without losing its ability to thrive in the long run. It’s not just about bouncing back to how things were before or 'building back better,' but also about ensuring that the future is not jeopardized. This definition indicates that communities should not only manage immediate challenges but also strategize for sustainable living.

Think of resilience like a rubber band. When you stretch it, it can return to its original shape, but if you stretch it too far or too often, it can lose its ability to bounce back, similar to how communities can lose their ability to thrive if they are constantly faced with shocks without proper support.

There are few more frameworks which I let us go through; one is the sustainable livelihoods framework. This has been developed again by the DFID in 1999. And you can see that it talks about the capital because they are referred as an asset framework as well and how the individual or a community, how they use, they, I would say like how they construct their livelihoods.

The sustainable livelihoods framework is a way to look at how individuals and communities use different types of capital (like human, social, natural, financial, and physical) to make a living. It shows how these resources are necessary in building skills and access that help them improve their living conditions, and this framework helps to identify where communities might be lacking and how they can be supported.

Imagine a farmer who has fertile land (natural capital), supportive family and friends (social capital), money saved (financial capital), and farming tools (physical capital). By combining these assets, the farmer can sustain and improve their livelihood. If any of these capitals are missing, it becomes harder for them to succeed.

Vulnerability context itself or the poverty context itself acts as an underlying phenomenon on to making these access work and do not work. Infrastructure and services and how it have a direct implication of these access. And then the governance situation, the policies, institutions and the processes how they actually work.

The vulnerability context refers to the factors that increase the likelihood of negative impacts from shocks, such as poverty and poor access to resources. Good infrastructure, like roads and services such as healthcare, is essential for communities to access the resources necessary for resilience. Additionally, effective governance and policies play a crucial role in ensuring that resources and support are provided where they are needed most.

Consider a community located in a remote area with weak roads and limited healthcare services. If a natural disaster strikes, the lack of infrastructure makes it hard for aid to reach them, increasing their vulnerability. However, if they have a strong local government at work that can quickly mobilize resources, their chances of recovering are significantly improved.

Here we call about DFIDs resilience framework, so one is the first part which talks about the context and where the context talks about the whole system and the processes and that is where when the context where the vulnerability context, where the political context, where the demographic context, where the social context whether how it geographically positioned, what kind of political institution.

The DFID's resilience framework emphasizes the importance of understanding various contexts—like vulnerability, political, demographic, and social—because these factors greatly influence how communities can deal with challenges. It also stresses that resilience isn’t just about bouncing back but also considers how well communities can adapt and transform in response to stressors.

Think of it as a game of chess. The context is the board, which influences how players can move their pieces. A player with better foresight and strategies that adapt to the opponent's moves can better position themselves for success, much like a community that can adapt to changes in their context.

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