Enhancing resilience to severe drought: what works?
This document evaluates the effects of a resilience-focused project in the face of a severe shock. The results provide compelling evidence that supports the efficacy of multi-year, flexibly funded, integrated approaches to building resilience to severe shocks. Specifically, households that had benefitted from the project fared better than others in the face of drought through the following resilience-based indicators: Food security; Assets and vulnerability to poverty; Animal health and livestock deaths; Impacts on coping strategies; Impacts on ‘downstream’ shocks. This study demonstrated that investing in innovative, long-term resilience interventions can help mitigate the worst effects of humanitarian emergencies and protect development gains in vulnerable communities. The results lend support to the efficacy of multi-year, multi-sectoral approaches aimed at strengthening systems (markets, ecological, livelihood) that enable households and communities to respond and adapt to the major shocks and stressors they face.