Fact Sheet on Household Economics and Resilience for Food Security

There is an emerging commitment on the part of donors, governments and other non-governmental organizations to build resilience as a means to achieving real and lasting change for those most vulnerable in chronic crisis areas, such as the Sahel and Horn of Africa. In December 2012, the United States launched its whole-of-government strategy on resilience, which seeks to “layer, integrate, and sequence” humanitarian relief and development assistance, with a focus on chronic crisis areas where risk and unexpected shocks are the norm. There is not one silver bullet answer to developing resilience in crisis prone areas, and as a result definitions of resilience tend to be fairly broad. While the broad lens is crucial to ensuring we take a holistic look at vulnerability, it can also make it challenging to translate resilience into concrete actions. This short piece discusses the importance of focusing on household economics as a cornerstone for operationalizing resilience in these vulnerable communities.