Consultancy for study: Resilience analysis, Action Against Hunger Afghanistan

1. Project Goal

Contribute to reducing morbidity and mortality and improving the living conditions and well-being of the crisis-affected population in Afghanistan

Objective of the project:

• Sustainable livelihood strengthening by supporting smallholder farmers in food production at individual and community level in Ghor, Daikundi, Badakhshan.
• Strengthening the resilience of the population and their communities through capacity building in disaster risk management (DRM), psychosocial health and care (MHPSS), and building resilient WASH basic infrastructure in Ghor, Daykundi, Badakhshan.
• Developing gender-sensitive, peaceful and inclusive coexistence through community awareness and technical training at community and individual levels in Ghor, Daykundi, and Badakhshan.

1. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
   1. Rationale for the study

Resilience is captured by a set of capacities that enable households and communities to effectively function in the face of shocks and stresses and still meet a set of well-being outcomes. The ability to measure resilience involves measuring the relationship between shocks, capacities, responses, and current and future states of well-being. Thus, there is no single indicator that measures resilience. There is a need for a number of indicators to be analytically used as part of a measurement framework.

There are four key factors to consider in measuring resilience:

• Identify the well-being (Present desirable status of food security and livelihood indicators) outcomes to be achieved and measure resilience in relation to these outcomes.
• Identify the minor and major shocks and stresses that individuals, households, communities are exposed to and the severity and duration of these shocks and stresses [the specific shocks would be determined from the responses obtained. We do have understanding of shocks and stress on Individuals, households and community. For examples: sickness is individual stress, death of Head of households/ breadwinner is household shock, etc]
• Measure the anticipatory, absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities (HHs education level, HHs employment status, access to land and other assets, community social institutions, functionality of markets, etc set of human, psychological, social, financial, physical, natural or political resources) in relation to these shocks and stresses at different levels.
• Identify the responses of individuals, households and communities to these shocks and stresses and trajectory of well-being outcomes
  1. Objectives of the study

General objective:

To contribute to identifying the key resilience capacities that protect from shocks/stresses; understand the potential contribution of the project’s activities (Agriculture, Asset creation/rehabilitation, DRR committees, MHPSS, and Peace.) to coping mechanisms and resilience building and highlight insights for the future design of resilience building programs.

Specific objectives:

This resilience study shall seek to get more scientific information on the shocks and stresses at the household level for the vulnerable households and the capacities that the households have to build on to cope with the stresses, as well as the potential of community assets creation for community resilience.

• To identify the current and potential shocks and stresses capable of affecting the sustainable livelihoods of individuals, households and community members;
• To identify copping strategies and resources available to the targeted vulnerable populations to address the identified shocks and stresses;
• To identify the strategies and resources gaps between the targeted vulnerable populations and the threatening shocks and stresses;
• To identify available and potential strategies and resources that can be employed to enhance the resilience of the individuals, households and communities to shocks and stresses;

To identify potential community assets that can be employed to enhance the resilience of the individuals, households and communities to shocks and stresses