CRS UniversityINTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MODULESModule 4: The CRS IHD Framework: Shocks, Vulnerability, and Strategies

Last updated February 2019

Outline

• Overview of the CRS Integral Human Development Conceptual Framework

– IHD as Goal and Process

– IHD Key Features

– IHD Visual Models

• Shocks, Cycles, Trends

• Vulnerabilities

• Strategies & Resilience

• Optional Reflection & Discussion Activities and Further Reading

Note: You will see photos and images from our CRS programs and partners around the world

throughout this slide deck. As you come across them, reflect on how they illustrate concepts

from integral human development, especially the role of structures and systems.

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Integral Human Development: Goal and Process

• GOAL: The people we serve increasingly realize their full

human potential in solidarity with others and in the context

of a just and peaceful society that respects the dignity of

every person and the integrity of creation.

• PROCESS: that enables individuals and communities to

protect and expand the choices they have to improve their

lives, meet their basic human needs, free themselves from

oppression and realize their full human potential.

Integral Human Development: Key Features

• HOLISTIC

• INCLUSIVE & PARTICIPATORY

• GROUNDED IN JUSTICE AND PEACE

• What’s different or unique?

– Focus on human beings, their dignity, and their relationships with

their families and communities

– Appreciative inquiry that seeks to build on strengths, assets, ideas

and strategies that people know and practice already in their

communities

Integral Human Development: Visual Models

• A variety of visual models have been developed over the years to help

explain the CRS IHD Conceptual Framework. Here are two common

examples. The following slide shows the newest approach.

Integral Human Development Framework

Outcomes

Strategies

Shocks,

Cycles &

Trends

Structures▪Institutions & Organizations

▪Public▪Private

▪Collective

Systems▪Social

▪Economic▪Religious

▪Political

▪Values & beliefs

Assets

Feedback = Opportunities or Constraints

Access

& Influence

Social

Spiritual & Human

Political

Financial

Natural

Physical

2018 CRS IHD Conceptual Framework: Visual Model

This newest visual model illustrates the

core IHD feature of human dignity while

also showing that IHD is holistic: human

beings are part of families,

communities, societies, and sustainable

landscapes.

The core components of IHD will be

further explained in this module

(shocks, vulnerability, and strategies)

and in other modules (assets,

structures, and systems). These

components affect the ability of human

beings to live and thrive.

Shocks: What are They?

Shocks are sudden, intense events that can harm people’s lives

or livelihoods (i.e. natural disasters, violence, death of a family

member). Shocks can be political, economic, environmental or

social.

• What are some examples of shocks in your experience?

• How did these affect people?• How did people respond?

Cycles: What Are They?

Cycles are events that occur regularly, often seasonally, and are

more predictable (i.e., seasonal floods, crop prices after the

harvest, diseases associated with rainy seasons). Cycles can also

be political, economic, environmental or social.

• What are some examples of cycles in your experience?

• How did these affect people?• How did people cope and

respond?

Trends: What are They?

Trends are gradual evolutions that can be positive or negative.

Prices can increase or decline, long-term weather patterns can

change, disease rates (such as HIV) can increase or decrease

depending on a number of factors.

• What are some examples of trends in your experience?

• How did these affect people?• How did people cope and

respond?0

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Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

What are the Effects of a Shock?

• Loss of assets

• Structures and systems that no longer function normally

• Potential for new shocks

• Livelihood strategies that are no longer viable

• Choice of strategies and activities that increase vulnerability

• New opportunities (solidarity, social interdependence)

Unequal Vulnerabilities to Shocks, Cycles, and Trends

Individuals, families and communities have very different levels of vulnerability.

Why?

• Women are at greater risk of being injured during a natural disaster.

• Children and the elderly are more vulnerable to many illnesses.

• People who are better off are generally less vulnerable to natural disasters than the poor.

What are the Causes of Vulnerability?

The capacity to manage risks from shocks, cycles and trends is based on:

• Assets that you own and resources you have access to

• Livelihood and coping strategies

• The severity, frequency and duration of risks

• Gender disparities

• Enabling or constraining structures and systems

What are Coping Strategies?

Systems people use to get through hard times (i.e., to cope with Shocks, Cycles & Trends).

• reversible (+) coping mechanisms: eat less, eat something else, temporary migration by one family member, etc.

• irreversible (-) coping mechanisms: use up assets (sell animals and jewelry), move family elsewhere permanently (migration), put children in institutions or sell them, etc.

Coping strategies can also serve as trigger indicators: an early warning to CRS and its partners of threats to integral human development in a community

What is Resilience?

Resilience is the capacity of people and communities to advance integral human development in the face of shocks, cycles and trends.

• What are some examples of resilience from your own experience?

• What are some examples of ways that CRS and its partners can reinforce the resilience of households and communities?

Livelihoods Strategies: What are They?

Households develop Strategies to attain their aspirations based on the Assets to which they have access, and the Risks to which they are exposed, taking into consideration both the enabling and constraining aspects of Structures & Systems.

The Six Livelihoods Strategies

1. Asset Maximization –increasing people’s capabilities and incomes.

2. Asset Diversification –establishing a range of asset types to increase resilience in case of loss of any one set of assets.

3. Engagement – increasing the influence of people and communities in decision-making. It’s critical that this includes both men and women.

The Six Livelihoods Strategies

4. Risk Reduction – reducing peoples’ vulnerability to Shocks, Cycles and Trends.

5. Asset Recovery – rebuilding all categories of Assets lost during a disaster.

6. Coping/Survival Mechanisms – systems that people use to get through difficult periods.

Reflection & Discussion

Activities and Further

Reading (Optional)

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Reflection and Discussion:

Food Security in Burkina Faso Case Study

Read the four-page Food Security in Burkina Faso case study.

Reflect individually, in pairs, or in groups on the following questions.

Option to share in class or with a larger group.

• What strategies were utilized by CRS Burkina Faso staff and why?

• Who were the target populations of these strategies? How did they take into

account the most vulnerable?

• How did these strategies increase long-term resilience in the community?

Exercise: Coping with Multiple Shocks

If doing the exercise in small groups:

• Decide ahead of time which small group(s) will discuss Situation 1: Cambodia and

which will discuss Situation 2: Syria. [note: Situations are on the following slides.]

• If possible, prepare by cutting each situation into 3 separate slips of paper for

each subsequent “shock.”

• Distribute “Shock 1” only for group reading and discussion. Then, distribute, read

and discuss “Shock 2” and “Shock 3” to the appropriate groups.

• Prepare to discuss in plenary the evolution of the family’s strategies and the

differences in how CRS and its partners might respond to successive shocks of

increasing magnitude. Discuss any differences between the two Situations.

If doing the exercise alone, choose one of the Situations on the following slides and

reflect on each successive shock along with the questions provided.

Shock 1: Drought is a regular occurrence in the village of Svay Rieng. However, this past drought has been severe

and crops have failed. There is little rice left to eat. Fish ponds are drying up, and other aquatic plants and

animals are hard to find. You are a farmer and head of household in Svay Rieng with seven household members

both old and young.

• How will the family cope with this situation?

• What could others in the community, including CRS and its partners, do to help?

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Shock 2: Now, bird flu has broken out and is spreading among chickens and ducks. The authorities are forced to

kill all the poultry in Svay Rieng as part of a larger culling operation to prevent bird flu from spreading. You lost all

your chickens and ducks.

• How will the family cope with this situation?

• What could others in the community, including CRS and its partners, do to help?

Shock 3: In Svay Rieng, children have recently become ill. Health authorities took the sick children to a regional

hospital and found it was bird flue. Several of these children have died and there is great fear that it will spread

further. One of your neighbor’s children is sick with avian flue. She is your daughter’s best friend and they play

together often.

• How will the family cope with this situation?

• What could others in the community, including CRS and its partners, do to help?

Exercise: Coping with Multiple Shocks - Continued

Situation 1: Cambodia

Shock 1: Adnan and his family live in Syria near the Euphrates river in a semi-arid region. He is the father of three sons. He and his sons farm the

family’s land, which he inherited from his father and grandfather. For the past ten years, rainfall has been much lower than normal due to climate

change, and their wheat production has steadily decreased. Irrigation is also less reliable than in the past because of fuel shortages and equipment

breakdowns. To make matters worse, the government has encouraged herders to graze their cattle in the region because there is more pastureland

near the river. However, the animals are destroying the crops in the fields.

• How will the family cope with this situation?

• What could others in the community, including CRS’s local partners, do to help?

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Shock 2: The war, which had seemed far away in Damascus, is now starting to affect the region around Adnan’s village. Roads to nearby market towns

where they sold their agricultural production and bought other goods have been destroyed. There are also checkpoints where both government

soldiers and rebels threaten travelers and force them to pay bribes. Several bombings have occurred close to their house. Some relatives who lived in

Damascus have come to take refuge with them. They have also just learned that their oldest son’s wife (Hanan) is pregnant with their first grandchild.

Due to the war, quality medical care has become hard to access since many doctors have left the area.

• How will the family cope with this situation?

• What could others in the community, including CRS’s local partners, do to help?

Shock 3: Hanan has had a difficult pregnancy. The events of the last months have left her traumatized, and the family did not have access to adequate

food or medical care. Suddenly she goes into premature labor. There are complications, and she needs immediate medical attention. The baby girl

survives, but there are significant medical expenses to pay and further care is needed. The family has had no income for several months due to the

worsening economic and political crisis. Many families have fled to Turkey and elsewhere due to increasing insecurity.

• How will the family cope with this situation?

• What could others in the community, including CRS’s local partners, do to help?

Exercise: Coping with Multiple Shocks - Continued

Situation 2: Syria

Reflection and Discussion: CRS Videos

Watch the following videos:

• Livelihoods Strategies: Building Resilience through Innovation

• CRS Emergency Shelter and Settlement Recovery

• ”Build Back Better” Music Video by CRS Philippines

Reflect individually, in pairs, or in groups on the following questions.

Option to share in class or with a larger group.

• What are some examples of strategies you saw in the videos?

• How did the strategies increase individual and community resilience?

• How did these strategies address past shocks, trends, and cycles and prepare

communities to respond in the future?

Reflection and Discussion Questions

Reflect individually, in pairs, or in groups on the following questions.

Option to share in class or with a larger group.

• Why do shocks, cycles, and trends need to be considered in the CRS Integral

Human Development Framework?

• How might different strategies be effective in different situations? How are

these decisions made?

• How do the photos and images in these slides illustrate the role of shocks and

strategies within integral human development?