The resilience of a household or community is a key factor to address poverty and inequality. And yet, work on this topic is hindered by complexity and the requirement for substantial expertise which both lead to high costs and limited accessibility. With the support of the Ford Foundation, COSA undertook to build on the best global practices but in a fundamentally new way. We streamlined indicators and created more pragmatic options that can provide greater access to the topic and a more functionally usable understanding of resilience.
Indicators to diagnose and improve how households fare in difficult circumstances were unveiled in a recent webinar co-hosted by COSA with the Sustainable Food Lab. Over 260 participants representing leading institutions registered to hear Dr. Elena Serfilippi, Daniele Giovannucci and Stephanie Daniels introduce the new approach to resilience.
The slate of speakers included leaders from USAID, Catholic Relief Services, and Root Capital to illustrate how, from their diverse institutional perspectives, it is valuable to have well-defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of resilience. They discussed ways to use them practically and highlighted how simpler metrics can open new opportunities such as high-frequency data collection programs. COSA is committed to expanding collaboration with leading institutions to refine and also expand the work to include community metrics and wider applications in post-conflict areas. We welcome your interest and partnership to advance this.
