Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed long-standing social inequalities and vulnerabilities, with the most disadvantaged and marginalised groups bearing the greatest health, social, and economic burdens. Beyond documenting these vulnerabilities, there is a need to mitigate them and support the resilience of marginalised communities. ‘Community resilience’ can bolster community capacity to cope with the pressures of various shocks; this brief explores how its concepts can be applied to epidemics. It reviews the grey and academic literature on different approaches to community resilience. It covers 1) terminology, 2) lessons from practice, 3) the context of community resilience, 4) a systems approach, and 5) key human and social capacities. Social justice, inequality, equity, and fairness are highlighted as themes in need of further development for resilience as it relates to epidemic preparedness and response. This brief was developed for SSHAP by IDS (led by Megan Schmidt-Sane with Tabitha Hrynick) with Anthrologica (Eva Niederberger).
Highlights
SUMMARY POINTS◼ Building a resilient community generally means adapting and deploying community capacities (or strengths) and resources to proactively mitigate harm during a crisis and to recover from adversity.[2]
◼ A community is defined here as a group of individuals sharing common characteristics, which may or may not be based on shared geographic space
Concepts in the field: Resources for resilience Mercy Corps’ work to strengthen and support positive coping and adaptation was examined in their Rapid Strategic Resilience Assessment (STRESS) report on the Rohingya Crisis in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
Summary
◼ Building a resilient community generally means adapting and deploying community capacities (or strengths) and resources to proactively mitigate harm during a crisis and to recover from adversity.[2]. Others see it as a continual process of change and adaptation as the environment and stressors change. Resilience programming should address inequalities, vulnerable groups without power, and social tensions within a community. Community resilience is affected by its wider context: geographic, political, economic, and historic. ◼ Community resilience programs are not a single solution for community vulnerability, during extended crises when community capacities can be overwhelmed. Both communities and the state should work together to build resilience. ◼ Community resilience can be built to respond to current and/or future threats including health ‘shocks’ such as infectious disease outbreaks or epidemics
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