Resilience in East Africa: A Framework for Action
Mercy Corps has been working on resilience-based programming in East Africa since 2004. Since that time, we have helped to reduce vulnerability and increase coping capacity among beneficiary populations through effective safety net programs; enabled individuals and households to adapt to change through diversification of assets and income sources, and contributed to transformation in marginalized communities through improved governance, greater access to markets and basic services, and conflict management. Mercy Corps has established this Framework for Action to support a more coherent and strategic approach to its resilience programming in the region.
The Framework is directly informed by lessons learned from both the successes and failures of Mercy Corps’ previous initiatives and seeks to guide integration and application of our comparative strengths in livelihood programming for dryland pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and people transitioning out of pastoralism, support for development of local market systems, conflict mitigation, and employing innovation and new technologies. Across each of these areas, Mercy Corps believes it is critical to carefully target interventions towards vulnerable community members, while enabling them to use project participation as a means of achieving resilience for their households and communities. Ultimately, the Framework is intended to help Mercy Corps assess systemic issues constraining resilience in dryland areas of East Africa, facilitate strategic partnership with other important stakeholders in the region, and create opportunities for learning through innovative approaches to resilience programming.
