Absorptive, Adaptive, and Transformative Capacities

In the fragile contexts where Food for the Hungry works, the pathway to communities’ flourishing is beset by compounding risks and repeated crises. As a result, marginalized people become the most vulnerable to shocks and stress, because they lack access to basic services, safety nets, assets, and job opportunities. Over the past few years, Food for the Hungry has focused on disaster risk reduction (DRR) aimed at preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk and managing residual risk, all of which contribute to strengthening resilience. Over 28,000 community leaders in more than 800 communities adopted DRR plans that reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster, as well as deal with the environmental and other hazards that trigger them. In the new program model, Food for the Hungry aims to build the absorptive, adaptive, and transformative resilience capacities that will allow us to connect the dots between risks, crises, and root causes that disrupt people’s lives and their capacities to flourish.