Access to special support grants and relative impact of resilience pillars on households’ resilience capacity in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: Application of FAO’s Shiny RIMA tool

Abstract

The endowments of resources, institutional management and a household's capacity to handle challenges and unexpected events all contribute to their resilience and well-being. Unfortunately, many people in developing countries are vulnerable to episodes of shock and trapped in a vicious cycle of deprivations that hinder their ability to recover from shocks. This study examined how households’ resilience capability was affected by different resilience pillars and indicators, the pattern of resilience heterogeneity and the relative impact of those pillars on households’ resilience capability in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A data set from the 2021 South African General Household Survey comprising 1499 households was used. The data were analyzed with the FAO’s Shiny RIMA tool and structural equation modeling technique. Findings revealed an estimated general household resilience capacity index of 44.88 which appeared low. The results also indicated that adaptive capability or stability is weakly related to and the least significant pillar in terms of its contribution to households' resilience capacity while the social safety net pillar is highly linked to and the most important pillar contributing to households’ resilience capacity. The contributions of the access to basic services and asset endowments pillars were shown to be crucial in reducing inequality in households’ resilience capacity. There was also clear evidence of heterogeneity in households’ resilience capacity. SEM analysis revealed that access to basic services, the social safety net and households’ attributes had a significant impact on households’ resilience capacity. Policy target actions are needed in areas where capacities are lacking or insufficient while the pillars that performed well should also be prioritized for building sustained households’ resilience capacity.