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As we approach the 2024 CSI Legacy Conference, where I'll be working through discussions around coerced resilience, my thoughts turn to the wealth of insights gathered through GrowZA’s recent think tank work and our engagement with resilience frameworks emerging out of Australia.
The journey has deepened our understanding of what real, lasting resilience requires—particularly for communities like those in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) that are subject to periodic flooding and systemic resource constraints. This exploration isn’t just about finding stopgap solutions but is grounded in a fundamental shift in how we approach resilience and adaptation in social investment.
Footage from a GrowZA team site visit to the Valley of 1000 Hills (KZN) after the floods of 2022
Our recent project, When the Rains Come Again, serves as a parametric insurance model that is part of GrowZA’s broader think tank efforts to address resilience head-on.
Inspired by parametric insurance structures successfully implemented in places like the Caribbean, this initiative is designed to provide rapid, data-triggered payouts based on specific environmental parameters, such as rainfall levels or flood severity. The purpose is to bypass the administrative barriers and delays that often characterize traditional insurance, offering communities immediate financial relief. But the vision extends beyond quick payouts; this model also aims to integrate communities into a forward-looking financial safety net, helping to elevate them from reactive, coerced resilience to a place of agency and adaptive capacity.
Conversations with Australia's national science agency, CSIRO about their research - Enabling Resilience Investment Framework - has informed and inspired our approach.
It supports the concepts we have built around adaptive capacity, a concept that moves away from resilience as a forced reaction to crisis and toward resilience as a proactive, self-determined process.
This distinction is crucial, especially for regions like KZN, where communities need tools that allow them to build resilience as part of their everyday lives, not just in the aftermath of disasters.
Through this framework, resilience is envisioned as a community-led process that integrates the economic, social, and environmental factors specific to each locality. Our When the Rains Come Again thought experiment was developed with precisely this grounded, systemic resilience in mind.
The idea of adaptive capacity, as we interpret it, demands a rethink of how social investments are structured and delivered.
Drawing from lessons in the Enabling Resilience Investment Framework, adaptive capacity requires investment strategies that are as flexible as they are robust—tailored to specific local conditions and layered across multiple sectors, from water infrastructure to sustainable housing and community-driven preparedness systems. For social investment to drive adaptive capacity, it must go beyond providing relief; it should aim to fortify communities with the capacity to respond, adapt, and thrive in the face of future shocks.
For the GrowZA think tank, this concept has become foundational. Our parametric insurance model is designed not just as a financial instrument but as a means to build a lasting relationship between communities and the financial resources they need to weather storms—literally and metaphorically.
Unlike traditional insurance, where the burden of recovery often falls on individuals, this model triggers immediate payouts, integrating community-specific risk factors and environmental data to ensure timely, predictable support. Through this approach, we are actively redefining the relationship these communities have with their assets, transforming resilience from a mere survival mechanism to a tool for economic inclusion and empowerment.
The social investment framework laid out in the Australian report has illustrated the importance of cross-sector collaboration and policy alignment, showing that resilience requires cooperation across multiple levels of society. GrowZA’s think tank has embraced this integrated model, working with diverse stakeholders to create an approach that not only meets immediate needs but also aligns with longer-term developmental goals. We’re grounding these efforts in locally driven insights and data, ensuring that each element of the response—from risk assessment to payout mechanism—is responsive to the specific challenges faced by the communities we serve.
This broader perspective on resilience, rooted in adaptive capacity, pushes us to consider what social investment truly means in contexts of chronic vulnerability. In this light, coerced resilience, where communities survive each shock without gaining lasting protection or resources, is no longer acceptable. Instead, we’re advocating for a framework where social investment is part of an ongoing process, designed to cultivate self-sustaining resilience. This requires a dedication to flexible, responsive, and equitable investment structures that give communities the tools they need to build resilience from within.
As we head into the CSI Legacy Conference, my hope is that we can continue this conversation around resilience and social investment. Our reflections from the Australian framework and GrowZA’s own When the Rains Come Again product show us that social investment must move away from the reactive and the temporary. It must become a catalyst for long-term transformation, where communities are not merely surviving but are empowered to anticipate, adapt, and thrive through adversity.
This reflection, informed by GrowZA’s think tank initiatives and our engagement with the Australian Enabling Resilience Investment Framework, is a contribution from our Executive Director - Craig Kensley
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