View article

The increasing recognition that there are considerable flows into and out of poverty (Baulch and Hoddinott, 2000) has focused interest in household vulnerability as the basis for a social protection strategy. However, the design and implementation of these schemes is hampered by uncertainty over the meaning of this concept. Vulnerability—like risk and love—means different things to different people; there are many definitions of vulnerability and, seemingly, no consensus on its definition or measurement. One might be forgiven for thinking that the discourse on vulnerability is too confused to support initiatives in the areas of policy and interventions.

Such a view is too strong: there are commonalities across myriad definitions and methodologies. Specifically, all focus on the measurement of welfare in a world in which welfare reflects, in part, the interplay between the realization of stochastic events or shocks and the …