In their new IFPRI 2020 Food Policy Report on “Networks for Resilience: The Role of Social Capital,” Quinn Bernier and Ruth Meinzen-Dick investigate the role that local forms of social capital play in enhancing resilience through risk-smoothing and risk-sharing practices. They offer recommendations to governments to strengthen policy interventions to support and contribute to local-level resilience building: identify the bases and strengths of local social capital; provide assistance for community groups to access external resources; and ensure that interventions do not ignore or do not interact poorly with existing local forms of social capital. The report is based on Bernier and Meinzen-Dick’s paper prepared for the 2020 conference in Addis Ababa.
