This Resilience for Social Systems (R4S) Approach - User Guidance Manual

The R4S Approach applies Systems Thinking, Network Theory, Scenario Thinking, Social and Behaviour Change, Inclusion and Resilience tools to provide a practical and structured step by step process to assess the resilience of complex socio-economic systems. One of the central innovations in R4S is its mapping tool which aims to improve understanding of complex socio-economic systems and facilitate analysis of these systems. R4S also provides new guidance on analysing determinant factors of resilient systems including Connectivity, Diversity, Redundancy, Governance, Participation and Learning.

The R4S Operational Guide has been designed as a diagnostic tool which compliments other systems development best practice approaches such as the Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) Approach published by The Springfield Centre for Business in Development5. R4S may be used in conjunction with GOAL’s Analysis of Resilience of Communities to Disaster Toolkit (ARC-D)6. The ARC-D Toolkit is a structured community consultation toolkit to analyse characteristics of disaster resilient communities to give a comprehensive overview of resilience of a community. The application of the ARC-D Toolkit serves as a valuable entry point into systems and behaviour change analysis.