Overview
Understanding Resilience: Perspectives from Syrians sought to examine resilience in Syria, from the experiences and
reflections shared by Syrians inside the country. CARE and many other humanitarian agencies generally articulate
resilience as “the ability of people, households, communities, countries and systems to absorb, adapt to and recover
from shocks and stresses.” The research focused on the following questions:
- What does resilience mean from the perspective of people living in Syria?
- What capacities do households and communities use and what strategies do households and communities adopt to become resilient in such a changing context?
- What are the main factors that affect household and community resilience in an active conflict area?
- How has the conflict affected the role of women within their families and communities (positively and negatively)?
- How does it relate to the humanitarian community’s and CARE’s definitions of resilience?
- Is CARE’s understanding of supporting resilience suitable for the context within Syria?
- How can the humanitarian sector build/improve on the capacities and actions that households and communities take to build their own resilience in Syria?
- What systems need to be strengthened to better support the resilience of households and communities in protracted crisis?
The results of this research are meant to contribute nuanced insight and in-depth understanding of resilience in
Syria, in order to both inform humanitarian efforts, as well as to reflect on CARE’s Resilience Framework which provided the framework for analysis.