Social Capital
Social capital builds resilience by enabling individuals and communities to support each other in times of need.
What is Social Capital?
Social capital contributes to women’s empowerment, promotes behavior change and transforms social norms — all of which strengthen resilience capacities. Self-help groups or socioeconomic networks supporting marketing facilitation can strengthen bonding and bridge social capital. Social capital as a source of resilience is highly context specific.
An individual’s social capital consists of the benefits they gain from their social networks, connections and groups. More than just human relationships, social capital refers to and consists of a range of social factors, including social norms, trust, social identity, group belonging and more. Determinants of social capital include:
- Family and kinship connections
- Education
- Flat versus hierarchical social structures
- Economic inequalities
- Political society and related policies
Different communities have varying existing and potential forms of social capital. Without robust social capital, one risks being excluded from beneficial social interactions, processes and institutions, which could hamper their resilience. However, some groups, such as religious or ethnic minorities, may be excluded from community networks. On both an individual and collective level, social capital is critical to advancing adaptation and innovation, bolstering resilience in the face of shocks and stressors.
Types of Social Capital
In certain contexts, social capital allows people to lean on each other during times of need. This is often achieved through both formal and informal support networks. Social scientists have identified three types of social capital that have been used by USAID and its partner organizations to guide interventions aimed at increasing individual and collective resilience.
- Bonding social capital
- Bonding social capital exists within a group or community. It is characterized by high levels of demographic, attitude and resource similarities. Bonding social capital often exists between family members, friends and neighbors.
- Bridging social capital
- Bridging social capital exists between groups or communities that may be otherwise divided along the lines of race, class, religion or the like. Bridging social capital refers to the relationships and associations that “bridge” the divides between groups and communities.
- Linking social capital
- Linking social capital is often viewed as an extension of bridging social capital. It describes the norms of respect and trust that guide the relationships between individuals interacting across explicit lines of institutional power, often vertical. Examples of linking social capital include the interactions between community-based organizations and national governments.
Watch this video to learn more about the three types of social capital.
USAID's Investments in Social Capital
USAID and its partner organizations fund significant investments in social capital, spanning across household resilience, improved governance and youth empowerment. Read examples of USAID’s social capital work below.
Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced Program
The Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) Program aimed to address the root causes of persistent vulnerability through joint analysis and planning between USAID, its partners and local partners across the Sahel region. In particular, the RISE Program examined the role of household resilience capacities in strengthening resilience to shocks and stressors. Between 2018 and 2019, the final year of the program, it was found that both bonding and bridging social capital helped strengthen household resilience to shocks.
Building Alliances for Local Advancement, Development and Investment Activity
The Building Alliances for Local Advancement, Development and Investment (BALADI) Activity, implemented in part by Caritas Lebanon, aimed to improve the governance of municipalities and public service delivery. It also aimed to establish sustainable, local social capital through enhanced participatory decentralized governance. The program design sought broad governance and social capital outcomes, including citizens’ perceptions of local government, participatory decentralized governance, improved accountability, civic engagement that improves local democratic processes and effective citizen advocacy.
Building the Potential of Youth Activity
The Building the Potential of Youth Activity (POTENTIAL) aimed to provide Ethiopian youth with services to help them achieve increased income and gain the skills, knowledge and social capital required to achieve economic self-sufficiency. The activity responded to unemployed and underemployed youth’s capacity needs, leveraged existing youth development activities and improved the quality and accountability of local training and business service providers by ensuring existing entities worked in concert. In particular, the activity included training components that built the social capital, working culture and motivation of youth. It also encouraged the participation of community members, community leaders, parents and the local-level administration to collaborate, learn and adapt the interventions.
More About Social Capital
Shock Responsive Social Protection
18 May 2022 - TRANSFORM
TRANSFORM aims to strengthen national capacities for the implementation of national social protection floors in Africa at the national and decentralized levels.
Effect of Households' Psychosocial Capacities on their Resilience to Shocks and Shock Coping Strategies
18 May 2022 - Tim Frankenberger, TANGO International
This presentation was shared by Tim Frankenberger (TANGO International) at the Resilience Evidence Forum in October of 2017.
IDEAL Knowledge Sharing Series: Humanitarian-Development-Peace Coherence
01 Jun 2022, GMT -4 - IDEAL Activity
"A Collective Journey Towards Humanitarian-Development-Peace Coherence"
Social Capital Dimensions at Different Levels of Analysis
11 Apr 2022 - Social Capital Research
Social capital has been criticized for being incredibly broad, a kind of catch-all. As such, it is often treated differently at different levels of analysis.