Human Capital
Human capital builds resilience by enabling people to pursue new livelihood opportunities, such as education and skills training.

Pursuing new and resilient livelihoods requires skills, education, acumen, and sufficient nourishment and health. Investments in education and health can lead to more resilient households. Expanded livelihood opportunities and long-term changes in cultural and gender norms further enable resilient communities.
Approach
Diversifying livelihoods to reduce risk and build resilience may require additional education and skills training. Moving into higher-income livelihoods usually requires increasing human capital in the form of education. Building women’s human capital can have a particularly high impact on household resilience.
Higher education levels in women are linked to better health outcomes for women and children. They are also linked to increased ability to diversify income beyond subsistence agriculture. Educating girls is also linked to lower fertility rates. This reduces stress affecting the health and nutrition of women and children. It also reduces the burden on weak social services and limited natural resources.
Evidence
Studies in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, and Niger have shown effects of educating adult household members. Results indicate it helps build resilience and reduces the need for humanitarian assistance. Investments in girls’ education and reproductive health have been linked to resilience in West Africa.
However, a number of barriers exist to building human capital, especially for women. Cultural and gender norms often limit women’s decision-making power. Systems at the local level providing education and health services are often weak and fragile. And donor funding streams for reproductive health and girls’ secondary education are often uncertain.
Featured Resources
Resource
This white paper explores the interaction between education and resilience and presents several recommendations on policy and programming.
More Resources
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Resource
The evidence, and the resulting discussion, presented during the 2017 Resilience Evidence Forum — hosted in Washington D.C. by the USAID Center for Resilience — are presented in the Resilience Evidence Forum Report.
Conflict and FragilityUrban ContextCollaboration and Collective ImpactValue for MoneySustainable Poverty EscapesDiversify Livelihood RisksSocial ProtectionGraduationSocial CapitalFinancial InclusionHuman CapitalAspirationsGender EquitySocial InclusionEcosystems and Natural Resource Management -
Resource
Households who choose to adopt new agricultural technologies have a limited amount of labor they can invest in making those technologies productive and profitable. As part of a broader randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Burkina Faso, we explored how the adoption of a labor intensive fertilizer...
Human CapitalBurkina Faso -
Resource
This report seeks to understand how collective action can help address the challenges that young people cannot overcome individually.
Financial InclusionHuman CapitalAspirations -
Resource
This brief summarizes a USAID white paper on the linkages between education and resilience.
Conflict and FragilityEducationSystemsSocial CapitalHuman Capital -
Resource
This white paper explores the interaction between education and resilience and presents several recommendations on policy and programming.
Conflict and FragilityEducationSystemsSocial CapitalHuman CapitalGender Equity -
Training
This course explores measurement approaches for shocks, stresses, and capacities so USAID staff and implementing partners can analyze their impact on well-being.
Social CapitalHuman Capital