Key Finders and Implications for Aid Actors :
- The key findings summarized below point towards the promise of measuring ISP as a measure of household vulnerability in Lebanon. The next, and final report in this series will draw on a third round of data collection to expand on these findings and offer humanitarian actors concrete guidance on how to measure, interpret, and integrate ISP analysis into existing vulnerability assessment frameworks.
Households’ informal social protection networks are eroding as Lebanon’s protracted crisis persists. This is highlighted by a substantial downwards shift in median ISP Index Scores between the first two survey rounds. LCAT’s ISP Index (see Box 1) aggregates information about six distinct dimensions of households’ informal support networks. Between the two survey rounds, we observed an especially significant decline in three dimensions of ISP:
- Resources: The variety of tangible and intangible resources households are able to receive members of its social network
- Reliability: The household’s confidence in its ability to continue to rely on its network for future support
- Reciprocity: The household’s capacity to provide support to others
While ISP scores declined across our sample, the extent of this decline varied according to select household and community-level factors. For example, employment status, geography, nationality, and gender of household head were significant in explaining differences in ISP scores. This suggests that certain household categories are especially likely to experience heightened humanitarian need as a result of weakening ISP networks, with important implications for the targeting of humanitarian assistance, and the design of interventions that seek to bolster informal support systems.
The ISP Index is capable of identifying aspects of household vulnerability which are not captured by typical approaches to needs assessment. We assessed the degree of overlap between ISP vulnerability and four vulnerability indicators widely used by humanitarian actors in Lebanon (rCSI, FCS, MDDI, and LCS-EN). We found significant differences in terms of households identified as vulnerable according to the various indicators. This suggests that by accounting for both tangible and intangible determinants of household wellbeing, and by measuring aspects of the informal systems on which households depend during crises, the ISP Index sheds light on aspects of household vulnerability that are obscured by typical food security and essential needs indicators. The ISP Index is therefore a promising tool for improving the accuracy and rigor of vulnerability assessment activities.
By Crisis Analytics Team, Mercy Corps Lebanon
