COVID-19 Resilience Brief.pdf

The USAID/Honduras Transforming Market Systems (TMS) Activity presented on learning and reflections from actions taken in response to COVID-19 and findings from resilience studies done in collaboration with COHEP and UNAH. The presentation discussed market systems resilience in Honduras, focusing on the big picture of the humanitarian and economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and hurricanes Eta and Iota, which affected over 4.5 million people. The economic effects have rippled throughout the entire economy, with estimated damage between $1 and 3 billion. The presentation emphasized the need for the entire system to work together to recover from these shocks. Resilience works at multiple levels, including household, enterprise, community, and system levels, with a focus on sustaining and ensuring consistency in the functionality of the system to disturbances. The presentation also discussed various resilience strategies, including preparation, absorption, adaptation, and transformation, and highlighted the need for more proactive resilience strategies to achieve better resilience outcomes and more sustainable competitiveness and inclusion results. TMS conducted three surveys with COHEP and UNAH, which found that Honduran enterprises were impacted by 3 or more types of shocks or stressors in 2020.