Remittance and household resilience capacity in Georgia

Climate resilience, which confirms a household’s ability to withstand shocks, is an intrinsic element of adapting despite socioeconomic and environmental disturbances or shocks. Climate change and other socio-economic disturbances have given unprecedented “vertigo” to the food sector. In this context, households, as a decision-making unit, are expected to increase their resilience capacity to withstand shocks. Using the “COVID-19 High Frequency Survey 2020-2022” dataset for Georgia by the World Bank, the manuscript aims to measure household resilience capacity to climate change and analyse the effect of remittance on household resilience capacity. The measurement of resilience capacity or Resilience Capacity Index (RCI) is based on the Resilience Index Measurement Analysis (RIMA II) methodology proposed by FAO. Accordingly, RCI is constructed through RIMA proposed pillars: Access to Basic Services (ABS), Assets (AST), Social Safety Nets (SSN), Adaptive Capacity (AC), and Sensitivity (S). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is applied to associate pillars with resilience. Using the SEM approach, the findings confirm that ABS, AST and AC pillars have a significant and positive association with RCI. The estimations confirm that remittance-receiving households are likely to experience higher levels of ABS, AC, and RCI. The findings are particularly important for enhancing the resilience thinking approach to formulating policy objectives and interventions that should inevitably improve or strengthen household resilience capacity.