The R4S Approach was developed in 2016 by GOAL’s Resilience, Innovation and Learning Hub (RILH) to inform a resilience approach to the implementation of humanitarian and development interventions by improving the understanding of socio-economic systems and how they react to shocks and stresses. GOAL strives to strengthen understanding of these dynamics, to enable better programming that addresses root causes of vulnerability rather than symptoms alone.The R4S intends to provide mechanisms for analysing the current resilience state of critical socio-economic systems and leads to recommendations on how to build or strengthen the resilience of these systems, ultimately contributing to more inclusive and resilient societies.

The R4S approach applies and combines Systems Thinking, Network Theory, Scenario Thinking, Social and Behaviour Change, Inclusion and Resilience tools to provide a practical and structured step by step process. One of the central innovations of the R4S, that will characterize the way we work, is its mapping tool which aims to improve understanding and analysis of complex socio-economic systems and how they would react to different shocks and stresses. At least, but not last, the R4S provides new guidance on analysing the six Determinant Factors of Resilient systems: Connectivity, Diversity, Redundancy, Governance, Participation and Learning. Finally, we encourage you to join us in this journey of building more inclusive and resilient societies by learning and hopefully, implementing the R4S approach in your programming.