Complexity of resilience capacities: Household capitals and resilience outcomes on the disaster cycle in informal settlements

Recent scholarships conceptualise resilience as capacities that are driven by a set of capitals to produce outcomes such as influencing preparedness (pre-disasters), mitigating impacts (during the events) and enhancing recovery (post-disasters). However, there is limited understanding about if and how these capitals actually affect resilience outcomes differently over the disaster cycle. Using household survey data from four informal settlements in Ghana, this article extracts the dimensions of household capitals to examine how they shape resilience outcomes in each disaster phase. The findings reveal complex relationships between household capitals and disaster outcomes demonstrating an intricate implication for pre-, during, and post-disaster resilience among households. It was revealed that dimensions of household capitals indicating higher economic status were linked to worse impacts from flooding but were essential for facilitating household recovery over time. Meanwhile, social capital proved beneficial for distinct outcomes of resilience by motivating preparedness, mitigating impacts as well as facilitating recovery from flooding. The article recommends that disaster planning and policies should not assume unidimensional implications but critically consider this complex relationship between household capitals and resilience outcomes.