Within southern Africa, many households are
facing increasing pressures as they deal with multiple challenges
such as low employment, high levels of disease,
environmental resources under pressure and changing political
landscapes. To respond to the needs of different individuals
and households, it is important to define the nature of
their vulnerability. An increasing amount of theoretical and
empirical work on the concept of ‘vulnerability’ has led to a
range of definitions, indicators and measurement tools, which
have come to characterise this field of study. As a result, there
is no one general consensus. This paper presents the results
from the latest in a series of applied studies conducted since
2004 by a network of scientists working in southern Africa,
aimed at refining the definition and application of the concept
of vulnerability. The study employed a recently developed
multiple-stressor model to guide the collection and analysis
of data from three sites in South Africa and Malawi. In this
paper, we identify and explore five key ‘symptoms’ of vulnerability
emerging from our multi-country data and reflect
on the usefulness of the model employed.