The international community has now acknowledged vulnerability as a severe obstacle to development due to the damage caused by exogenous shocks and stressors to which countries are increasingly being exposed. These shocks span diverse domains, such as terms of trade fluctuations, natural disasters, supply disruptions, conflicts, civil unrest, and unprecedented shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It is evident that low national income, often measured by Gross National Income per capita (GNI pc), is a weak measure of development, material welfare, or well-being.
