'Vulnerable' and 'vulnerability' are common terms in the lexicon of development, but their use is often vague. They serve as convenient substitutes for 'poor' and 'poverty', and allow planners and other professionals to restrain the overuse of those words. Some precision can be found in the use of 'vulnerable groups' where this refers to pregnant and lactating women, to children, or to disadvantaged communities such as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in India. More often, though, vulnerable is used simply as a synonym for poor.

With concerns like these a workshop on vulnerability and coping was held at IDS in September 1988, leading to this Bulletin. Some 20 people took part, about half of them reporting on recent fieldwork. The focus was at the household level, and the aims were to try to understand better the nature of vulnerability, how poor people cope with risks, shocks and stress, and what should he priorities for policy and research.