Resilience and Sustainable Development:
insights from the Drylands of Eastern Africa
Jonathan Davies, Lance W. Robinson and Polly J. Ericksen
Resilience 2014
Montpellier
May 2014

Main Points
Resilience, as discussed in the development/DRR
communities, is not and should not be thought of
as the resilience of SESs.
Development resilience, as operationalized by these
communities, should be conceived of not only in
terms of food security, but more broadly in terms
of well-being.

Number Of People Adversely Affected By Droughts in the HoA

Definitions of Resilience
Social-ecological resilience: "the capacity of a
system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while
undergoing change so as to still retain essentially
the same function, structure, identity, and
feedbacks" (Walker et al., 2004, p. 5).
Resilience in relation to food security: “the ability
of a household to keep with a certain level of well-
being (i.e. being food secure) by withstanding
shocks and stresses” (FAO, 2010).

Development Resilience
In the face of recurring drought:
• The DRR community focuses on maintaining
well-being in the short-term, and
• The development community focuses on
interested in improving well-being in the longer
term.

System Resilience: not necessarily desirable
Traditional
Pastoralism Perversely Resilient System:
environmental degradation,
loss of herds, sedenterization,
poverty

System Resilience: not a normative concept
Traditional
Pastoralism Perversely
Resilient System
A New
Option Needed?

Measurement of
Development Resilience

Resilience Measurement:
Three Main Types of Data
We need measures of:
• The state of human development
(indicators of well-being, and their changes
over time),
• Shocks (measures of the extent and
severity of shocks such as droughts), and
• Broader social and ecological conditions
(indicators of determinants of resilience).

Response of Well-Being To Drought
Drought A
B
C
D

Take Away Messages
Resilience, as discussed in the development/DRR
communities, is not and should not be thought of
as the resilience of SESs.
Development resilience, as operationalized by these
communities, should be conceived of not primarily
in terms of food security, but more broadly in
terms of well-being.

Some final thoughts
• Resilience thinking (system resilience)
has much to offer.
• Differentiating system resilience from
development resilience will help to
provide the data and insights to address
questions around when system
resilience is and is not desirable.

This work contributes to the CGIAR Research Program on
Dryland Systems.
It is supported by the Technical Consortium (TC) for
Ending Drought Emergencies and Building Resilience
to Drought1 in the Horn of Africa.
Acknowledgements

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