This lecture was presented to Master of Science Students at the University of Nairobi, in January 2021 at the invitation of Prof. Joanes Atela a seasoned climate change expert and a convener of Africa Research and Impact Network (ARIN). The lecture highlights the praxis between social resilience and natural resource dependent societies, a Kenyan context. Enjoy!

1. Social Resilience and
Natural Resource Dependent Societies
Class Lecture to MSC Students of University
of Nairobi (UoN) in January, 2021
Dr. CPA, Asenath K. Maobe

4. OUTLINE
• What Social Resilience is, and what its not
• Examples of SR
• Connection of Social Resilience with natural resource dependent societies
• How are NRDS are engaged in social resilience
• Policy perspective of social resilience
• Challenges of SR
• Options for enhancing SR in NRDS

5. Resilience
• In physics, resilience is the ability of an elastic material (such as rubber or animal
tissue) to absorb energy (such as from a blow) and release that energy as it springs
back to its original shape. The recovery that occurs in this phenomenon can be
viewed as analogous to a person's ability to bounce back after a jarring setback.
• Author P. G. Wodehouse took note of this when he wrote: "There is in certain men
… a quality of resilience, a sturdy refusal to acknowledge defeat, which aids them as
effectively in affairs of the heart as in encounters of a sterner and more practical
kind." The word resilience derives from the present participle of the Latin verb resilire,
meaning "to jump back" or "to recoil." The base of resilire is salire, a verb meaning
"to leap" that also pops up in the etymologies of such sprightly words
as sally and somersault.

6. Types of resilience and to what-
• Resilience is best described as bounce-back-ability. It is the ability to recover
quickly from difficulties, adapt to life’s adversities and cope with the mundane
stresses of everyday living. There are four types of resilience:
1. Physical resilience,
2. Mental resilience,
3. Emotional resilience and
4. Social resilience.
These types arise when we face major life problems, situational problems and daily
problems.

7. Social Resilience
• In the context of this presentation and borrowing from Meir (2016: 301), social
resilience can be taken to denote the capacity of a social system “ at the local or
national level, to withstand the consequences of a major disruption, and to
expeditiously recover to its initial level of core functionality.” Social resilience comes
to mind whenever a society experiences a breakdown in social functioning or
wellbeing
• Elran Meir ( 2016:301) defines Societal resilience “as the capacity of communities
to flexibly contain major disruptions and to rapidly bounce back and forward
following the unavoidable decline of their core functionalities.”

8. Natural Resource Dependent Societies
• Societies that are dependant on natural resources face vulnerabilities
whenever the sustainability of these resources is threatened.
• All societies do not have similar responses and outcomes to these
vulnerabilities. Some societies are more resilient than others in the face of
calamities. Adrian D. van Breda(2018) acknowledges that “the relationship
between vulnerability and negative outcomes was not universal.
• While many people have negative outcomes in response to vulnerability, not
all do. Some dip and recover, others show little or no deterioration

9. • Indigenous peoples represent approximately 4.5 percent of the global population, but
account for about 10 percent of the world’s poor
• While they are all distinct communities and have different vulnerabilities, one commonality
is that their livelihoods and cultures are highly dependent on natural systems and natural
resources.
• Their ability to predict and interpret natural phenomena, including weather conditions, is
vital for their survival and well-being and has also been instrumental in the development of
their cultural practices, social structures, trust, and authority (Kronik and Verner, 2010).
• Their identities and culture are inextricably linked to the lands on which they live and the
natural resources on which they depend. The risk of displacement by a disaster therefore
represents a threat to both.

10. • Resilient Societies that are resource-dependent are marked by inbuilt
mechanisms (Mediating processes Breda 2018) of having control over their
circumstance and ability to adjust to change in the face of challenge.
• (Bonanno, as cited in Southwick et al., 2014:1) regard resilience as "A stable
trajectory of healthy functioning after a highly adverse event"

11. Examples of the Natural Resources
• Wetlands – Ewaso Nyiro Northern Kenya
• Dry lands
• Limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones, fluorspar, zinc, diatomite, oil, gas,
gypsum, wildlife and hydropower.
• Fishery
• Think of a CASE STUDY in your own communities

12. Social Resilience and Natural Dependent
Societies
• Societies that depend on natural resources for sustenance begin to experience adversity when
those resources become threatened.
• When these threats are chronic, they become extended over a considerable period thus
threatening the livelihood of society. These adversities can, if not addressed, sometimes result in
wars.
• Resilient societies have mediating processes already put in place to help them cope in the face of
such adversities. Other societies are completely devoid of mechanisms to help them recover when
their natural resources become depleted.
• Disparities in socioeconomic and development status of different natural dependent societies
sometimes determine how societies cope with disasters. This, therefore, means that we have
different patterns of resilience and outcomes in different natural dependent societies.

13. Policy and Analytical Perspectives
• Policy on social resilience/ disaster management is normally formulated based on either “ the
resistance approach” or “ the resilience approach". The first aims at best to prevent the
expected – or unexpected – disruption altogether. If this is not attainable, resistance strives to
protect the system from the consequences of the disruption, or to mitigate its adverse results.”
Resistance Approach
• Deforestation is for example a manmade disaster for which governments have formulated
resistance policies to stem its rise and threat to the envt. ( the question is, to what extent do
these policies succeed to stem these calamities?) NB* how successfully will you fend off thieves
and robbers by encircling your compound with a wall? Has Israel succeeded to stop the
Palestinians with a wall and technology? How about the wall that Trump was building to block
Mexicans?

14. Resilience Approach
• “The strategy of resilience, which has emerged in recent years, is designed to offset the
insufficiencies of the commonly employed strategy of resistance. The main rationale
behind adopting resilience is that resistance, at least in its preventive modes, portraits a
pretence of hermetic insulation.
• ‘Resilience’ would argue that even though there is room for investing in resistance
measures, despite their high cost, it is necessary to acknowledge their deficiencies and to
comprehend their questionable yield of cost/benefit.
• Hence, it is advised to balance the huge expenditures on resistance with appropriate
investments in resilience measures. This admittedly will not decrease the hazards, but
might distinctly enhance the chances of ‘bouncing back’ following disruptions, towards
the crucial stage of recovery.

15. • Resilience policies recognize that resistance is not sufficient and so policies of preparedness are put in
place to augment resistance policies.
• Why resilience policies? “The common denominator of all these diverse policies is to enhance their
capacity to quickly transform the unavoidable downward trajectory following the acute disruption to an
upward trajectory of growth.”
• Policies on social resilience should carefully consider the pros and cons of both the resistance and
resilience strategies. A balanced joint approach will enable the endangered system to mitigate the threat,
and at the same time will promote its chances to bounce back following the severe disruption and to
expeditiously reach the difficult stage of recovery from a position of strength and growth.
• “Resilience policies should not remain an intellectual exercise. It has to be officially embraced as a
complementary strategy that compensates for the shortcomings of resistance)

16. Challenges
• Limited resources in many of the natural dependent societies mean that putting policies that
slow the exploitation of these very resources amounts to perpetuating poverty. why remain
poor protecting a resource when it is the use of that very resource that is perceived as a
panacea to solving the poverty problem. The land is a very critical natural resource in Kenya.
However, the subdivision of land into small parcels goes on much as doing so destroys
arable land through conversion to living estates. The govt does not have the resources to
give its citizens a different lifeline and thus stop the habit of land subdivision into small
pieces. Many countries cannot even put resistance policies in place because they will hurt the
citizens, whom they have no money to give them an alternative livelihood. For example, The
Mau Forest Complex is the most important water catchment in the Rift Valley and Western
Kenya. The depletion of this very important natural resource has gone on for too long
abated by politics.

17. • Weak judicial systems that fail to implement the policies already in place.
• Weak social structures of bonding, collaboration, sense of togetherness brought
about by ethnicity in most African communities have destroyed the sense of
oneness which is a promoter of social resilience. Communities are now rivals rather
than common beneficiaries of these resources. Congo, Angola, South Sudan, etc are
examples of countries with vast natural resources. However, ethnicity has destroyed
these societies the capacity to develop resilient policies for the utilization and
preservation of these resources.
• Interference from western nations who have perpetuated wars in many oil-rich
countries has turned this natural resource into a curse.

18. • Developing Social resilience in NRDs rests on the enactment of laws which the citizens are
proud and confident to safeguard them from calamities. For this resilience to develop, there is a
need to have a high level of confidence and trust in the leadership of the NRDs. The lack of
this very important trust in many of the NRDs has destroyed the communication channels
between the governments and the citizenry. When citizens do not trust their governments, they
hold suspect the policies put in place by those governments to cushion their vulnerability In the
face of disasters. as long as the citizens of the NRDs do not trust their governments’ policies
concerning the utilization of natural resources, their well being and resilience to disasters is
greatly diminished. The top-bottom policies that are formulated because of this lack of trust are
in themselves as disastrous as the disasters themselves. The ‘top-down’ approach to making
policies in NRDs is not optimal in the realization of the principles of resilience.
• Lack of adequate preparedness because of over-reliance on these resources is another major
setback

19. Options
• Social resilience is not an existing trait that is found in all NRDs
• It is a capacity that has to be developed continuously and relentlessly, in line with a deep awareness of the
relevant needs, per the expected hazards.
• In Israel resilience is defined as “the capacity of a social system (individuals, family, community) to contain,
react and adapt to extreme conditions of crises, to return to the optimal functionality in the shortest period
following the end of the emergency period, and to enhance coping practices for future acute disruptions”.
• The practical components of resilience are proposed to include: good governance, the acceptance of the
local governments as the basic brick for the preparedness efforts, credible leadership, social solidarity and
mutual interdependence, situational awareness, and the readiness of the individuals M. Elran 311 in the
community.
• This framework, if implemented fully by all stakeholders, can produce the necessary level of preparedness
to enable impacted communities to rapidly bounce back following major disruptions.

20. Ten Principles for Building Resilience
• Understand vulnerabilities
• Strengthen job and housing opportunities
• Promote equity
• Leverage community assets
• Redefine how and where to build
• Build the business case
• Accurately price the cost of inaction
• Design with natural systems
• Maximize co-benefits; and
• Harness innovation and technology
ULI Global Chairman Marilyn Jordan Taylor ULI Global Chairman Marilyn Jordan Taylor