There is more to learn about why some vulnerable regions have made so little progress, while some shock-prone countries seem to have turned themselves around. Success stories like Bangladesh, Malawi, and Zambia, however, show that building individual, community, and national resilience within a generation is a real possibility.
Looking Ahead The importance of considering the building blocks of resilience is becoming more apparent to the development and relief communities, both of which have long struggled to understand why some people fare better than others when confronting stresses or shocks. Resil- ience is a challenging concept that has evolved across an unusually wide range of disciplines. Its increasing adoption in development cir- cles is understandable given the mounting evidence of the close inter- actions between short-term shocks and longer-term development. But while the underlying rationale for focusing on resilience
building is strong, adopting a resilience framework faces many chal- lenges. Conceptually, consensus is needed on what resilience is and what it is not; on whether resilience is desirable by definition, or whether it might include detrimental behaviors; on whether it only means bouncing back, or whether it also includes adaptive and trans- formative behaviors. Empirically, measuring and monitoring resilience and its
causes is not easy. Far more than chronic poverty, resilience is a dynamic concept requiring high-frequency surveys, at the very least in those countries and regions perennially exposed to severe shocks and stressors. No less challenging is the multidimensional nature of resilience and what that implies for the detailed work of survey design and scientific collaboration. Finally on the policy and programmatic front, the resilience
paradigm needs to demonstrate that it offers something substantial- ly new, both in terms of an expanded dialogue between the tradition- ally disconnected relief and development sectors and in terms of inno- vative new programs that address both humanitarian and development objectives. In summary, to achieve food and nutrition security, more effort
is needed to protect and improve poor and vulnerable people’s abili- ty to respond to changes and shocks. Much work needs to be done before we know whether a resilience framework is the most useful tool for building this resilience. What is sure however is that there is a growing consensus on the need to break down barriers between actors, sectors, and disciplines and that this consensus must now be converted into effective policies and practices that strengthen the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable people.
2013 Global Hunger Index | Chapter 03 | Understanding Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security
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