Resilience in Action

On 26th March, British Expertise International hosted a roundtable on the topic of resilience in action. We were delighted to be joined in person by Pauline Schibli, Senior Resilience Advisor at Mercy Corps and Taylor Martin, Principal Consultant (Climate Change) at NIRAS. Ratri Sutarto, Asia Regional Programme Manager at Mercy Corps, joined us online from Indonesia. The event explored how resilience programming can be strengthened in practice, across the climate, water, agriculture, economic, and peace sectors.

“Resilience is not an outcome, it is a means to an end”

Resilience thinking is essential for understanding the relationship between development and environmental, social, or economic change. Resilience thinking highlights how interacting systems of people and nature can best be managed to ensure a sustainable supply of the essential services on which communities depend. For Mercy Corps, resilience is the capacity of people and systems to improve and sustain wellbeing in the face of shocks and stresses. However, it is not merely about survival or "bouncing back" and accepting the status quo; resilience is also the capacity to protect or regain progress towards outcomes in the face of shocks and stresses while addressing drivers of vulnerability and systemic failures (Mercy Corps). Strengthening resilience, including through international development programmes, enables individuals and communities in complex and changing-risk environments to see continued improvements across a range of outcomes – such as access to food and water security, improved economic status, health outcomes, peace and good governance.

Measuring Resilience and Learning from Resilience Interventions’

In recent years, we have seen 'resilience' as policy-speak without emphasising its practical application in the context of systems and programme implementation. The need to measure the impact of resilience is critically important – this event highlighted lessons learned and best-practice examples of programmes delivered by UK organisations.

During the roundtable, our speakers explored the challenges and opportunities in measuring resilience. Since development programming operates through relatively short-term periods, monitoring and measuring resilience indicators can be complex.

NIRAS shared key insights from the evaluation of several large UK-funded programmes focused on resilience promotion in the context of Malawi and Ethiopia. Key lessons from these earlier initiatives include the importance of targeting households and tailoring strategies based on intersectional drivers of vulnerability and the role of linking and layering different synergistic interventions to support a ‘resilience package’ to enable households to anticipate and adapt to shocks or stresses, and in some cases leave a vulnerable situation or system altogether. For example, providing a combination of support such as climate-resilient seed varieties, extension training, and access to more secure land tenure or decision-making power are effective strategies in helping households build resilience.

Mercy Corps’ highlighted the effects of integrated programming on households' resilience and food security sources amid climate stresses such as droughts in Ethiopia. Through routine assessments, post-shock monitoring and analysis, and anticipation of climate-related and socio-economic shocks facing Ethiopian agro-pastoral and pastoral communities and the market systems that support them, Mercy Corps’ programming responds to consequent risks and threats to livelihoods. Mercy Corps’ resilience measurement systems have generated evidence that systems-strengthening interventions contributed to sizeable, statistically significant increases in access and use of multiple resilience-enhancing services or sources of resilience compared to non- programme areas.

For example, Mercy Corps' Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies-funded Managing Risk Through Economic Development (M-RED) discussed during the event shed light into local development approaches that show sustained improvements to seasonal recurrent flooding and other disasters. M-RED strengthens communities' economic outcomes and resilience to climate shocks through integrated market-led agricultural development, systems strengthening for disaster risk management and anticipatory action, and social inclusion strategies. M-RED’s measurement approach uses recurrent monitoring surveys, GIS analysis, a disaster-readiness measurement framework, and self-reflective processes for communities to assess their disaster-readiness among other methods to support their ongoing resilience learning and measurement.   

Enhancing the best outcomes for resilience-based programming

During the roundtable, discussions explored vulnerability in resilience-based programming. As the IPPC explains, existing vulnerabilities and inequalities intensify with the adverse impacts of climate change, and these impacts disproportionately affect marginalised groups – ultimately amplifying inequalities and undermining sustainable development. Resilience is better enabled when programming takes into account the drivers of marginalisation and directs efforts towards the most vulnerable communities.

NIRAS’ work on the Scottish-funded Climate Just Communities Programme in Zambia works with communities in four of the country’s most climate vulnerable districts. The programme is designed to help communities by placing power directly in the hands of those most affected, with a focus on gender equality and the inclusion of people with disabilities. Using a participatory approach, the programme empowers local communities to identify their own climate-related priorities, co-create solutions that address their unique needs, and provide support to the delivery of an integrated package of interventions aligned to communities' Climate Justice Plans. At the heart of the programme is the commitment to climate justice based on the principles of locally led adaptation, recognising that bottom-up approaches that empower local actors are most effective in building long term and equitable adaptation outcomes. 

NIRAS’ work on the FCDO-funded Strengthening Climate Resilient Systems for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services in Ethiopia (SCRS - WASH) project adopts a sectoral approach to resilience building, focusing on enhancing systems at federal, regional and local levels to achieve sustainable, inclusive and climate-resilient WaSH service delivery. Efforts focused on strengthening government capacity to deliver reliable and sustainable water supply services by supporting utilities to improve service reliability, financial capacity, and reduce non-revenue water loss, along with collaborative planning for catchment protection and flood control. NIRAS underscored the importance of capacity building, demonstrating how training, experience sharing, and local engagement can empower local actors and lead to transformative improvements in service delivery. Central to this is the role of post-construction support in transforming communities through public health and reduced burdens on women, which collectively fosters stronger, more resilient communities.

The best outcomes for communities’ wellbeing come from strengthening resilience across portfolios, rather than just at a programme or project level. Resilience must become an overarching approach, connecting sectors and types of assistance for communities and systems to adapt to shocks and achieve lasting prosperity.

Conclusion

The case studies shared by Mercy Corps and NIRAS exemplified applications of resilience programming and highlighted effective measurement and evaluation. Effective resilience strengthening entails actions across policy, infrastructure, services, planning, education and communication. In the face of compounding shocks and stresses and protracted crises globally, resilience requires a holistic and multi-dimensional approach to enhance communities' social, human, natural, physical and financial capacities to cope with and recover from the impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, economic inequalities, and political instability.