Resilience from the ground up: how are local resilience perceptions and global frameworks aligned?

Abstract

Numerous resilience measurement frameworks for climate programmes have emerged over the past decade to operationalise the concept and aggregate results within and between programmes. Proxies of resilience, including subjective measures using perception data, have been proposed to measure resilience, but there is limited evidence on their validity and use for policy and practice. This article draws on research on the Decentralising Climate Funds project of the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters programme, which supports communities in Mali and Senegal to improve climate resilience through locally controlled adaptation funds. It explores attributes of resilience from this bottom‐up perspective to assess its predictors and alignment with food security, as a proxy of well‐being. We find different patterns when comparing resilience and the well‐being proxy, illustrating that the interplay between the two is still unclear. Results also point to the importance of contextualising resilience, raising implications for aggregating results.

Building resilience from the ground up

“…Similarly, Beauchamp et al (2019) engage with the context-dependent nature of resilience. They highlight the important differences between donor understandings of resilience and those of vulnerable people in the Sahel, and emphasise and explore subjective dimensions of resilience with local community members.…”

“…For example, Ulrichs et al (2019) consider social protection to have contributed to resilience by helping people meet food needs and not deplete assets. Beauchamp et al (2019) set out to test the hypothesised relationships between resilience, food security and other variables that capture different dimensions and perspectives of the concept of resilience. These are not new measurements-not in development programming-but they are used in new ways.…”

“…For example, Beauchamp et al (2019) focus on the resilience features linked to livelihoods and agro-ecological zones, as identified by individuals, and explore investment options to improve resilience and well-being (see specific examples and further description in Keita and Koulibaly, 2016). For example, Beauchamp et al (2019) focus on the resilience features linked to livelihoods and agro-ecological zones, as identified by individuals, and explore investment options to improve resilience and well-being (see specific examples and further description in Keita and Koulibaly, 2016).…”

“…These are not new measurements-not in development programming-but they are used in new ways. Beauchamp et al (2019) set out to test the hypothesised relationships between resilience, food security and other variables that capture different dimensions and perspectives of the concept of resilience. Using a survey of household perceptions, they find that many of the indicators suggested for measuring progress against DFID's Key Performance Indicator KPI4 correlate with the characteristics of resilience identified by beneficiaries of the BRACED Decentralising Climate Finance project (that is, self-assessed resilience).…”

“…The contributing authors describe resilience-building at different scales, for different types of projects and interventions: from gender-differentiated perspectives within households in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Chad (Le Masson et al, 2019;McOmber et al, 2019), to devolved community planning and financing in Mali and Senegal (Beauchamp et al, 2019); from sector-wide agricultural extension support in Sudan (Young and Ismail, 2019), to early warning systems in Ethiopia and Nicaragua (Ewbank et al, 2019), national social protection programmes in Ethiopia (Ulrichs et al, 2019) and advocacy for mainstreaming into government policy in South Asia (Tanner et al, 2019). Each brings a different perspective on the significance and operationalisation of efforts to build resilience to climate extremes and disasters.…”