Global resilience in the 21st Century

Resilience is used in many social policy contexts. We are especially concerned about its use as an organising principle in disaster management. Disaster management increasingly is based not on simply understanding the physical trigger of the disaster, be it natural or technological, but on understanding exposure. Exposure to disaster is largely an issue of a population’s vulnerability where, in turn, vulnerability is measured largely by levels of poverty. Levels of poverty are explained by the erosion, maintenance or build up of a range of capitals that underpin entitlements. When disaster strikes, the subsequent relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts seek are frequently framed in the context of resilience. This context of resilience is one which usually suggests the policy imperative for social “bounce back”, based on the ecological metaphor of resilience. Too often, this simply restores the status quo anti, which simple re-creates the initial conditions of vulnerability. The challenge is to develop resilience interventions that bounce forward and which thus lower individual and community vulnerabilities. At a global level, there are three conversations in which staff members are involved. The first is the Hyogo Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the second is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change now focused developing, along with UN Framework of Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC), a post-Kyoto framework and the third is global poverty alleviation delivered through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This paper explores, with reference to the challenge of mitigation and adaptation, where resilience can address the delivery of policy goals.