An Introduction to Resilience for Humanitarian Workers

Foundation Course for NARRI Staffs

9 June 2013
Koitta, Manikganj, Bangladesh

Shashanka Saadi, Director, Research for Development & Market
(RDM) and Eisenhower Fellow 2012, Bangladesh

 Conceptual clarity on DRR resilience
 Principles of DRR resilience
 Some experience in regional Context
 Way forward-context Bangladesh

Conceptual clarity on DRR
resilience

 “The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to

resist, absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard
in a timely and efficient manner”
United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

 “The ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances

while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning, the
capacity for self-organisation, and the capacity to adapt to stress and
change”
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

 “The capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while

undergoing change”
The Resilience Alliance

 Disaster Resilience is the ability of

countries, communities and households to
manage change, by maintaining or transforming
living standards in the face of shocks or stresses
- such as earthquakes, drought or violent
conflict – without compromising their longterm prospects – defined by DFID as a working
definition of Resilience, 2011

 Resilience is the ability of a system, community, or society

exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate to, and
recover from the effects of a hazard promptly and efficiently by
preserving and restoring essential basic structures (UNISDR
2011b).
 A resilient community is one that can absorb
disturbances, change, reorganize, and still retain the same basic
structures and provide the same Services (Resilience Alliance
2002).
 As a concept, resilience can be applied to any community and
any type of disturbance: natural, man-made, or a combination of
the two. Disaster resilience can be seen as a public good that
builds an appropriate amount of redundancy into urban systems
and encourages communities to plan how to deal with
disruptions.

 Infrastructural : Infrastructural resilience refers to a

reduction in the vulnerability of built structures, such as
buildings and transportation systems. It also refers to
sheltering capacity, health care facilities, the vulnerability
of buildings to hazards, critical infrastructure, and the
availability of roads for evacuations and post-disaster
supply lines. Infrastructural resilience also refers to a
community’s capacity for response and recovery.
 Institutional resilience refers to the systems, governmental
and nongovernmental, that administer a community.

 Economic resilience refers to a community’s economic

diversity in such areas as employment, number of
businesses, and their ability to function after a disaster.
 Social resilience refers to the demographic profile of a
community by sex, age, ethnicity, disability,
socioeconomic status, and other groupings, and the
profile of its social capital. Although difficult to
quantify, social capital refers to a sense of community,
the ability of groups of citizens to adapt, and a sense of
attachment to a place (Cutter, Burton, and Emrich
2010).
Reference: Building Urban Resilience, World Bank, 2013

 ‘Resilience’ is generally seen as a broader concept than ‘capacity’

because it goes beyond the specific behavior, strategies and
measures for risk reduction and management that are normally
understood as capacities. However, it is difficult to separate the
concepts clearly. In everyday usage, ‘capacity’ and ‘coping
capacity’ often mean the same as ‘resilience’.

Community resilience can be understood as:
 capacity to absorb stress or destructive forces through resistance
or adaptation
 capacity to manage, or maintain certain basic functions and
structures, during disastrous events
 capacity to recover or ‘bounce back’ after an event
Reference: Characteristics of a resilient community by John Twigg, 2007

 Resilience is the ability of a system, community, or society

exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, and recover
from the effects of a hazard promptly and efficiently.
 Residual risk and uncertainty have to be managed in a way
that is both flexible and robust, using design solutions that build
on investments in risk information, strategic communication,
cross-sectoral coordination, and a well-planned response and
recovery strategy.
 The phases of disaster risk management—mitigation,
preparedness, disaster, response, recovery, and reconstruction—
each offer practical opportunities to enhance resilience.
 Risk mitigation is part of the resilience approach. With the
general aim of increasing preparedness and the capacity to
respond to a disaster and swiftly recover from its impacts,
resilience goes beyond mere mitigation.

 Risk can be reduced by reducing the exposure and

vulnerability of people or assets that are linked to their
geographical location, the structure of the built and
natural environment, operational and institutional
arrangements, and management of the fiscal impacts of
natural hazards.
 Social resilience is the capacity of individuals within a
community or society to cope with and adapt to
disturbances or changes.
 Land use planning and ecosystem management are
relatively low-cost “no-regrets” approaches to managing
disaster risks effectively, especially for small and mediumsized urban centers that lack resources and capacity.

 The resilience of urban infrastructure and services is

critically important for emergency response and the quick
recovery of a community and its economy. The design of
critical systems needs to take into account the possibility of
failure through redundant and backup measures so that
they can deal with failure in ways that are least damaging to
the society.
 Risk information provides a basis for prioritizing risk
reduction measures. Sharing hazard and risk information
with stakeholders is critical in managing the risks facing
urban communities and sectors.
 Creating an enabling environment for communities to
participate and make decisions based on adequate risk
information and tools fosters the collective resilience of an
urban system

Characteristics of a
Resilient Community

A safe and resilient community... As IFRC defines:
 1. …is knowledgeable and healthy. It has the ability to assess, manage



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



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and monitor its risks.
It can learn new skills and build on past experiences
2. …is organised. It has the capacity to identify problems, establish
priorities and act.
3. …is connected. It has relationships with external actors who provide
a wider supportive environment, and supply goods and services when
needed.
4. …has infrastructure and services. It has strong
housing, transport, power, water and sanitation systems. It has the
ability to maintain, repair and renovate them.
5. …has economic opportunities. It has a diverse range of employment
opportunities, income and financial services. It is flexible, resourceful
and has the capacity to accept uncertainty and respond (proactively) to
change.
6. …can manage its natural assets. It recognises their value and has the
ability to protect, enhance and maintain them.

Understanding
Operational
PERSPECTIVE

Regional Experience
of Disaster
Resilience

Reference: Approach to Resilience, DFID, 2011

The Zambezi Floodplain Management programme in
Mozambique supports vulnerable communities to deal
with persistent flooding of their farms. There has always
been drought and flooding in this area, but in the last 10
years weather patterns have become more unpredictable.
Instead of planting seeds in the main agricultural season in
the lowlands, irrigation projects encourage farmers to plant
in the highlands away from the floods. Alongside this,
communities are helped to learn new skills which provide
them with alternative sources of income. Communities
decide on the kinds of livelihoods they want to develop and
Save the Children provides training, technical support and
funding to help them get started. Helping communities to
grow crops all year and reduce their vulnerability to
drought, whilst also diversifying livelihoods, increases their
resilience to the effects of climate change.

 The Productive Safety Net Programme covers 7.8

million vulnerable people and has helped break the
need for emergency food programmes by providing
people with regular and predictable cash and food
transfers. A new Risk Financing mechanism allows the
Programme to expand in times of shock. This can for
example increase the period of time over which an
individual receives transfers (beyond the normal six
months) or add more people to the programme. This
mechanism is integral to protecting the asset base of
households in times of shock and helps to prevent the
programme from being diluted by beneficiaries
sharing their transfers with non-participating
households.

 Resilience need to be a combination of

DRR, CCA, Social Protection & Safety net programs
 It will need a regional approach as the characteristics
of Resilience are beyond national context
 This will strengthened the harmonization of different
kinds of programs – especially between disaster risk
reduction, social protection and climate change
adaptation (DFID, 2011)

Factors influencing resilience, adopted from Towards Resilience by Marilise Turnbull, Charlotte L. Sterrett & Amy Hilleboe, 2012

 Defining Urban Resilience, World Bank, 2013
 Towards Resilience by Marilise Turnbull, Charlotte L.

Sterrett & Amy Hilleboe, 2012
 Approach to Resilience, DFID, 2011
 IFRC report on Safe and Resilient Community, 2011
 A guide to Characteristics of Community Resilience,
John Twigg, 2007
 Elements of disaster resilience: lessons from Bangladesh,

Practical Action, 2011
 Building disaster resilient communities: good practices

and lessons learned, UNISDR 2011

An Introduction to Resilience for Humanitarian Workers

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