Working paper 545
Resilience-building and livelihood approaches in fragile and volatile environments need adaptive management and flexible programming. Innovation, experimental learning, projects tailored to fit local contexts and a readiness to pilot new ideas and learn from failure can be key success factors.
Cesvi, an organisation that supports vulnerable populations to achieve sustainable development, is developing a theoretical conceptualisation of resilience and operational guidance on resilience-building in fragile environments. Cesvi’s projects in Somalia and Zimbabwe are described and analysed in this report as a step towards improving such understanding.
Key messages
- Resilience-building and livelihood approaches in fragile and volatile environments need adaptive management and flexible programming. Innovation, experimental learning, projects tailored to fit local contexts and a readiness to pilot new ideas and learn from failure can be key success factors.
- Programmes focusing on diversifying livelihoods should consider migration and transitions from rural to informal urban livelihoods as possible adaptive strategies for smallholder farmers. Resilience strategies should target both host communities and displaced people through access and employment opportunities, to prevent conflicts over resources.
- Targeting marginalised groups such as women and IDPs is crucial to reducing vulnerability and building resilience. Resilience policy-making, programming and funding instruments should embrace the ‘leave no one behind’ principle explicitly, prioritising actions to support the poorest and most marginalised with the sim of ending extreme poverty and reducing inequalities.
- A governance- and process-oriented approach focused on building and strengthening partnerships between a broad range of local public and private actors is essential to achieving goals in fragile settings at all levels (households, communities, systems). Programming should actively promote accountability and ownership, and ensure the involvement of all relevant stakeholders.
- A long-term vision and ‘durable solutions’ approach for the reintegration of displaced people and the sustainable management of an enabling environment is fundamental to fostering resilience. This requires integrated policies and strategies to address national and local development priorities that are climate-smart, environmentally friendly and gender-sensitive, and that address the drivers of displacement.