resilience in simple terms
TRANSCRIPT
Resilience in Simple Terms Thoughts on resilience, by humanitarian actors in the Sahel
Credit: OCHA
La Résilience en Termes Simples Des pensées sur la résilience, par des acteurs humanitaires au Sahel
Compilation by UNOCHA/ Compilation par UNOCHA
For latest updates on the Sahel crisis, follow @DavidGressly and visit http://sahelnow.blogspot.com/
While discussions continue to take place among the members of the AGIR
Initiative, humanitarian actors in the Sahel at all levels share their thoughts
on resilience through human stories, analysis and definitions of this key
term in 2013.
Partners in the Sahel moving towards a common roadmap on
resilience
By the stakeholders of the AGIR Alliance
Following a series of consultations between Sahelian and West African
countries, West African regional organisations, organisations of
agricultural producers and pastoralists, the private sector, the civil society,
financial partners and non-
governmental organisations,
stakeholders involved in food and
nutritional security met in
Ouagadougou on 6 December 2012
within the framework of the Food
Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA) to
seal the Global Alliance for
Resilience Initiative - Sahel and West
Africa. Mère et Enfant. CRÉDIT: ECHO
Stakeholders agreed to define resilience as: the capacity of vulnerable
households, families and systems to face uncertainty and the risk of
shocks, to withstand and respond effectively to shocks, as well as to
recover and adapt in a sustainable manner.
The general objective for the future set by the stakeholders is to:
Structurally and sustainably reduce food and nutritional vulnerability by
supporting the implementation of Sahelian and West African policies.
The Alliance aims to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’, eliminating hunger and
malnutrition, within the next 20 years. A roadmap, based on the
Ouagadougou declaration and scheduled for 2013, will provide
quantitative specific objectives and monitoring indicators.
Read more »
What does resilience mean in the Sahel?
By David Gressly, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel
In nearly every meeting I attend on resilience, the
first fifteen to thirty minutes are spent on coming up
with a definition of resilience. It is then usually
agreed that resilience means the ability of families,
households or communities to absorb shocks.
However for many who don´t attend such meetings,
this still seems too conceptual and does not give a
clear idea of what needs to change in practice. If we
are to succeed in building the resilience of households and communities in
the Sahel, those involved need to know what we are talking about.
I have found that describing what happens to vulnerable households in the
face of drought or major increases in the cost of food clarifies the issue.
While there are other problems such as floods and epidemics that can have
an impact on households, access to food is the major threat households
face. Access can be limited by either a local shortfall in food production or
an increase in food prices that prevents vulnerable households from
purchasing food.
So what do households do to survive a drought or high food prices?
Read more »
Que signifie la résilience au Sahel?
Par David Gressly, Coordonnateur humanitaire régional pour le Sahel
Dans presque toutes les réunions organisées sur le thème de la résilience
auxquelles je participe, les 15 à 30 premières minutes sont consacrées à
tenter de définir ce qu’est la résilience. En règle générale, il est convenu
que la résilience est la capacité des familles, des ménages ou des
communautés à absorber les chocs. Cependant, pour beaucoup de ceux qui
n'ont pas assisté à ces réunions, cette définition est encore trop
conceptuelle et ne donne pas une idée claire de ce qui doit changer dans la
pratique. Pour parvenir à ériger la résilience des ménages et des
communautés dans le Sahel, il faut que les personnes concernées
comprennent de quoi nous parlons.
A mon avis, c’est en décrivant les conséquences de la sécheresse ou de
l’augmentation du prix des aliments sur les ménages vulnérables que l’on
clarifie cette question. Bien que d'autres problèmes tels que les
inondations et les épidémies peuvent avoir un impact sur les ménages,
l'accès limité à la nourriture constitue la grande menace à laquelle ils
doivent faire face. L'accès à la nourriture peut être limité en raison, soit
d’un déficit de production local, soit d’une augmentation du prix des
denrées alimentaires ce qui prive les ménages vulnérables de la capacité
d’acheter de la nourriture.
Que font alors les ménages pour survivre à une sécheresse ou à
l’augmentation du prix des denrées alimentaires?
Read more »
Breaking the myth of growth as a panacea:
Development actors to identify, protect and build resilience of the
poorest people in the Sahel
By Cyprien Fabre, Head of Regional Support Office West Africa, ECHO
(Directorate General Humanitarian Aids and Civil protection)
Since the 2005 crisis in Niger, the humanitarian
community has focused its efforts on the widespread
problem of malnutrition. Acute malnutrition started to
be measured regularly uncovering appalling
malnutrition rates in Niger and, it quickly appeared,
throughout the Sahel.
Malnutrition management was steadily improved, in
spite of the constraints faced by national health
systems. With some time and effort, tackling malnutrition is steadily
becoming a higher priority for governments in the region.
It nevertheless also appeared that those malnutrition rates remained high
even in ‘good’ agricultural years, and even in areas with substantial
agricultural production. In the Sahel it seems there is no direct connection
between agricultural production and malnutrition. And yet, the majority of
development projects in recent decades have supported national policies
focused on agricultural production with an emphasis on food self-
sufficiency and export sectors.
But recent studies of the household economy in the Sahel have
contradicted the cliché of rural environments where levels of wealth are
homogenous.
Read more »
Some perspectives on resilience building in Sahel
By UNDP West and Central Africa Regional Center colleagues Nathalie
Bouché, Poverty Practice Leader & Sophie Baranes, Regional Practice
Coordinator, crisis prevention and recovery.
UNDP's tagline
"Empowered lives.
Resilient nations." reflects
the growing importance of
the concept of resilience
in international
development discourse,
prompting partners to
ensure that human
development results are
built to last against the spectrum of diverse and multiple stresses or
shocks, including food price hikes, climate-induced natural disasters,
epidemics, conflicts.
Looking into a comprehensive definition of Resilience in the Sahel
Although definitions of resilience are still work in progress among actors
and practitioners within and outside the UN system they commonly refer
to the ability of people, communities or countries to effectively deal with
stresses and shocks. The capacity to ‘deal with’ is however variably
depicted as a capacity to anticipate, prevent, prepare for, accommodate,
absorb, or recover from these stresses and shocks in a sustainable manner.
What does building long term resilience in the Sahel require?
Read more »
What does resilience mean for 13 year old Minthi?
By Léna Thiam, Education specialist in Emergencies in Plan
International- West Africa Regional Office
Resilience, resilience, resilience… Everyone
speaks about it in the humanitarian world.
This word has become actually very “trendy”.
But what does resilience really mean?
According to Boris Cyrulnik (the person who
invented the word), it is the art of navigating
in the torrent.
I would define resilience as the human capacity to thrive after difficult
circumstances in our life. In humanitarian terms, resilience has the power
to give hope to children, women and men in order to rebuild their lives.
Minthi´s story is a good example of how resilience can help improve
people´s life . 13 year old Minthi managed to escape Islamic groups and
save her studies. Minthi is 13 years old and in the 6th grade.
Minthi. CREDIT: Plan International
Her smile hides the challenges she faces trying to learn each day. Eight
months ago, Minthi arrived in Segou with her family, leaving the violence
in her hometown of Kidal behind.
Read more »
Women and Resilience in the Sahel: flexible and indestructible
By Beatrix Attinger Colijn, Regional IASC GenCap Adviser in
Humanitarian Action
Boris Cyrulnik is considered the founder of the
concept of “resilience’” and has described it, as
one can read below, as the art of navigating in the
torrent. Bringing the concept to the Sahel region,
where torrents are rather scares, one might better
compare it with the art of walking through a sand
storm. Were you ever caught in a real sand storm
and tried to walk upright with a clear vision of
where you were going? – Right!
When I imagine a typical landscape in Niger, I see camels and men riding
them elegantly; and looking around I see some women, carrying water
buckets back to the huts, sitting on donkeys riding to the field, or keeping
together a group of goats. Being a woman in Niger - and in the Sahel at
large - means you are at the very end of the world’s gender equality index
list and you might belong to the 63% of Niger’s population living below
the poverty line, two thirds of whom are women. The cultural and legal
framework will also imply that you will have very limited access to
education, land, and heritage. And when a crisis sets in on the region and
your life, you will not only have to overcome the inequality of
opportunities for women but also the hardship the crisis imposes on the
population.
Resilience Niger- CREDIT: Rein Skullerud
Resilience in my language is translated into being flexible and
indestructible. The food security crisis has long demanded coping
strategies from the population at risk, such as labor migration within
countries or across borders. If the male head of the family leaves home in
search of work, it is the woman who stays behind with the children, in
Niger usually in high numbers, and it is her who will have to reinvent the
means to provide for the livelihood of the family.
Read more »
World Food Programme and resilience building in the Sahel
By Corinne Stephenson, Communication Officer in WFP, Regional Office
Resilience is a multi-faceted, long-term objective
that includes access to basic services (education,
health, water and sanitation), food and nutrition
security, improved livelihood base and productive
safety nets. Resilience can only be achieved with
leadership of the governments, ownership by the
communities affected and in partnership with all
UN actors, donors and non-governmental
organizations.
WFP’s presence in vulnerable areas, its understanding of vulnerability,
focus on community participation and support to education – particularly
that of girls – makes the organization a key player in the resilience agenda.
We can inform policy-making by governments, work with communities
through food- and cash-for-work to build durable assets (improve land and
water conservation, for example) and work with partners to give the
projects the technical rigor necessary to have a lasting effect on the lives
and livelihoods of people we serve.
What are the principles for action to build resilience?
Read more »
What does resilience mean for Amadou & Moussa?
By Esther Huerta García, Communication & Social Media Officer -
OCHA Sahel
These young boys below might not have
participated in the global debate around
resilience in the Sahel region. Still, they know
very well what it means to live in a family
whose resilience has been completely eroded.
Losing resilience - in very simple
terms
Amadou and Moussa live in Mali and
are among the generation of children
that have missed a whole year of
school in 2012 due to the food crisis.
Their parents, after this year´s
drought, were forced to reduce the
quantity and quality of food they
could give to their children. Children playing in Mopti- CREDIT: ECHO
When food is not sufficient,this is the first strategy many households
follow to adapt to this new situation. After that, as the crisis continued, the
family was forced to sell their livestock and take out a loan. They had
nothing left.
Read more »
How international aid can support resilience
By Andrew Thow, Humanitarian Policy Officer,
OCHA
Since the first signs that the food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel was
getting worse in late 2011, ‘resilience’ has become the most talked about
topic in humanitarian policy circles. We must get better at preventing
recurrent crises in the Sahel and other regions. On this, everyone agrees.
But when we talk about doing business differently, what exactly does that
mean?
Niger, 2012: Man in Molia village tends vegetables.CR: D. Ohana, OCHA
Resilience is just a word, and when we are talking about families and
communities it sounds simple enough. People are resilient when they can
cope with hardships. Farmers with drought-resistant crops won’t lose their
livelihoods when the rains fail. Well-nourished children can get a better
education and so provide for their own families in the future.
But the word ‘resilience’ is also
being used to sum up a series of
changes in the way
the international aid system supports
people and countries affected by
recurrent crises. In particular, it has
come to mean more closely
integrating short-term humanitarian
relief and longer-term development
assistance, so that together they are
more effective. Many governments in
the region have taken the lead in
preparing national plans to do just
that. The UN has a common approach
on building resilience in the Sahel,
which brings together its different
programs.
CREDIT- Pierre Peron, OCHA
Read more »
The Keyhole Garden – Everyday Resilience in Action
By Michael Hill, Senior Writer in Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
For many of us, a vegetable garden is a relaxing
diversion as well as a welcome source of tasty,
fresh produce for our dinner tables. But such a
garden can transform the lives of those who
struggle to get enough to eat. The Keyhole
Garden, named for its shape, is grown on a raised
bed made of locally available materials. Its waist-
high design makes it easy for those too old to work the fields to maintain.
Properly situated, it can provide crops year round – and a fantastic way to
build a family's resilience.
Women working: Credit WFP
For a family whose diet is dominated by a starchy staple crop -- corn or
cassava or rice -- such vitamin and nutrient-rich additions to meals can
mean the difference between sickness and health. The garden can also
provide produce to sell, income that helps the family withstand a bad
harvest. Catholic Relief Services has taught thousands of families around
the world how to build these transformative gardens, and now we're
bringing the idea to the Sahel.
Watch how simple it is to make one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grritAZ7CHI
Maabisi Phooko and her keyhole garden.
CREDIT: Kim Pozniak/CRS
For more information on CRS in the region, see
http://crs.org/countries/senegal
Mali: Beyond food relief: building community resiliency
Words and photos by Maria Mutya Frio, Food Crisis Communications
Manager in World Vision, West Africa Regional Office
We’re in the middle of a 120-hectare field, baking
under the scorching sun but Kiasy Mounkous, village
chief of Ouane commune is all smiles. He stretches out
his arms as he proudly shows us the land his
community prepared for the planting season.
San province in southern Mali
was one of the hardest hit areas
by the food crisis in West
Africa.
In the Sahel belt, more than 18
million people across Mali,
Niger, Mauritania, Senegal and
Chad have been affected.
Droughts in late 2011
significantly decreased harvests, depleting food stocks that led to
shortages in many provinces. This year, excessive rains inundated crops.
Food supplies in markets dwindled as prices soared. For many families,
especially children, this meant not having enough to eat day after day. The
youth migrated to neighboring villages in the hope of getting better food
security.
Read more »
Le sahel peut-il sortir du cycle des crises alimentaires?
Quelques réflexions pédagogiques sur la définition de la résilience en
matière de nutrition
Par Salimata Wade, Professeur Titulaire de Physiologie et Nutrition
Humaine, Université Cheick Anta Diop (UCAD), Dakar (Senegal)
« Les êtres humains, confrontés aux difficultés de
la vie, réagissent de façons diverses : les uns
cèdent à l’accablement, les autres, mus par une
force étonnante, expriment une capacité à résister
et à se construire »
Durant les 5 dernières années, malgré l’existence
de zones à risque, la production de céréales a augmenté en Afrique
subsaharienne (CILSS).
Et pourtant, depuis les années 70, la production alimentaire per capita au
Sahel est la plus faible du monde et ne peut nourrir la population toujours
croissante.
Quelques points qui peuvent expliquer en partie la crise nutritionnelle au
Sahel
L’agriculture et l’élevage sous-développés et inadaptés
Les pertes post récoltes
L’augmentation croissante d’aliments importés (blé, riz)
La crise alimentaire et financière mondiale récente mais durable
L’absence d’industries de transformation alimentaires
Les changements climatiques
Satisfation des besoins nutritionnels à travers l´exemple du Sénégal.
Présentation de Prof. Wade. À droite, Prof. Wade et Recteur M. Ndiaye
Read more »
La résilience dans le domaine de la Sécurité Alimentaire
Par Xavier Huchon, Délégué sécurité alimentaire Afrique de l´Ouest et
sahelienne/Croix Rouge francaise
Renforcer la résilience dans le domaine de la
Sécurité Alimentaire signifie élargir les
capacités de choix des populations fragiles.
Cela passe par l’amélioration des moyens
d’existence des ménages et de leur capital
(monétaire, cheptel, terre, etc.) afin de leur
permettre à long terme de mieux résister et
s’adapter aux chocs.
Khadija habite un village de la région de Zinder (Niger). Elle est
bénéficiaire d’une intervention de la Croix Rouge. Son témoignage : «sans
votre appui j’aurais été dans l’obligation de vendre ma dernière chèvre
pour acheter à manger. Grâce au transfert monétaire, j’ai acheté du mil, du
sorgho, des condiments pour nourrir ma famille ainsi que des semences ».
Aujourd’hui Khadija a commencé à récolter son champ avec son mari et
confie que les récoltes seront si prometteuses que le ménage pourra en
bénéficier jusqu’à la prochaine campagne agricole.
Khadija (avec son fils au dos) discute avec un travailleur de la CROIX ROUGE FRANCAISE
Plus de photos de Khadija
Read more »
Some personal reflections on resilience in the Sahel
By Joachim Theis, Regional Child Protection Adviser in UNICEF West &
Central Africa
Resilience has certainly become the new buzz word
in the Sahel.
The resilience agenda makes a case for ending the
recurrent food and nutrition crises in the Sahel. My
first exposure to international development came in
the mid-70s when my parents supported the
humanitarian response to the drought in Niger. Ten years later I worked in
the Sudan during another famine. At the time, we identified desertification
as the culprit – now we blame the food and nutrition crisis on global
warming.
CREDIT-UNICEF
Whatever the cause, it is bad and it does not seem to go away. Billions of
dollars have been spent over the past forty years on humanitarian response
in the Sahel, but the frequency and severity of food and nutrition crises in
the Sahel do not seem to decline.
So, mobilizing governments and
development actors to build resilient
families, communities and nations in
the Sahel and to end the recurrent food
and nutrition crises is a compelling
proposition.
Credit: UNICEF Niger/2012/Asselin
See 5 more reflections on resilience
Read more »
Oumou Moussa: a resilient woman
Video by UNOCHA, with the contribution from CBM
Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWc6h2-TBDk
Due to drought and poor harvests, a food crisis is looming in Niger. There
are solutions. In a village just outside the capital, Niamey, Oumou Moussa
is helping to feed her community with the produce from a garden that she
started with the help of international NGO, CBM
La résilience au Tchad
Par Ahmat Payouni, coordinateur de l´ONG Secadev à l’est du Tchad
La résilience dans un contexte d’urgence
signifie qu’on cherche par tous les moyens à
renforcer les capacités des populations
victimes d’une catastrophe naturelle ou
humaine à résister, à subvenir à leurs besoins.
A l’est du Tchad, nous vivons dans un
environnement naturellement fragile.
Ces dernières années, cet environnement est
davantage fragilisé par les évènements
survenus au Darfour, notamment l’arrivée massive des réfugiés soudanais
mais aussi par la désertification.
Vu que les populations de cette région sont très dépendantes de
l’agriculture, de l’Elevage et du commerce, chaque fois que l’année est
déficitaire, les hommes et les animaux souffrent de malnutrition. Dans un
contexte d’urgence comme celui là, la résilience signifie renforcer les
capacités de ces populations pour qu’elles puissent développer des
stratégies qui leur permettent de résister à ces chocs.
Pour le Secadev, cette résilience se traduit par la mise en place des
stratégies qui encouragent les populations à pratiquer le maraîchage, à
utiliser les semences plus adaptées aux conditions climatiques, la
diversification des cultures, à bien gérer les sources d’eau et les
productions agricoles.
Read more »
Agriculture et résilience : Semences et Espoir au Sahel
By FAO www.fao.org/crisis/sahel/fr/
L'assistance de la FAO à la région du Sahel, frappée
par des sécheresses durant quatre des cinq dernières
années, cible les personnes vulnérables afin qu'elles
passent sans encombre la période de soudure tout en
leur offrant la possibilité de renforcer leur résilience
face à de futures situations d'urgence. Donnons la
parole à quelques bénéficiaires rencontrés en juin 2012. Ils parlent de leurs
espérances suite à l'appui dont ils ont bénéficié. Car lutter pour renforcer
la résilience des populations, c'est aussi, en terme simples, redonner de
l'espoir, faire en sorte que les bénéficiaires regardent vers l'avenir avec
confiance.
L'une des bénéficiaires de
cette assistance est Ouma
Moussa, mère de deux
enfants. Elle fait partie des
170 femmes du village de
Kirari (nord du Niger) qui ont
reçu un assortiment de 50 kg
de semences de légumineuses
offert par la FAO en même
temps que des outils agricoles CREDIT Issouf Sanogo/FAO
basiques et des intrants.
FAO provides emergency assistance-CREDIT Issouf Sanogo/FAO
Ouma Moussa affirme que la petite parcelle de 100m2 qu'elle cultive peut
produire jusqu'à 70 kilos de pommes de terre, des choux, des laitues, des
tomates et des poivrons.
Bien que les pommes de terre aient été introduites récemment au Sahel,
"mes enfants les adorent", dit-elle. "Je les mets juste à bouillir."
Prochain objectif : acheter une vache
Read more »