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 »