Resilience has been at the heart of international development discussions in recent years, but competing definitions and sector-based funding streams have hampered implementation, according to an expert who spoke to Devex.
Donors and organizations approach resilience in a fragmented, rather than holistic, way, said Stephen Latham, an instructor at Northwest University's international community development graduate program. Instead of seeing the big picture, stakeholders might focus on just one piece of resilience — for example, water access or food supply — based on their expertise and funding. Such an approach could still leave vulnerabilities in countries’ abilities to withstand shocks.
“We need to think of resilience as being crosscutting, rather than sectorializing [the approaches to development],” he told Devex. A “multidimensional and multidisciplinary” approach is impossible when different stakeholders focus on isolated pieces of resilience, he said.
About the author
Lean Alfred Santos@DevexLeanAS
Lean Alfred Santos is a former Devex development reporter focusing on the development community in Asia-Pacific, including major players such as the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. He previously covered Philippine and international business and economic news, sports and politics.
