In 2011 Practical Action published From Vulnerability to Resilience: A Framework for Analysis and Action to Build Community Resilience. This was one of the first attempts by a development NGO to operationalize resilience and it provided project workers with a framework to apply the resilience concept to their projects. This policy brief updates our thinking on resilience. Using the experiences gained from the Zurich Global Flood Resilience Programme and our interactions with alliance partners, we have updated the Vulnerability to Resilience framework. For the potential of resilience thinking to benefit poor, hazard-prone people around the world, we need to find a simple way to combine the complexity of livelihoods, vulnerability, governance, hazards, and uncertainty into a simple practical approach. Resilience opens up a new way to think about and do development. Resilience requires a systems approach to explore development and disasters across sectors and at multiple scales. Resilience will certainly be central to the delivery of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Paris Climate Agreement. However, to be effective, these international agreements must put the most vulnerable at their heart.

Colin McQuistan