11:00 AM - 11:15 AM
[U01-07] Misconstruing Resilience is Inimical to Attaining SDGs
★Invited Papers
Keywords:Resilience, Philippines, SDG
Resilience is a prerequisite for sustainable development. The capacity to persist, adapt, and transform should be embedded in all aspects of any initiative aimed at attaining the SDGs. Together with other climate change and sustainable development vernaculars that include hazards, disasters and disaster risks, susceptibility, and vulnerability, resilience has also become mainstreamed in the discussions. As a descriptive term, resilience captures positive attributes that bring forth images of strength, flexibility, and endurance. For some nations, like the Philippines, being called resilient has become a source of pride for the country and brings to attention cultural traits of being tough in the face of adversity.
However, there are flipsides to these. Particular to this is the fact that resilience is a relative term. It connotes the ability to bounce back after a disturbance or shock. Therefore, resilience implies that a system must have somewhere to bounce back from, and that it must be strong against a particular something. For developing nations where a big percentage of populations are living in poverty, the point of bouncing back from is essentially in the negative field. Layer this with extensive geohazard susceptibility, and frequent climate-related shocks that are occurring with increasing frequencies and intensities, the reference point from which to bounce back from is not a position of advantage.
Unfortunately, some sectors, particularly political entities, have showcased resilience of people living in poverty as a testament to their being tough in the face of regularly occurring disasters and other adversities. They essentially romanticized the idea of resilience, making heroes out of people who remain alive and, in the Philippine example: still smiling, even if they are affected by calamities every single year. This skewed view of resilience places the burden on individuals and their need for them to remain strong, instead of holding accountable institutions just that: accountable! It also diverts the discourse away from the absence of centralized planning and serious investing in concrete and actionable strategies to narratives of disaster resilience at the individual or family levels, and their ability to bear suffering and trauma on a regular basis. In such a setting, no real gains will ever be realized for any of the SDGs, until society reframes how we see resilience and its role in sustainable development.
However, there are flipsides to these. Particular to this is the fact that resilience is a relative term. It connotes the ability to bounce back after a disturbance or shock. Therefore, resilience implies that a system must have somewhere to bounce back from, and that it must be strong against a particular something. For developing nations where a big percentage of populations are living in poverty, the point of bouncing back from is essentially in the negative field. Layer this with extensive geohazard susceptibility, and frequent climate-related shocks that are occurring with increasing frequencies and intensities, the reference point from which to bounce back from is not a position of advantage.
Unfortunately, some sectors, particularly political entities, have showcased resilience of people living in poverty as a testament to their being tough in the face of regularly occurring disasters and other adversities. They essentially romanticized the idea of resilience, making heroes out of people who remain alive and, in the Philippine example: still smiling, even if they are affected by calamities every single year. This skewed view of resilience places the burden on individuals and their need for them to remain strong, instead of holding accountable institutions just that: accountable! It also diverts the discourse away from the absence of centralized planning and serious investing in concrete and actionable strategies to narratives of disaster resilience at the individual or family levels, and their ability to bear suffering and trauma on a regular basis. In such a setting, no real gains will ever be realized for any of the SDGs, until society reframes how we see resilience and its role in sustainable development.