Everyone is talking about “resilience”, but what does that mean for development and humanitarian investments? On 14-15 October USAID Regional Development Mission in Asia hosted the conference “Resilience: tools, measurement & application” with the aim of exploring the application of resilience principles and identifying opportunities for collaboration.

The conference was divided into four main sessions, aiming at triggering a debate on and answering the following key questions: how can we apply resilience and systems thinking? What tools can be used in the analytic process? What are the best ways to measure resilience capacities? How do we ensure resilience-building is inclusive, pro-poor, and not maladaptive? How can we work collaboratively in this space?

Anna Mdee, CPAN Research Fellow, gave her presentation in the session ‘Framing Resilience Issues in Asia’. Anna’s contribution focused particularly on the linkages between extreme poverty and resilience, providing insights and recommendations taken from the 2014-5 Chronic Poverty Report.