SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In 2015 and 2016 the world’s governments agreed the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (Sendai Framework), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (the Paris Agreement) and the World Humanitarian Summit framework (WHS). These frameworks articulate a set of goals and targets that, if achieved, will create a future where significant progress will have been made on the disaster, sustainable development, climate and humanitarian challenges of today. ‘Resilience’ features in all four of the major frameworks and agreements. This working paper and corresponding briefing paper summarises findings and recommendations from an analysis of resilience across the post-2015 frameworks. It argues that taken together, the different contributions of these frameworks make for a more complete resilience agenda than if they are taken separately. Why? Because building resilience will require action that spans the development, humanitarian, climate and disaster risk reduction arenas. However, ‘resilience’ is not presented coherently across the frameworks, and there is still a long way to go to promote greater understanding of resilience as an outcome rather than as a set of activities or outputs. This working paper represents a continued effort by ODI and others to translate commitments to ‘resilience’ in the post-2015 frameworks from the global level down to the national and sub-national levels. The aim of this work is to help those working on building resilience – from policy-makers to community leaders and technical experts – to understand how resilience features in the frameworks and what the opportunities are for a more coherent agenda as the promised actions are implemented. The working paper provides readers with a summary of the processes leading to the final framework texts, transcripts of the frameworks themselves, and analysis of the points of coalescence and tension. The briefing outlines why greater institutional incentives are needed to reinforce coherence on resilience across various international agreements.