Resilience Evidence Forum Synthesis Report
The Resilience Evidence Forum Synthesis Report is now available! In June this year, we joined forces with USAID to co-host the Resilience Evidence Forum. The three-day event brought together over 200 in-person and more than 1000 virtual participants. Discussions dissected the current state of resilience evidence, outlined principles and priorities when developing resilience strategies, and explored collective approaches to scaling evidence-based solutions.
This comprehensive report is available here.
Programme
The below programme is an overview snapshot for the three days of the Resilience Evidence Forum. All times are listed in South Africa Standard Time (SAST).
Crowdsourced Library
Visit our virtual platform and the crowd-sourced library behind the library door to get access to reports, cases studies, articles and more that have been mentioned and shared by participants at today’s forum.
Why do we need to advance resilience evidence?
Over the last decade, resilience has continued to be elevated as an analytic, programmatic, and organising concept in the development and climate discourse and practice. In line with this, approaches to measuring resilience have proliferated, giving rise to a nascent evidence base on both the impact of resilience programming and the sources of resilience that explain why some households, communities, systems, and countries fare better in the face of shocks and stresses than others.
Despite clear progress, significant challenges and gaps remain. The demand for resilience evidence has also grown exponentially as conflict, Covid-19, and the accelerating impacts of climate change have reversed development gains on a massive scale and pushed hundreds of millions of people into crisis levels of poverty and hunger. As we’re seeing an increase in financial commitments to adaptation and resilience, it is key to review what works, what doesn’t, and how we can tell the difference between the two when it comes to building resilience.
What is the Resilience Evidence Forum?
The Resilience Evidence Forum is a three-day interactive gathering that will take stock of the latest evidence on resilience and its implications for policy and programming and spark further collaborations and capacity exchange across geographic contexts, sectors, and actors.
The Forum will convene up to 200 physical participants, including USAID headquarters and field-based staff, implementing partners, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), United Nations and international organisations, donors and Global South government officials, universities, private sector, community-based and research organisations.
Our objectives are to:
- Strengthen the global community of resilience professionals by creating the space for deep learning and connection.
- Socialise the core principles and priorities for resilience measurement and evidence that emerged from the 2022 Advancing Resilience Measurement Consultation Report, as well as the work of key knowledge partners.
- Build momentum and identify key evidence gaps and opportunities for learning and innovation with regards to the priorities identified as most pressing to be addressed within the next 3 to 5 years.
- Identify priority areas and approaches for investment and decision-making that reflect the values, objectives, and ways of working supported by evidence.
In developing the programme, we are guided by the following design principles:
- Equity, diversity, inclusion. The forum will centre considerations of equity and inclusion as part of the process design and will aim to work with the diversity of practices, perspectives, disciplinary lineages, and ways of knowing in relation to resilience.
- Connection and trust building. Advancing collaborative actions requires trust and connection building. The Forum is a key opportunity to ensure that the individuals and the organisations are connected into building a shared endeavour.
- ‘In-person first’ experience. In response to the need for further connection and trust building among resilience professionals, we will focus on delivering a highly interactive, fun, and engaging experience for in-person participants. Key sessions will be livestreamed, and the case study library and all recordings will be available on a dedicated online platform.
- Learning lab. The design will maximise the potential offered by peer learning and ensure the participants to learn from each other’s projects or cases. This will be achieved through using facilitation processes such as Open Space Technology, Case Clinics, Fishbowl, or World Cafe. Fear not, there will be ample space for ‘show and tell’ sessions and panels too.
Who is this event for?
This event is aimed at anyone using or producing resilience evidence, including but not limited to:
- Community representatives / Community-based Organisations
- Practitioners – Development / Climate / Humanitarian
- Policy makers – Local / Regional / National / International
- Private sector – Business schools / Companies / SMEs
- Funders – Public & private sector funders / Investors / Philanthropies / IFI’s
- Researchers – Qualitative / Quantitative / Mixed
You might be a monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) professional working with resilience measurement approaches, you might be an SME seeking to understand how your activities contribute to resilience building, you might be a young community leader working to preserve your heritage, you might be a funder, policy maker, or decision maker seeking to improve your own processes, strategies, and decisions based on the latest evidence – this is the space for you!
Registration
In-person registration is now closed. You can still register to attend virtually up until the forum.
[Register to attend virtually]
Event location
The Resilience Evidence Forum will take place at the Century City Conference Centre. Voted as Africa’s most sustainable venue in 2019, Century City Conference Centre has been awarded a 4-Star Green Star Certification by the Green Building Council of South Africa. The venue is a short drive away from Cape Town International Airport as well as the city centre, with numerous affordable accommodation options on the doorstep.
Providing a green lung in the heart of Century City is Intaka Island, an award winning 16ha wetlands conservation area that is rich in birdlife and indigenous plants. Formerly known as the Blouvlei, Intaka Island comprises 8ha of ecologically sensitive ephemeral (seasonal) pans that are among the last remaining of their kind, and 8ha of reconstructed wetlands that serve to cleanse the water in the 8km of navigable canals that link the different elements of Century City.
Acknowledgements
The Resilience Evidence Forum is co-hosted by: USAID and the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP)
With the support of key knowledge partners:
Africa Research & Impact Network (ARIN) | University of Arizona’s Initiative for Resilience and International Development (AIRID) | Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) | Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) | International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) | Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) & Slum Dwellers International (SDI) | World Bank
With further funding from: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
