In Search of the Resilient Sahelian: Reflections on a Fashionable Notion

• Date: 01 March 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.18278/wfp.3.2.4.1.7
• Published date: 01 March 2017

127

In Search of the Resilient Sahelian:

Reections on a Fashionable Notion

Benoît Lallau1

A

is paper examines the gure of the “resilient Sahelian” identi-

ed or sought by numerous aid actors and funding bodies in West

Africa. Does this notion of resilience contribute to something gen-

uinely new, and if so, how? What methodological challenges does

it raise? Can it be operationalized? And, above all, which policies

does it require us to implement? ese questions need to be ad-

dressed head-on if the “resilient Sahelian” is to be more than a po-

etic metaphor.

Keywords: resilience, food insecurity, Sahel, vulnerability, capabil-

ities.

R

Este documento examina la gura del “saheliano residente” identi-

cado o buscado por numerosas entidades de ayuda y organismos

nanciadores en África occidental. ¿Contribuye esta noción de re-

siliencia a algo genuinamente nuevo?, y si sí, ¿cómo? ¿Qué desafíos

metodológicos incluye? ¿Puede ser operativizada? Y, sobre todo

¿qué políticas require que implementemos? Estas preguntas tienen

que ser abordadas de frente si el “saheliano resiliente” va a ser más

que una metáfora poética.

Palabras clave: resiliencia, seguridad alimentaria, Sahel, vulnerabi-

lidad, capacidades

1 Benoît Lallau is senior lecturer in economics, at Lille University (France). His research is fo-

cused on vulnerability and resilience in African rural areas. He heads the working group on

resilience within the Clersé (http://resiliences.univ-lille1.fr).

World Food Policy • Vol. 3, No. 2 / Vol. 4, No. 1 • Fall 2016 / Spring 2017

doi: 10.18278/wfp.3.2.4.1.7

World Food Policy

128

摘要

本文检验了“有适应力的萨赫勒居民”（resilient Sahelian）

这一被无数援助行为者和资助机构在西非所寻求的形象。这

个关于适应力的观念是否促进形成了真正的新事物？如果是

的话，又是如何形成的？它提出了怎样的方法论挑战？它能

投入操作吗？最重要的是，它要求我们实施哪种政策？如

果“有适应力的萨赫勒居民”不只是一个诗意的暗喻的话，

就需要迎面解决这些问题。

关键词：适应力，粮食不安全，萨赫勒，易受影响性，能力

Introduction

The aid sector is subject to fash-

ions. And regularly, “experts” are

convinced, or claim to be, that

they have found a framework that will

allow us solve the ills of humanity. In the

2010s, that “miraculous” notion is resil-

ience. is notion came from outside

the aid sector, in two disciplinary elds:

in psychology, it relates to how a person

recovers from a shock or a succession

of unfavorable events (Luthar 2006); in

ecology, it refers to an analysis conduct-

ed to establish if an ecosystem manag-

es, following a disruption, to maintain

its vital functions and to adapt (Holling

1973). e focus of this analysis then

shied to social–ecological systems

combining nature and humans, such

as urban systems (Walker et al. 2004).

Centered on shocks, resilience was rst

used by institutions such as the UNIS-

DR2 in the eld of natural disasters and

2 United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

3 Global Alliance for Resilience in Sahelian areas, implemented by European Union.

their impact on human populations

(UNISDR 2002). It then spread far be-

yond this eld. Initially referring to the

ability to recover from a major shock,

resilience was then also considered to

refer to the capacity to learn and adapt,

particularly in protracted crisis or pov-

erty situations, and to the capacity to

anticipate and prevent. Its wholesale

use has considerably widened deni-

tions of the notion, such as the one used

by AGIR3: “Resilience is the ability of

an individual, a household, a commu-

nity, a country or a region to withstand,

adapt, and quickly recover from stress-

es and shocks such as drought, violence,

conict or natural disaster” (European

Union 2012). It risks becoming a catch-

all notion onto which anyone can proj-

ect whatever meaning they wish.

It can also be seen as the result of

a long process of reection on the ght

against food insecurity and its failures.