When we say resilience at IDH, what exactly are we trying to make resilient?

Resilience is one of those terms that can mean different things to different people. It can describe everything from helping farmers cope with drought to ensuring food systems can withstand global disruptions. The more often a term is used, the easier it becomes to assume we all mean the same thing. But when it comes to resilience, that isn't always true.  

At IDH, resilience may refer to climate resilience in one conversation and food system resilience in another.  

What most definitions do share, however, is a common foundation: resilience is the ability to withstand disruption, adapt to change and continue functioning. The key difference lies in what is being protected and the types of shocks or stresses it must be able to withstand. 

That got me thinking: when we talk about resilience, what exactly are we trying to make resilient? 

Food system resilience and climate resilience 

Climate resilience focuses on the ability to anticipate, prepare for and recover from climate-related stresses such as droughts, floods, heatwaves, and changing rainfall patterns. 

Food system resilience is broader. It looks at whether the entire food system can continue to function when shocks occur, regardless of where those shocks originate. Climate change is clearly one of the biggest challenges facing food systems today. But it is not the only one. Food system resilience also considers market volatility, political instability, governance failures, quickly shifting policy changes, social inequality, and disruptions to global value chains.  

Take a geopolitical example. A conflict that disrupts shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz delays fertiliser deliveries to countries such as Ethiopia. Farmers lose access to critical inputs, yields decline, prices rise, and the effects ripple through the entire value chain.  

A resilient food system is one that can absorb and adapt to such disruptions through diversified value chains, stronger institutions, better information flows, and reduced dependence on external inputs. 

In that sense, climate resilience is one (important) piece of a much larger food system resilience puzzle. 

Resilience depends on where you stand 

Another reason resilience can be difficult to define is that it looks different depending on where you stand. For a farmer, resilience might mean healthy soils, crop diversity, or access to finance that helps them recover from a poor season. At landscape level, resilience is also about healthy ecosystems, coordinated water management, and collaboration between communities and value chain actors. 

Zoom out further to food system level and resilience depends on diverse value chains, adaptable markets, effective governance, and policies that help absorb shocks while keeping food accessible and affordable. 

At the global level, resilience is shaped by trade, geopolitics, climate trends, and the growing interdependence of food, energy, and financial systems. The wider the lens, the more interconnected the challenges become. 

Getting specific about resilience 

For me, resilience becomes most useful when we get specific. What shock are we talking about? Which part of the system is vulnerable? What capacities need strengthening? 

Resilience is a way of understanding how people, businesses, and systems can continue to function, adapt, and ultimately thrive in an increasingly uncertain world.  

At its core, resilience is not a catch-all term. It's a way of understanding how people, businesses, and systems can continue to function, adapt, and ultimately thrive in an increasingly uncertain world.