Does resilience thinking add value to food security in the context of natural disasters in developing countries- a narrative review

Abstract

The adoption of “resilience thinking” is increasing on the global agenda as a response to the unprecedented loss and damage to lives and livelihoods caused by natural disasters. Agriculture is hit hard by disasters, especially in rural areas of developing countries. This leads to increasing risk of food insecurity for subsistence farmers and those reliant on local produce. To answer the question if resilience add value to food security in the context of natural disasters, this dissertation is undergone as a narrative review to examine the emergence of resilience, its application to food security and the strengths and limitations attributed to applying the paradigm to food security. Peer-reviewed literature on resilience and food security were gathered from three databases; Web of Science, Science Direct and Scopus, in addition to grey literature from organizational websites: FAO, WFP and IFPRI. Findings indicate that resilience gained increased interest after the United Nations adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which called for action towards scaling up resilience to mitigate the adverse effect of disasters on food security for the most vulnerable populations. Although this review identified hesitancy to the appropriateness of resilience to food security, scarce yet positive evidence from case studies indicates there can be an added value of resilience thinking to food security. Further, we need a unified definition of resilience and agreement on food security indicators. Literature indicates ongoing effort to the paradigm with more evidence to come.