Building Resilient Societies in Africa for the Future: Conceptual Considerations and Possible Resilience Constituents
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Date
2018
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Publisher
JFS
Abstract
Predicting the future is usually a herculean task. But failing to plan for the future using scientific and reasonable
prediction tools may guarantee failure of states and societies. African countries have been experiencing different
challenges across sectors ranging from increasing development of informal settlements in urban centers, and youth
unemployment to hunger, food insecurity, and prevalence of neglected tropical diseases. Many societies are vulnerable
to various micro and macro scales shocks and stressors such as family disruptions, conflicts, climate variability,
and technology-induced displacements. Such occurrences have been argued to be responsible for social disorganization
and different forms of population movements. In this paper, we discuss these shocks and stressors and suggest
the need for African countries to consider making resilience thinking central to the planning of their countries for the
future. We argue that resilience should not be perceived as an alternative to development practice, but rather integral
to development pursuit. We specifically focus on social resilience and socio-ecological resilience. Cognizant of the
multidimensional nature of the concept of resilience, we do not intend for our ideas to be perceived as prescriptive.
However, when particular attention is paid to resilience attributes like “stressors driving change,” “anticipatory
learning,” and “social capital,” in attempting to answer the questions of resilience of what and resilience to what?,
Africa will be on its way to building resilient societies
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Keywords
Africa, Resilience, Sustainable Development Goals, Development, Planning.