At a recent “scoping dialogue” held at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS) and the Sustainability Institute, more than thirty leading thinkers and practical users of “resilience” were brought together to reflect on, interrogate and explore the concept of resilience, how it is being practically applied in a range of settings to advance sustainability, and how resilience thinking and practice can be supported and advanced in the southern African region in future.
Sharing the Results of Group Discussions
Building resilience of communities, cities, landscapes and systems is increasingly seen as one substantive way of enhancing our capacity to deal with change – especially unexpected change – and to facilitate transformations towards more sustainable development pathways. However, much work remains to be done on advancing the theoretical understanding of resilience, and how to operationalize and use resilience thinking in practical settings.
Resilience requires creativity!
To begin to address some of these gaps in the southern African context, this scoping workshop encouraged participants to share their experiences of applying the resilience concept in practice. Participants learned from each other through group and panel discussions, paired walks in Stellenbosch’s beautiful Jan Marais Nature Reserve, as well as immersive learning journeys at the Sustainability Institute.
Discussing organic small-scale agriculture at the Sustainability Institute as part of a learning journey
One of the main outcomes of the workshop was the realization that a more formal community of practice around resilience was needed in southern Africa. This workshop was the first step towards building such a “Complexity and Resilience thinking and practice network” (name to be confirmed), and one of the concrete next actions will be a follow-up event in March 2017 as part of the larger SAPECS Regional Forum. Watch this space for more details to follow!
The Sustainability Institute’s food garden