The Policy brief provides the definition of resilience and outlines three resilience models: the adaptive cycle of change within a given system; “panarchy” which describes interactions between systems at different levels of scale; and the “ball & basin” model of thresholds between different stable states. Further, three different cases from Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya are analyzed through the prism of these conceptual models.
It is concluded that a resilience based approach to food security and poverty alleviation requires a paradigm shift in the way that people think about how they interrelate with the land, especially at the policy level. In conclusion, key messages for policy makers and practitioners on how to build resilient systems are provided.