L'intégration des concepts de résilience dans le domaine de la sécurité alimentaire: regards croisés

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 2000s, resilience and food security have become associated in literature. However, the diversity of terminology shows that this association is not so easy. This paper objective is to assess the state of the art concerning the different forms of associations between food security and resilience. Does using resilience in the food security field and in the social-ecological system field, highlight the same features? Therefore, do several resilience concepts exist? What does it bring to programs and analysis carried out into food security field? What difficulties and challenges does this integration cause? We carried out a review using scientific literature as well as policy, projects and programs documents from the United Nations, funding agencies, or NGOs. We raise two specific issues: the resilience metrics in the food security scope, and the contribution of resilience in comparison with other approaches such as risk management and vulnerability reduction. In addition, while resilience is not associated with a normative meaning in the social-ecological system literature, it is always associated with a positive notion in the domain of food security. This raises the politically sensitive question of who is defining a good trajectory. Resilience is also associated with the analysis of the system trajectories, which makes possible to link short-term and long-term. That allows to understand perturbations as well as to anticipate potential responses and design interventions. Finally, holistic and multi-scale characteristics of resilience are found in the whole studied literature and that seems to be an improvement in the food security field. However, the passage from theory to practice is still ongoing and complex.