This Resilience Scan summarises writing and debates in the field of resilience during the second quarter of 2017. It comprises an 'expert view' on some of the emerging issues for transboundary adaptation, an analysis of blogs from the past six months, and summaries of high-impact grey literature and academic journal articles. The final chapter synthesises the insights from literature in terms of five characteristics of resilience: awareness, diversity, self-regulation, integration and adaptiveness.

It aims to encourage a global discourse on how the Rio Conventions, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, can serve as a platform for enhancing work on transboundary adaptation.

Resilience in the blogosphere

This Resilience Scan provides an analysis of the 25 most shared blogs on resilience during the half year January to June 2017. A common theme in this period was how to strengthen the incentives and business case for investing in resilience, particularly in the private sector. City contexts also continue to dominate the subject matter, with eight of the top 25 resilience blogs focusing on urban issues. Within the other dominant theme of agriculture and food, seven of the blogs touch on the importance of diversity in agriculture for enhancing resilience, especially in the face of a changing climate. Other topics include resilience in the context of humanitarian crises, the role of social networks and social capital, and global resilience in terms of planetary boundaries.

Resilience in the grey literature

Our review of the grey literature on resilience published between January and June 2017 includes 31 articles, embracing independent research, the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and UN agencies. These span five broad themes:

•     insurance and risk financing;
•     resilience in humanitarian contexts;
•     urban resilience;
•     agriculture, pastoralism and food security; and
•     climate and disaster resilience policy.

Resilience in the academic literature

This section summarises academic literature on resilience from the second quarter of 2017. It covers a total of 32 publications across five thematic areas:

•     community resilience;
•     concepts, indicators and measurements;
•     policy, planning and governance for building resilience;
•     urban resilience and infrastructure; and
•     livelihoods and food security.

Report by the Overseas Development Institute