The resilience of social and ecological systems: taking account of uncertainty for development

A number of non-governmental organisations, aid agencies, international organisations and research centres have consequently developed a community of practice and a conception of resilience, which will be known here as development resilience. This school of thought differs from the earlier one of social and ecological system resilience, which the Resilience Alliance scientific network defines as the capacity of a social and ecological system to absorb or withstand a perturbation or stressor, while maintaining its structure and functions thanks to self-organisation, learning and adaptation processes. These two schools of thought overlap for numerous points, but have developed different reference frameworks and tools.