Building resilience in Malawi. The prominence of resilience in international development, how it is performed, and its potential and consequences

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the reasoning behind the prominence of resilience building in Malawi’s development strategies, how resilience building is performed in Malawi, and what the potential and consequences of resilience in Malawi might be. In observations of a resilience building project and interviews with development practitioners, it was found that resilience had become prominent in Malawi primarily since it is advocated by donors. It was also found that resilience is built through, for instance, Village Savings and Loan programmes, and that such programmes sometimes tend to exclude the most vulnerable people who are unable to participate. These findings are analysed through a framework of theory on resilience, neoliberalism, and the concept of governmentality, and it is argued that resilience is a good example of what tools governments use in order to shape the conduct of its people. Finally, it is concluded that resilience often is perceived as the best response in this changing and disaster prone world we live in, but that it rather should be perceived as a complement to strategies mitigating the causes of such changes and disasters.