An increasing number of policy statements claim that investing in resilience is cost effective when compared with approaches that rely exclusively on ex-post response and recovery. Yet very little funding goes towards disaster prevention and preparedness, which can build the resilience of communities to cope with emergencies.

Resilience is perhaps best conceptualised as a process, rather than an outcome. Yet in practice, resilience is operationalised as a set of defined activities; each forming part of the puzzle and each with a role to play. One critical piece of this jigsaw is emergency preparedness: resilience itself is not achievable without the capacity to absorb shocks, and it is this capacity that emergency preparedness helps to provide.

This ODI Background Note examines some ways in which the concept of resilience could be used as an over-arching frame, providing an opportunity to promote funding for sector-specific gains that span the humanitarian/development continuum. 

It includes some examples from Kenya, Niger and Nepal, as well as recommendations to inform and shape the parameters of funding mechanisms in ways that can progress the resilience agenda and the role that emergency preparedness plays in that agenda.