Systems change as a route to resilience

Drawing on programme evidence from Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria and Uganda, this paper explores how targeting the underlying rules, relationships, incentives and power dynamics that shape vulnerability - rather than delivering services directly - can build more durable resilience in fragile and conflict-affected settings.

It identifies promising practices across different fragility typologies, from high-intensity conflict to ecological and institutional fragility, and sets out eight guiding principles for effective systems change programming, covering contextual analysis, adaptive management, inclusion, informal governance and multi-system integration.