Resilience offers escape from trapped thinking on poverty alleviation

Abstract

The poverty trap concept strongly influences current research and policy on poverty alleviation. Financial or technological inputs intended to �push� the rural poor out of a poverty trap have had many successes but have also failed unexpectedly with serious ecological and social consequences that can reinforce poverty. Resilience thinking can help to (I) understand how these failures emerge from the complex relationships between humans and the ecosystems on which they depend and (ii) navigate diverse poverty alleviation strategies, such as transformative change, that may instead be required.