Resilience a means to development: A resilience assessment framework and a catalogue of indicators

The concept of resilience is an important area of study within socio-technical disciplines, essentially, because of humanity's increased dependency on engineered systems and the vulnerability of such systems to different kinds of threats. To this effect, several frameworks have been proposed for assessment, monitoring, and enhancement of resilience but their uptake in the energy sector remain low, especially in developing economies. The major limitations arise from their inadequacy in demonstrating direct linkages between resilience and development, a narrow characterisation of proposed indicators, and the complexity of deploying them to real world problems. Drawing from past resilience definitions, frameworks and development theory, this study underscores the relevance of resilience as both a necessity and an outcome of development and proposes a synthesised framework for measuring resilience in light of 13 goals (development commitments) of the electricity supply industry (ESI). A catalogue of 303 indicators has been proposed which classifies them within 4 components (sub-systems), 5 dimensions (categories of development goals), 3 domains (material state of indicators) and 3 scales (levels of organisation). Moreover, the indicators are evaluated against 11 qualities (properties of resilience) and 6 capacities (phased responses). Using a selection of indicators, the framework is applied to a case study to demonstrate its usability by assessing the impact of COVID-19 on Uganda's ESI. The framework and the indicators are intended to inform planning, investment, operational changes, and policy formation within the ESI's moving away from reactionary contingency risk management to mainstreaming resilience strategies within the development process.

Automated summary

The concept of resilience is important in socio-technical disciplines due to increased dependency on engineered systems and their vulnerability to threats. Existing frameworks for assessing resilience in the energy sector are limited in demonstrating direct links to development, proposing narrow indicators, and complexity in real-world application. This study highlights the relevance of resilience as a necessity and outcome of development, proposing a framework for measuring resilience in the electricity supply industry.