Reviewing Composite Vulnerability and Resilience Indexes : A Sustainable Approach and Application

By reasoning of composite indexes, several empirical tests have been implemented to compare countries on a macroeconomic scale for their vulnerability but rarely for their resilience. The results, based on different computation methods, do not systematically deal with sustainable development, though sustainable development has surged as a field of major interest in the last few decades. This paper develops a generic method to compute a composite index of vulnerability propensity and resilience capacity from a sustainable development perspective. A worldwide application shows that vulnerability and resilience are both policy responsive. There is then no determinism for a country to remain vulnerable or resilient. For any country and for any situation, from the worst to the ideal, the state of vulnerability-resilience may be an uncontrolled vulnerability, a contained vulnerability, a limited resilience or a built resilience. Contrary to the conclusion generally shared by scholars in development economics, Small Island Developing States are not specifically more prone to vulnerability than other countries