Working to narrow institutional mandates no longer makes sense. ' Climate resilience' can be compromised where geopolitical risks are not taken into account in insecure and fragile states. Similarly, disaster preparedness is of little use if it is not directly connected to other initiatives covering a range of shocks. Further, resilience in one sector e.g. food and nutrition security, can be undermined by a lack of similar investment in other sectors, such as clean water. Donors can play a leading role in setting the record straight on this, by breaking down barriers between existing programming silos, in turn leading to a more helpful and harmonised engagement in resilience from those actors dependent on donor resources (i.e. realising the expectations of the resilience agenda).