What is the political function of the ubiquitous term “resilience” in today's development aid? This article analyses the discourse of some aid programmes and projects, drawing on 15 years of empirical research on the Sahelian pastoral populations, who today are a symbol of resilience. It shows how the notion of resilience conveys compassionate and security meanings characteristic of a neoliberal policy, resulting in the weakening of public policies. Beyond an alternative between rhetoric and innovation, the use of this notion applied to social groups fine-tunes the ideological steering setting the course of development policy since the 1980s. This article questions the originality of resilience-building projects at local level and the relevance of this notion in the social field.