Conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification have the potential to improve resilience of agro-ecosystems in regions prone to drought, flooding, typhoons and other climate-induced constraints for crop production. Designing and implementing resilient farming systems would be particularly beneficial for resource-poor farmers in the developing world. The concept of resilience, however, remains elusive for many, owing to the multiplicity of meanings for the term, and the myriad approaches to characterize and measure resilience. In this symposium, presenters will provide scientific and development-oriented insights focusing on the budding role of conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification on increasing resilience of smallholder farming systems in rain-fed regions. The initial presentations will address the multiple definitions of resilience within different contexts and discuss the increasing interest on resilience in international agricultural development both from biophysical and socio-economic perspectives. Speakers will then present key findings from ongoing projects that involve collaboration between U.S. universities and host-country partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Research results will cover farming systems, soil quality, integrated soil fertility management, intercropping, crop rotations, agroforestry, risk assessment as well as gender and technological network factors that may contribute to increase resilience of agro-ecosystems.