ALBERT

Description: PurposeFew people living in informal settlements in the Global South spontaneously claim that they are “resilient” or “adapting” to disaster risk or climate change. Surely, they often overcome multiple challenges, including natural hazards exacerbated by climate change. Yet their actions are increasingly examined through the framework of resilience, a notion developed in the North, and increasingly adopted in the South. To what extent eliminate’ do these initiatives correspond to the concepts that scholars and authorities place under the resilience framework?Design/methodology/approachThree longitudinal case studies in Yumbo, Salgar and San Andrés (Colombia) serve to investigate narratives of disaster risks and responses to them. Methods include narrative analysis from policy and project documents, presentations, five workshops, six focus groups and 24 interviews.FindingsThe discourse adopted by most international scholars and local authorities differs greatly from that used by citizens to explain risk and masks the politics involved in disaster reduction and the search for social justice. Besides, narratives of social change, aspirations and social status are increasingly masked in disaster risk explanations. Tensions are also concealed, including those regarding the winners and losers of interventions and the responsibilities for disaster risk reduction.Originality/valueOur findings confirm previous results that have shown that the resilience framework contributes to “depoliticize” the analysis of risk and serves to mask and dilute the responsibility of political and economic elites in disaster risk creation. But they also show that resilience fails to explain the type of socioeconomic change that is required to reduce vulnerabilities in Latin America.

Description: PurposeThe present study proposes the analysis of DRM strategies that had been implemented into subnational development plans and public policy instruments in the States of Chiapas and Tabasco, located in Southeast Mexico. It describes the methodological phases for the implementation of those strategies and the participatory process, with a multi-level approach, carried out with multiple stakeholders and UNDP advisory.Design/methodology/approachFor this research, two case studies were developed to highlight the factors which make successful DRM in development plans and policies. It included the compilation and review of documents generated by UNDP-PMR program on the mainstreaming process in the past four years, interviews with key actors in the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, such as governmental officers, national and international ONG's, UN agencies and rural communities' leaders.FindingsThe review of these case studies demonstrate that for developing countries like Mexico, the process to strengthening institutions setting, needs being present in the field and creating alliances and synergies to generate advocacy processes from a capacity development approach. Having not only an output approach in projects but also mainly an impact strategy, both at the local and the sectoral levels, along with a mid-term timeline and budget, are some of the hallmarks of UNDP-PMR program work.Originality/valueThis study showed two original experiences of mainstreaming DRM into subnational development policies in high risk contexts. These experiences had the participation of multiple stakeholders from local governments and communities. Nowadays, these two experiences are being implemented in the territories despite political administration changes in the last years.

Description: PurposeThis paper attempts to discuss the synergies between the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and Ebola preparedness and response – with a specific outlook about how the five (5) targets in SDG.3 can be prioritized and integrated into the measures taken against the battle of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) as well as any other sporadic health disasters and emergencies elsewhere.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on the published literature, including reports, peer-reviewed articles, statistical data and relevant documents identified from authenticated sources.FindingsSustainable development, which is the nitty-gritty of SDGs, is underscored as a germane in almost all regional and international frameworks. However, as traditional natural hazards persist, alongside the persistence of civil conflicts and instability, socioeconomic challenges such as EVD pose serious hindrances to SDGs, and achieving them by 2030 might be a deferred dream, especially in low- and middle-income countries such as DRC.Practical implicationsThis paper will help to inform the decisions of bureaucrats at different levels, especially those aimed at promoting and integrating health into sustainable development.Originality/valueThe recent 2018 EVD outbreaks in DRC, which galvanized the regional and global attention, call for an approach that elucidates an interaction between the SDGs and countermeasures of responding to this deadly disease in the DRC and elsewhere.

Description: PurposeThis paper examines disaster capitalism in Chile, that is, the relationships between disasters and neoliberalism. It looks at two post-disaster dimensions: disasters as windows of opportunity to introduce political reforms and disasters as occasions for the corporate class to capitalize on such disasters.Design/methodology/approachTwo indices, disaster capitalism (DC) and post-disaster private involvement (PDPI), are proposed for cross-case analysis. They are based on legal records, institutional reports and economic data. The DC assesses the introduction of reforms following disasters, while PDPI evaluates the share of public-private funding used for recovery. Both indices are applied here to two disasters in Chile: the 2010 Maule earthquake, and the 2008 Chaitén volcanic eruption.FindingsResults show that the highly neoliberal Chilean context leaves limited space for new neoliberal reforms. Although recovery is implemented predominantly through the private sector, the state still assumes greater responsibility for recovery costs. Results also detect poor levels of participation from the private sector in accounting their efforts and making them publicly available. Likewise, the research suggests that neoliberal reforms become more likely after disasters. However, the preexisting politico-economic context matters. Finally, there is clearly a need for data systematization in post-disaster recovery.Originality/valueIn the Chilean context, the indices proved beneficial as a strategy for data collection and a method for scrutinizing the implications of neoliberal policy implemented in the wake of disasters, as well as in evaluating the role of the corporate class during recovery.

Description: PurposeWhen a major landslide and floods devastated Freetown, Sierra Leone had just overcome the Ebola crisis, which had left its mark on socio-political relations between different disaster response actors. With international disaster response frameworks increasingly shifting to local ownership, the national government was expected to assume a coordinating role. However, in “post-conflict” settings such as Sierra Leone, intra-state and state–society relations are continuously being renegotiated. This study aimed to uncover the complexities of state-led disaster response in hybrid governance setting at national and community levels in the response to the 2017 landslide and floods.Design/methodology/approachDuring the four months of fieldwork in Freetown in 2017, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with various state, aid and societal actors were conducted.FindingsThe findings show that a response to policy building on the idea of a uniform state response did not take into account intra-state power politics or the complexity of Sierra Leone's hybrid governance.Practical implicationsThis paper argues for a more nuanced debate in humanitarian governance and practice on the localisation of aid in post-conflict and fragile settings.Originality/valueThe study's findings contribute to the literature on the disaster–conflict nexus, identifying paradoxes of localised disaster response in an environment with strong national–local tensions. The study highlights intra-local state dynamics that are usually overlooked but have a great impact on the legitimacy of different state authorities in disaster response.

Description: PurposeThe purpose of the instrument is to favour and strengthen, in a timely and relevant manner, the processes of design, planning, investment, execution and evaluation of various public and private initiatives in the territory, thereby strengthening the preventive, responsive and adaptive capacities of the communities, institutions and territory. The instrument allows the generation of a single single-community diagnosis, a definition of a baseline which leads to progress assessment at different levels and provides specific risk management recommendations to municipalities.Design/methodology/approachThe definition of the purpose and design of this tool was the result of the work in a year by a group of national experts from the public, private, organised civil society and academia members of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. This initial stage has sought to capture the different sectoral visions with a multidimensional approach that considers the territorial differences cautioning that local governments are key actors to achieve risk reduction, and they are also the first respondents and responsible for managing their territory and community. In order to help local governments, to understand their situation, the experts’ group established that the assessment should consist of a guided self-diagnosis using a survey. The dimensions considered are as follows: governance, territorial planning, socio-economic and demographic conditions and climate change and natural resources. The four dimensions encompass in total 41 variables that are considered relevant for the disaster risk management discipline.FindingsThe rural to semiurban municipalities classified as medium or low development, according to the national standard, present a high-risk level in the dimension of territorial ordering. The municipalities that show a moderate to low dependence on the common municipal fund have a low risk in all the evaluated dimensions, related to greater financial autonomy and own or self-management of resources. The municipalities with low percentage of poverty by income are better evaluated in all the dimensions showing a low level of the Communal Underlying Risk Factors Index (CURFI). A high percentage of communes with a low level of the CURFI have low-urban growth in the last 15 years.Research limitations/implicationsOne of the main difficulties was raising awareness amongst the mayors that the reduction of the underlying factors does not necessarily imply monetary investment, understanding the scarcity of local government resources. The important thing was to sensitise them that the diagnosis per se was already a result to manage risk in their community.Practical implicationsTo be able to count for the first time in Chile with a methodology that allows diagnosing risk-based conditions and to target structural and non-structural measures aimed at reducing these factors in local governments. Additionally, it will be possible to monitor the reduction of the underlying risk factors (URF), for accompanying the work of the municipalities in terms of knowing if they have been able to implement the individualised recommendations that are provided.Originality/valueThe methodology was formulated by reviewing and considering the methodologies applied in different regions of the world, which generally coincide in the dimensions that group the main underlying factors of disaster risk. However, the numerical treatment of the variables obeys to novel statistical processing (multicriteria method), which provides robustness to the model and, therefore, to the results obtained.

Description: PurposeThis paper develops a theoretical understanding of learning during recovery from recurring disasters when humanitarian organizations deploy WASH technologies using examples from 2012–2013 floods in Assam, Northeastern India.Design/methodology/approachA mixed methods study was conducted in Assam, where Oxfam had responded after 2012 floods and erosion. Two surveys (n1 = 313; and n2 = 279) in 2013, along with 38 semi-structured interviews, 18 household interviews and 23 focus group discussions (FGDs) were undertaken. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data were interpreted thematically.FindingsOne of the product-level innovations included raised platforms with WASH facilities as a preparedness measure for future floods, enabled by a co-learning approach. Social learning within community members provided contextual inputs, while Oxfam learnt through its institutionalized learning mechanisms, namely real-time evaluations, knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) surveys and strong monitoring mechanisms. Despite these measures, the precarity of such geographies remains a major concern in increasing vulnerability, and hence this study advocates for an approach towards innovation that equally emphasizes and advances learning within community groups as well as organizations so that lessons can be captured and revisited in future programmes and promote wider application.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is exploratory, and longitudinal in nature, although the data and findings are fairly representative of the target population, they do not imply causality and attribution. Since the study relies on a case study, there are limitations of how the findings could be generalized in other similar contexts.Practical implicationsThis paper offers a new theoretical lens emphasizing context-specific understanding of short-term but rapid onset and cyclical emergencies resulting in local population displacement. It provides a bottom-up perspective on innovations and technologies deployed by external aid agencies as a commentary on recovery of community resilience from recurring disasters.Social implicationsThis paper reframes agency approaches in how they perceive community resilience and enable flood-affected and displaced communities to recover using innovations in WASH technologies.Originality/valueThis paper expands on the key lessons to be gleamed from the many interventions in humanitarian WASH technologies from learning perspective and benefits from reflections as a practitioner in the field.

Description: PurposeA nature reserve set up in a disaster-stricken area can have various functions, e.g. as a place where biodiversity is favored and sometimes as a memory of a traumatic event. This study presents four different record-breaking disasters during 1992–2014 in Sweden, where the idea of setting up reserves has been advanced in the aftermath, but with slightly different results in relation to attitudes about nature conservation and modes of remembering. The phenomenon is primarily discussed against theory formation around disaster memorials and window of opportunity for change.Design/methodology/approachcomparative case study approach. The cases are described through narratives on the basis of “grey” literature, i.e. documents from Swedish authorities in the form of evaluations, summaries from experience seminars, political decisions on the establishment of nature conservation or information material addressed to the public, and also media reporting.FindingsThe nature reserves will be reminiscent of the disasters since the natural regrowth will take decades but may also be accompanied by exhibitions in visitor centers, arts and plays, monuments and bureaucratic documents, all of which contribute to the memory. In all but one case, such artifacts are secondary in relation to the explicit goal of forest conservation. The local population's attitude to the reserve formation plays a big role for the plans to be implemented.Originality/valueFoundation of nature reserves in the immediate aftermath of a disaster may have different functions for actors, affected people and interested public; some are exemplified and discussed here.

Description: PurposeThis exploratory study discusses the policy learning process of the development of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses how DRR has and has not developed in Thailand through the two major disasters: the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the 2011 Great Flood. The information was collected by documentary analysis to gain a historical and critical understanding of the development of the system and policy of DRR in Thailand. Additionally, key stakeholders' interviews were undertaken to supplement the analysis.FindingsThe paper demonstrates that Thailand's DRR development has been “reactive” rather than “proactive”, being largely directed by global DRR actors.Research limitations/implicationsBeing a small-scale study, the sample size was small. The analysis and argument would be consolidated with an increase in the number of interviews.Practical implicationsThe model can help deconstruct which dimension of the learning process a government has/has not achieved well.Originality/valueThe application of the “restrictive-expansive policy learning” model, which identifies different dimensions of policy learning, reveals that the Thai government's policy learning was of a mixed nature.

Description: PurposeVulnerability is understood as susceptibility to hazards born out of the complex interaction within the system scales. The current global economic system focuses on persistent growth and a top-down approach to wealth distribution, which not only puts a strain on the Earth's resources but also on communities by increasing vulnerability. Localised economy, on the other hand, uses a bottom-up approach to wealth distribution, whereby local resources are harnessed for sustainability of the local economy. Localising economies facilitate degrowth by shifting our focus to the quality of economies and the redefinition of growth and prosperity. The purpose of this study is to highlight the potentials of localisation and degrowth for vulnerability reduction.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors conducted a case study of the Lyttelton community in New Zealand, their local initiatives and how these efforts have been used to build capacities and reduce vulnerabilities in the community. Data were sourced from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data were sourced through observation of the day-to-day running of the community and interviews with community members, while secondary data were sourced from existing literature on the community and related concepts.FindingsLyttelton community provides a good example of a community where bottom-up initiatives are particularly felt, and there is very limited dependence on the conventional economic system to solve their problems. The study shows that degrowth initiatives within the community have gained momentum because initiators see the value in their coming together as a community and doing what is right for themselves and the environment. Furthermore, localisation fosters innovation, personal growth and development and care for the environment.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the existing knowledge by discussing some local initiatives that serve an underlying purpose for degrowth based on a study carried out in Lyttelton, New Zealand. The study findings established that there is need for more focus on sensitisation about the risks of growth mania and the potential for degrowth in bringing about actual prosperity, for saving the environment and disaster risk reduction. Also, the encouragement of local production and existing institutions like the timebank, which give members access to the needed resources and skills contribute to vulnerability reduction.