Barriers to evidence-based disaster management in Nepal: a qualitative study

Objectives: Globally, the incidence of natural disasters is increasing with developing countries tending to be worst affected. Implementing best practices in disaster management that are evidence-based is essential in order to improve disaster resilience and response. This study explores the barriers to evidence-based disaster management encountered in Nepal. Study design: A qualitative study was conducted in Nepal involving interviews with key informants in the disaster management field. Methods: Government officials, academics, programme managers, disaster management practitioners and policymakers involved in disaster management were purposively sampled and invited to interview. 11 agreed to participate and were interviewed. The faceto-face interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The interviews uncovered population-level barriers such as contextual factors (e.g. poverty), local custom and culture, as well as community-level issues (e.g. level of engagement and understanding). System-level barriers included limited demand for, availability and accessibility of the evidence-base. The implementation of evidence was influenced by the configuration of the disaster management system and system processes. Political ownership and leadership is an essential determinant of practice. Conclusions: Several barriers to evidence-based practice in disaster management exist in Nepal. The relative influence of the different barriers varies with political determinants likely to have greater importance in countries such as Nepal where system governance and leadership is insufficiently developed. These issues affect a country's vulnerability to disasters and need to be addressed

Ravaged landscapes and climate vulnerability: The challenge in achieving food security and nutrition in post-conflict Timor-Leste

Food insecurity and malnutrition are prevalent in post-conflict countries. Climate change poses further challenges to their food production. Timor-Leste is an agrarian society that won independence in 2002 and is struggling to achieve food security and reduce undernutrition as the country modernizes. The economy depends on fossil fuel revenues and oil reserves are dwindling. A review of climate, agricultural, and nutrition data reveals high weather vulnerability, low agricultural productivity, and slow dietary and nutritional progress. But solutions exist. Agricultural sector actions can make important contributions to poverty reduction, food security, dietary diversity, micronutrient sufficiency, and overall nutrition. Agriculture can be made to be more nutrition- and gender-sensitive with a focus on mixed farming systems, biodiversity, climate-smart practices, and access to inputs, training, and technologies for farmers to enable sustainable and healthy rural livelihoods. Ultimately, productivity levels must improve to support the availability of sufficient and nutritious foods

Scope insensitivity: The limits of intuitive valuation of human lives in public policy

A critical question for government officials, managers of NGOs, and politicians is how to respond to situations in which large numbers of lives are at risk. Theories in judgment and decision making as well as economics suggest diminishing marginal utility with increasing quantities of goods. In the domain of lifesaving, this form of non-linearity implies decreasing concern for individual lives as the number of affected people increases. In this paper, we show how intuitive valuations based on prosocial emotions can lead to scope insensitivity and suboptimal responses to lives at risk. We present both normative and descriptive models of valuations of lives and discuss the underlying psychological processes as they relate to judgments and decisions made in public policy and by NGO5. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc on behalf of Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)