Women rebuilding lives post-disaster: innovative community practices for building resilience and promoting sustainable development

Disasters result in devastating human, economic, and environmental effects. The paper highlights women's active participation in community-based disaster recovery efforts drawing from the results of the ‘Rebuilding Lives Post-disaster: Innovative Community Practices for Sustainable Development’ by an international research partnership. Two case studies are presented from Pakistan and the USA to demonstrate how women contribute to building resilience and promoting sustainable development in diverse post-disaster contexts. The policy and practice implications are relevant for discussions regarding the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals and framework

Examining the Effect of Community Participation on Beneficiary Satisfaction with the work of Water Management Committee in Urban Community-based Operated Water Schemes

Community participation (CP) has become popular in development discourse and practice, particularly in relation to water resource management. Greater involvement of beneficiaries in decision-making and implementation of water management practices is expected to increase efficiency and equity. However, the lingering question remains—Does CP necessarily result in outcomes of greater beneficiary satisfaction? Relatively little is known about the linkage. This article seeks to examine the relationship between community participation and beneficiary satisfaction with the work of the water management committee. Four urban-based community operated water schemes in the city of Kisumu, Kenya, are used as empirical referent. We applied quantitative research methodology by conducting a detailed survey and logistic regression analytic technique to analyze the data. We used seven parameters/indicators to operationalize participation and one to ascertain satisfaction with the work of the water management committee. Our results indicate that five participatory variables correlate with beneficiary satisfaction with the work of the water management committees including provision of labor (p \u3c .05), willingness to intervene against vandalism (p \u3c .05), meeting attendance (p \u3c .05), financial contribution (p \u3c .05) and payments of water bills on time (p \u3c .05). These findings suggest that managers of community water supplies projects together with development partners need to encourage the identified participatory variables as a means of augmenting beneficiary satisfaction and most importantly improving effectiveness/sustainability

The centrality of social ties to climate migration and mental health

Abstract Climate change-related hazards and disasters, known to adversely impact physical and mental health outcomes, are also expected to result in human migration above current levels. Environmentally-motivated migration and displacement may lead to the disruption of existing social ties, with potentially adverse consequences for mobile populations as well as their family members who remain in places of origin. We propose that the disruption of social ties is a key mechanism by which climate-related migration may negatively impact mental health, in particular. Existing social ties may provide social and material resources that buffer mental health stressors related to both prolonged and acute climate events. Preparation for such events may also strengthen these same ties and protect mental health. Communities may leverage social ties, first to mitigate climate change, and second, to adapt and rebuild post-disaster in communities of origin. Additionally, social ties can inform migration decisions and destinations. For example, scholars have found that the drought-motivated adaptive migration of West African Fulbe herders only occurred because of the long-term development of social networks between migrants and non-migrants through trade and seasonal grazing. On the other hand, social ties do not always benefit mental health. Some migrants, including those from poor regions or communities with no formal safety net, may face considerable burden to provide financial and emotional resources to family members who remain in countries of origin. In destination communities, migrants often face significant social marginalization. Therefore, policies and programs that aim to maintain ongoing social ties among migrants and their family and community members may be critically important in efforts to enhance population resilience and adaptation to climate change and to improve mental health outcomes. Several online platforms, like Refugee Start Force, serve to integrate refugees by connecting migrants directly to people and services in destination communities. These efforts may increasingly draw upon novel technologies to support and maintain social networks in the context of population mobility due to climatic and other factors