Trajectories of social vulnerability during the Soufrière Hills volcanic crisis

When some active volcanoes enter into an eruptive phase, they generate a succession of hazard events manifested over a multi-year period of time. Under such conditions of prolonged risk, understanding what makes a population vulnerable to volcanic threats is a complex and nuanced process, and must be analysed within the wider context of physical events, decisions, actions and inactions which may have accentuated the social differentiation of impacts. Further, we must acknowledge the temporal component of vulnerability, therefore our analyses must go beyond a transitory view to an understanding of the dynamics of vulnerability, particularly how inherent socio-economic conditions drive vulnerability today, and how patterns of vulnerability shift during the course of a long-lived crisis

Drought does not work alone

In dryland environments drought periodically emerges in a context of chronic water security challenges: these are places where managing water scarcity is a continual not an exceptional task. The article uses examples from case studies to illustrate the interaction of drought with other dynamics in the lives of pastoralists and agro-pastoralists. It focuses on how implications of drought should be understood and how this can inform risk management. A key component of many adaptation interventions in semi-arid areas is a focus on knowledge provision, especially generation of improved forecasting, early warning and associated advice to herders and farmers.UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID)International Development Research Centre (IDRC

Monitoring and evaluating disaster risk management capacity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on improving the monitoring and evaluation of DRM capacity development initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – The paper first explores the complexities and challenges presented in the literature, before using empirical data from a research project in six countries (Ethiopia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Philippines, Haiti and Mozambique) to discuss current approaches to M & E of DRM capacity strengthening interventions. Findings – This is generally an area of technical weakness in the initiatives studied, with poor understanding of terminology, little attention to outcomes or impact and few independent evaluations. The need for greater inclusion of participants in M & E processes is identified and one programme from the fieldwork in Mozambique is presented as a case study example. Originality/value – The paper ends by presenting a unique M & E framework developed for use by DRM programmes to track the outcomes of their interventions and ultimately raise standards in this area

Water, sanitation and hygiene risk factors for the transmission of cholera in a changing climate: using a systematic review to develop a causal process diagram

Cholera is a severe diarrhoeal disease affecting vulnerable communities. A long-term solution to cholera transmission is improved access to and uptake of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Climate change threatens WASH. A systematic review and meta-analysis determined five overarching WASH factors incorporating 17 specific WASH factors associated with cholera transmission, focussing upon community cases. Eight WASH factors showed lower odds and six showed higher odds for cholera transmission. These results were combined with findings in the climate change and WASH literature, to propose a health impact pathway illustrating potential routes through which climate change dynamics (e.g. drought, flooding) impact on WASH and cholera transmission. A causal process diagram visualising links between climate change dynamics, WASH factors, and cholera transmission was developed. Climate change dynamics can potentially affect multiple WASH factors (e.g. drought-induced reductions in handwashing and rainwater use). Multiple climate change dynamics can influence WASH factors (e.g. flooding and sea-level rise affect piped water usage). The influence of climate change dynamics on WASH factors can be negative or positive for cholera transmission (e.g. drought could increase pathogen desiccation but reduce rainwater harvesting). Identifying risk pathways helps policymakers focus on cholera risk mitigation, now and in the future

The development-adaptation spectrum in dryland East Africa:mapping risks, responses and critical questions for social research

Semi-arid regions across the world face high potential impacts of climate change, but the risks posed by a changing climate interconnect with a web of related risks and dynamics. The drylands of East Africa, in particular, are crucibles of change in terms of patterns of land and water access and use, natural resource degradation, human development, economic opportunity, social and gender stratification, migration and urbanization. Both risks and the responses to them should therefore be understood as located within a sphere of activity in which adaptation and development merge. The purpose of this paper is to review responses to climate-related social-ecological risks in semi-arid areas of East Africa, in order to lay out an agenda for future critical research. By drawing on a wide range of academic and non-academic sources, the paper maps out the main forms of response to the inter-linked risks in the region, and considers how they might be viewed in terms of a spectrum of development-adaptation actions. In doing so, the discussion highlights key implications of existing and potential responses for people’s livelihoods and wellbeing, particularly in terms of equity and sustainability, and identifies a series of critical questions that need to be posed about response options both within research and practice

“Telling it in our own way”: Doing music-enhanced interviews with people displaced by violence in Colombia

In Colombia, five decades of violent conflict have displaced millions of people, many of whom now face severe risks from flooding, landslides and other environmental hazards in the places they have found to resettle. In our research, one of our main objectives was to better understand the experiences, vulnerabilities and survival strategies of conflict-displaced people living in hazard-prone locations in Soacha, an urban working-class district of Cundinamarca in the centre of Colombia, and in urban and peri-urban areas in or near Pereira and Manizales, both of which are cities in Colombia’s main coffee-growing region. We wanted to create spaces within which such people could tell their life stories with dignity and agency. For socially and politically marginalised people who have suffered enormous loss and trauma, and the disempowering effects of violence, conventional social science interviews may reopen wounds and cause extreme distress. Furthermore, interviewees may feel that there are ‘good’, ‘bad’ or otherwise ‘preferred’ answers to the questions they are asked. In our research, we instead invited participants to share a piece of music or a song they valued with us, via mp3 players, before opening a conversation about their life stories. In this way, we intended for participants to ‘territorialise’ the research encounter by creating comfortable spaces where their taste and habits were central (Dos Santos and Wagner, 2018), and where they exercised greater control and agency to decide the topics discussed (Levell, 2019). We wanted the songs people shared with us to act as their chosen entry points into their life stories. This article offers some reflections on how talking about music, a cultural form linked closely with emotions, memory and identity, can provide a resource for better understanding the lives and experiences of others

“We can’t do it on our own!”—Integrating stakeholder and scientific knowledge of future flood risk to inform climate change adaptation planning in a coastal region

Decision-makers face a particular challenge in planning for climate adaptation. The complexity of climate change's likely impacts, such as increased flooding, has widened the scope of information necessary to take action. This is particularly the case in valuable low-lying coastal regions, which host many competing interests, and where there is a growing need to draw from varied fields in the risk-based management of flooding. The rising scrutiny over science's ability to match expectations of policy actors has called for the integration of stakeholder and scientific knowledge domains. Focusing on the Broads — the United Kingdom's largest protected wetland — this study looked to assess future flood risk and consider potential adaptation responses in a collaborative approach. Interviews and surveys with local stakeholders accompanied the development of a hydraulic model in an iterative participatory design, centred on a scientist-stakeholder workshop. Knowledge and perspectives were shared on processes driving risk in the Broads, as well as on the implications of adaptation measures, allowing for their prioritisation. The research outcomes highlight not only the challenges that scientist-stakeholder integrated assessments of future flood risk face, but also their potential to lead to the production of useful information for decision-making

Transformation in adaptation : learning from ASSAR’s Regional diagnostic studies

This series is based on work funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) through the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA).This paper commences with a background discussion of the terms associated with transformation, draws on this to build a conceptual framework for comparing activities, highlights a range of activities from the regions that could be classified in different ways as embodying transformation, and reflects on some of their implications and complexities