Risk, vulnerability & poverty

Reducing Risk: vulnerability reduction and damage prevention in the face of natural and man made hazards

Poverty, increased population density, urbanisation, climate change, and changes in building practices and materials, access to safe land are some of the many reasons why risk of disaster and human vulnerability are increasing around the world. And whilst the world mobilises in the aftermath of disasters, much of the damage that occurs in disasters comes from lack of action to reduce risk and vulnerability before the disaster happens. Actions to support prevention and vulnerability reduction need to be increased, and particularly in poor communities where vulnerability is greatest.

A root cause of vulnerability is poverty. The rich may have more to lose, but the poor are repeatedly the ones who suffer most, are more exposed to risk, and are living in unsafe places and in unsafe homes. The places they live in have poorer services and levels of support. When disaster strikes, proportionately the cost of recovery in social and economic terms is very high for the poor, and the end result is that poor families often find themselves in an even more vulnerable situation after a disaster. Many who live on the margins of poverty slip back into real poverty. In Viet Nam, families tell of losing their homes five times or more. Recovery from disaster diverts efforts and savings away from productive activities that can improve the situaion of the poor.

Vulnerbility and risk reduction are therefore critically important for the poor in any community, since avoiding the costs of recovery means that a family can focus on improving their situation.

In Viet Nam, where DW has supported the introduction of targetted credit for poor framilies specifically for the preventive stregthening of their homes, the high level of demand and good repayments have shown that poor families are very ready to borrow to strengthen their homes because they recognise that by doing so they have protected ther families and their income generation capacity.

In practice, precautions to safeguard the environment and property are too often insufficient. We collectively neglect that preventive action to reduce the risk of damage can be achieved at a fraction of the cost of rebuilding or repairing. The Red Cross says that 1 dollar invested on disaster preparedness is worth 25 dollars on disaster response (Asia Development, march 2011).  Post disaster rehabilitation may provide the environment to address greater safety before the arrival of the next disaster, but this is not enough.

DW and poverty and risk reduction

DWF works with communities and local organisations to strengthen their capacity to prevent damage and loss and to help in rehabilitation that reduces further risk.

DWF works at three levels in the context of natural and man made disasters:

  1. risk reduction and damage prevention through awareness raising, collaboration with local communities, good planning and the application of sound techniques to resist future disasters.
  2. rehabilitation of existing shelter and infrastructure whether damaged by war or natural causes, to make it safer, through training, practical demonstration and access to targeted credit.
  3. preventive strengthening and reconstruction support through guidance and training  and technical support to reduce the risk of further damage and to ensure that peope will build for themslevs safely in the future.

Projects include :

  • Cyclone and flood damage prevention programmes in Viet Nam
  • In collaboration with Save the Children in Myanmar, initially developing a "safe schools" initiative, followed by a broader "safe house" campaign
  • Post earthquake support, strategy development and design for safer schools in Haiti with Save the Children US
  • Developing the long term community based ‘ Safe house’ programme in Band Aceh, Indonesia with the British Red Cross Society and PMI (Indonesian Red Cross)
  • Training for post earthquake reconstruction and risk reduction in Iran, Guinea, Afghanistan and Pakistan
  • Assessment of the Grameen Bank housing loans programme in Bangladesh as a tool for risk reduction
  • Post war rehabilitation support in Angola and Kosovo, with training and support to local NGO and CBO and families

 

Risk & vulnerability

Promoting generic principles of safe construction

Vietnemse lady sings the key principles of cyclone resistant construction

Safer building codes are an important tool in reducing the vulnerability of buildings. Applying more widespread knowledge about safe construction would significantly reduce the level of damage and destruction, loss of life and injury. The majority of building worldwide is, however, built by the informal and semi formal sector. No architect, no engineer, no technician, no codes – only families & local builders. These builders have never had any professional training, they have learnt on the job using local practice.

Cyclone damage prevention to housing - Vietnam

Safer houses in Vietnam

The promotion of preventive strengthening of existing houses has been the central theme of DW’s work in Central Vietnam since 1999. Whilst public decision makers were sceptical the beginning, it is an approach that today is largely accepted by families and public authorities alike. The excellent performance of many hundreds of DW strengthened buildings during the Typhoon N° 6 Xangsane in October 2006 and again in 2009 (Cyclone Ketsana) increased the reputation of the DW approach, so that the Provincial authorities issued an edict in 2006 encouraging everyone to adopt

Preventive strengthening & mitigation

Within the broad scope of disaster risk reduction (DRR), the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) defines three general approaches to minimizing vulnerability and disaster risks to a society:

  • Preparedness – that builds capacities to efficiently manage all types of emergencies and to achieve an orderly transition from response through to sustained recovery, based on anticipating, responding to and recovering from hazard events.
  • Prevention – the outright avoidance of the adverse impacts of hazards and related disasters.
  • Mitigation – that lessens or limits the

Slow & rapid onset disasters

Man made desert in West Africa

Man and 'natural' disasters

Few 'natural' disasters are natural although the hazards that create them - a cyclone or earthquake for example - are natural events. Man's presence and his actions alter the nature and extent of a disaster. In most instances, without the presence of man, there is no disaster.

A hazard event can have a small disaster impact on a well prepared community, whilst a similar hazard can cause massive damage to a badly prepared community.

Risk, vulnerability & poverty

Reducing Risk: vulnerability reduction and damage prevention in the face of natural and man made hazards

Poverty, increased population density, urbanisation, climate change, and changes in building practices and materials, access to safe land are some of the many reasons why risk of disaster and human vulnerability are increasing around the world. And whilst the world mobilises in the aftermath of disasters, much of the damage that occurs in disasters comes from lack of action to reduce risk and vulnerability before the disaster happens.

Community based disaster risk reduction

Part 2 the compendium links the risks in local housing to the appropriate measures to be adopted locally to achieve safer houses (or public buildings). These appropriate safe construction measures are based on the guiding principles of safe flood and cyclone resistant 10 key principles of  construction tested in various regions of Vietnam by Development Workshop and by the Thua Thien Hue provincial Department of Construction and through their application in different regions of Vietnam and elsewhere worldwide.

Part 3 of the Compendium proposes

Disaster Risk Reduction

Climate change & adaptation

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