From Vulnerability to Resilience: A Framework for Analysis and Action to Build Community Resilience - Softcover

Pasteur, Katherine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1853397180 ISBN 13: 9781853397189

Verlag: Practical Action Publishing, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

From Vulnerability to Resilience – V2R – is a framework for analysis and action to reduce vulnerability and strengthen the resilience of individuals, households and communities. The framework sets out the key factors that contribute to peoples’ vulnerability, namely, exposure to hazards and stresses, fragile livelihoods, future uncertainty and weak governance. It provides detailed explanations of the linkages between those factors, as well as ideas for action to strengthen resilience. The framework was developed to address the need to work in a more integrated way to tackle the causes and consequences of vulnerability. The book is intended to provide guidance to the reader, rather than to dictate a set way of doing things. The material can also be adapted to suit communication to other audiences such as community-based organizations. The issues and principles highlighted in this book are of relevance to a wide audience including practitioners (NGOs and local government staff), researchers, and policy makers working in the fi elds of livelihoods, disaster management and climate change adaptation.

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Katherine Pasteur is the International Programme Coordinator in the Reducing Vulnerability Team at Practical Action. She has 15 years’ experience in international development, specializing in sustainable livelihoods, natural resource management and disaster risk reduction, in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

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From Vulnerability to Resilience

A Framework for Analysis and Action to Build Community Resilience

By Katherine Pasteur

Practical Action Publishing Ltd

Copyright © 2011 Practical Action Publishing
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-85339-718-9

Contents

Figures, vi, 
Tables, vii, 
Preface, ix, 
Acknowledgements, x, 
Acronyms, xi, 
Part 1 Introduction, 1, 
1.1 From vulnerability to resilience, 3, 
1.2 Links with other approaches, 5, 
1.3 A multi-level approach, 7, 
Part 2 Understanding the V2R framework, 9, 
2.1 Introduction, 11, 
2.2 Resilience outcomes, 14, 
2.3 Hazards and stresses, 16, 
2.4 Livelihoods, 29, 
2.5 Future uncertainty, 44, 
2.6 Governance, 54, 
Part 3: V2R Analysis and action, 65, 
3.1 Introduction, 67, 
3.2 V2R Analysis, 69, 
3.3 From analysis to action, 82, 
Part 4 Annexes, 93, 
4.1 Frameworks and models, 95, 
4.2 V2R Analysis summary sheets, 99, 
References, 105, 
Resources, 107, 
Glossary, 111, 

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 FROM VULNERABILITY TO RESILIENCE

From Vulnerability to Resilience (V2R) is an approach and framework (see Figure 1 below) that brings together several core areas for development programming to move people permanently out of poverty, namely strengthening livelihoods, disaster preparedness, building adaptive capacity and addressing different areas of the governance environment. The goal is to address the multidimensional nature of poverty through an integrated approach that considers all of the core factors underlying vulnerability.

The context for a multidimensional approach

Three out of four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas (UNDP, 2007). Of these, most live in fragile environments such as arid or mountainous areas often at long distances from markets and other services. They have few resources at their disposal and have inadequate access to skills and technologies that could help them to make best use of those resources. Therefore their income earning options are limited and their ability to diversify or adapt when circumstances change is constrained. Poor people also often live in risk-prone areas such as on steep slopes, river embankments or floodplains because they cannot afford to live in safer areas. The impacts of drought and floods are often exacerbated by unsustainable development such as deforestation or a combination of increasing population pressure, political tensions and economic changes that lead to practices that cause environmental degradation. Conflict is fuelled by easy access to weapons and the increasing competition over scarce resources such as pasture and water.

In the event of hazards, the poor and their livelihoods tend to be the hardest hit. The livelihoods of marginal and small farmers, artisans and fishermen are affected through the loss of assets, loss of food sources (crops or stores) and loss of employment or income earning opportunities. When disaster strikes they may be forced to take desperate measures to survive such as abandoning their homes or selling vital land or tools on which their livelihoods depend because they have no savings or other alternatives. This undermines their future recovery and each shock can drive them deeper into poverty. The poor are often politically marginalized and have little voice in the policy or institutional decisions that affect them. Services, such as schooling, health, extension, transport and markets are often inadequate or unavailable to people living in more remote or challenging areas. They lack the safety nets that are taken for granted in richer countries, such as savings, insurance policies or government services to warn and protect them from disasters.

Growing uncertainty is a further characteristic of the lives of the poorest. As the world becomes more interconnected, the livelihoods of the poor can be affected by events happening in distant parts of the world. Financial markets can affect prices for staple crops in developing countries.

Policy shifts, for example towards biofuels, can contribute to rising grain prices and urban food shortages. The impact of climate change is being felt directly by increasing numbers of people as changing seasons and more extreme weather patterns affect the natural environment that people depend on and contribute to crop failures and livestock losses, thus tipping the balance between survival and destitution. Poverty, vulnerability and disasters are closely related and cannot be viewed in isolation from one another. These multiple factors: lack of resources; fragile livelihoods; exposure to hazards; climate change and other trends; and weak institutional support mechanisms must be understood in a more integrated manner in order to seek effective ways to address them.

Benefits of integration

There are strong arguments in favour of integrating these approaches under one framework for analysis and action. Disasters can significantly compromise development progress, reduce the effectiveness of aid investments and halt or slow progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Relevant actions to reduce disaster risk can save lives and prevent huge economic losses. Furthermore, aid resources which are diverted to humanitarian and emergency responses can reduce the aid available for development programmes elsewhere in areas not directly affected by disasters. It has been estimated that every US$1 spent on disaster reduction saves $3 in terms of the reduced impact of disasters (Benn, 2006) In Vietnam, replanting coastal mangroves at relatively low cost resulted in dramatic reductions in lives lost and crops destroyed during typhoons. There have also been knock-on benefits on livelihoods as the mangroves provide an opportunity for sustainable harvesting of sea products such as baby crab (IFRC, 2002).

1.2 LINKS WITH OTHER APPROACHES

Until relatively recently, the disasters, longer term development (for sustainable livelihoods) and climate change communities tended to operate in parallel, often working in different departments within organizations or under different government agencies and using different frameworks or approaches to shape their work. Practical Action's V2R Framework draws on these existing frameworks and approaches relating to sustainable livelihoods, disaster management and climate change adaptation, aiming to combine the key elements into one integrated model. Practitioners can refer back to these models, further details of which are provided in Section 4.1.

Sustainable livelihoods

The sustainable livelihoods approach is a holistic, people-centred approach to understanding and addressing the multiple factors that influence poverty and well-being. This approach has been used by a number of agencies, most notably the UK Department for International Development (DFID) which produced a detailed framework and guidance materials (see Section 4.1.1).

The V2R draws heavily on sustainable livelihoods thinking in recognizing the importance of having access to a diverse range of assets or resources, including social influence and voice, and sustainable technologies, in order to provide vulnerable people with safer livelihood options and coping strategies in times of need. However, the V2R gives stronger emphasis to the relevance of shocks, trends and seasonality (known as the 'vulnerability context' in the Sustainable livelihoods framework), drawing on experience from...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Practical Action Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1853397180
• ISBN 13: 9781853397189
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 113
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar