Disasters
should be a core development concern
Disasters hold back development and progress towards achieving the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Yet disasters are rooted in development failures.
This is the core rationale for integrating disaster risk reduction into development.
Disasters
hold back development
Many countries are
not on course to meet MDG1, the prime goal of halving extreme poverty
and hunger by 2015. Country progress reports on MDGs frequently note
progress on MDG1 being affected by disasters. In many cases, increases
in numbers below poverty thresholds appear in aggregate national statistics
following a disaster.
Disasters – including
the everyday small-scale ones that go unnoticed by the outside world – affect
poverty reduction in several ways. They have macroeconomic impacts,
directly through physical damage to infrastructure, productive capital
and stocks, but also indirectly and in the longer term by affecting
productivity, growth and macroeconomic performance. These hit the poor
hardest for several reasons. Loss of tax revenue and diversion of resources
into disaster response has fiscal impacts affecting state provision
of social services, while food prices often increase.
Moreover recent studies
suggest that both governments and donors tend to fund disaster relief
and rehabilitation by reallocating resources from development programmes. Although
the impact of any such reallocation is difficult to measure as it is unrecognised
in official figures, it can be expected to affect the poor disproportionately
through adverse effects on poverty reduction efforts.
Locally, impacts
on poverty and food security can be much more severe and may not appear
in national statistics. Disasters stretch coping strategies to breaking
point and have long-term effects on livelihoods. High frequency hazards
such as drought trigger immediate food crises, but can also have longerterm ‘ratchet’ effects
which impede recovery in interim periods, especially when combined
with other pressures such as HIV/AIDS, poor governance and conflict.
Disasters also slow
down progress towards the remaining MDGs. For example:
- Disaster-hit
families often fail to send children to school, while schools may
be closed down by
earthquakes or floods (MDG2).
- Disasters leave
women and girls – including mothers – with heavier responsibilities
and workloads and often poorer health. Disasters have also been associated
with increased domestic
violence and sexual harassment (MDG3&5).
- Children are
in greater danger in floods and drought, through drowning, starvation
and disease (MDG4).
- Disasters directly
cause disease and damage to health infrastructure, while indirectly
lowering
disease resistance by heightening poverty and malnutrition. They may also
lead women and girls to resort to sex work and risk HIV infection (MDG4&6).
- Disasters can
increase rural-urban migration, and in cities disproportionately
affect slum dwellers (MDG7).
- Storms and tidal
surges set back gains from partnerships with small island states
(MDG8).
Such diverse consequences tend to go far beyond the immediate impacts which
make media headlines and international disaster statistics. This is one reason
why their role in holding back development may be much underestimated.
2 Table :
Examples of disaster impacts on efforts to meet the MDGs
MDG
|
Direct
impacts
|
Indirect
impacts
|
1. Eradicatee
extreme poverty and hunger |
- Damage
to housing, service infrastructure, savings, productive assets
and human losses reduce livelihood sustainability.
|
- Negative
macroeconomic impacts including severe short-term fiscal impacts
and wider, longer-term impacts on growth, development and poverty
reduction.
- Forced sale
of productive assets by vulnerable households pushes many into
long-term poverty and increases inequality.
|
2. Achieve
universal
primary education |
- Damage
to education infrastructure.
- Population
displacement interrupts schooling.
|
- Increased
need for child labour for household work, especially for girls.
- Reduced
household assets make schooling less affordable, girls probably
affected most.
|
3. Promote
gender equality
and empower
women |
- As men
migrate to seek alternative work, women/girls bear an increased
burden of care.
- Women often
bear the brunt of distress ‘coping’ strategies
, e.g. by reducing food intake.
|
- Emergency
programmes may reinforce power structures which marginalise
women.
- Domestic
and sexual violence may rise in the wake of a disaster.*
|
4. Reduce
child
mortality |
- Children
are often most at risk, e.g. of drowning in floods.
- Damage
to health and water & sanitation infrastructure.
- Injury
and illness from disaster weakens children’s immune systems.
|
- Increased
numbers of orphaned, abandoned and homeless children.
- Household
asset depletion makes clean water, food and medicine less affordable.
|
5. Improve
maternal health |
- Pregnant
woman are often at high risk from death/injury in disasters
- Damage
to health infrastructure.
- Injury
and illness from disaster can
weaken women's health.
|
- Increased
responsibilities and workloads create stress for surviving
mothers.
- Household
asset depletion makes clean
water, food and medicine less affordable.
|
6. Combat
HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other diseases |
- Poor health & nutrition
following disasters weakens immunity.
- Damage
to health infrastructure.
- Increased
respiratory diseases associated with damp, dust and air pollution
linked to disaster.
|
- Increased
risk from communicative and vector borne diseases, e.g. malaria
and diarrhoeal diseases following floods.
- Impoverishment
and displacement following disaster can increase exposure to
disease, including HIV/AIDS, and disrupt health care.
|
7. Ensure
environmental
sustainability |
- Damage
to key environmental resources and exacerbation of soil erosion
or deforestation.
- Damage
to water management and other urban infrastructure.
- Slum dwellers/people
in temporary settlements often heavily affected.
|
- Disaster-induced
migration to urban areas and damage to urban infrastructure
increase the number of slum dwellers without access to basic
services and exacerbate poverty.
|
8. Develop
a global
partnership for development |
- Impacts
on programmes for small island developing states from tropical
storms, tsunamis etc.
|
- Impacts
on commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction—nationally
and internationally.
|
ALL
MDGS |
|
- Reallocation
of resources – including ODA – from development
to relief and recovery.
|
* Though
data are scarce, a number of studies suggesting a surge in domestic
and sexual violence against women in the wake of disasters are cited
in, for example, PAHO (2004), EIIP (1998), Wisner et al. (2004:16),
possibly resulting from heightened intra-household tensions.
Table 3: What disaster risk reduction can contribute
towards meeting the MDGs
MDG
|
Examples
of what risk reduction can contribute
|
1.
Eradicatee extreme poverty and hunger |
- Disaster
risk reduction and MDG1 are interdependent. Reducing livelihood
vulnerability to natural hazards is key both to eradicating
income poverty and improving equity, and to improving food
security and reducing hunger. Reducing disaster impacts on
the macroeconomy will promote growth, fiscal stability and
state
service provision, with particular benefits for the poor.
- Disaster
risk reduction and MDG1 share common strategies and tools:
this overlap means that giving development more security from
natural hazard can be very costeffective.
|
2.
Achieve universal
primary education |
- In hazard-prone
areas, the case for building schools and encouraging attendance
becomes much stronger if buildings are safe and students and
teachers are trained in emergency preparedness. Promoting safer
structures may encourage better maintenance even in non-disaster
times.
- Reduced
vulnerability will allow households to invest in priorities
other than mere survival. Education is often a high priority.
Girls (as 60% of non-attendees) may benefit disproportionately.
|
3.
Promote
gender equality
and empower
women |
- Better
risk reduction will help protect women from disproportionate
disaster impacts.
- Collective
action to reduce risk by households and communities provides
entry points for women (and other marginalised social groups)
to organise for other purposes too, providing a catalyst for
economic and social empowerment.
|
4.
Reduce child
mortality |
- Disaster
risk reduction will help protect children from direct deaths
and injuries during hazard events (as exemplified in Box 5,
p.24), and will lower mortality from diseases related to malnutrition
and poor water and sanitation following disasters.
- Health
infrastructure and personnel in hazard-prone areas will be
better protected. This may also promote better maintenance
of infrastructure.
|
5.
Improve maternal health |
- Disaster-related
illness and injury will be reduced.
- Improved
household livelihood and food security will lower women’s
workloads and improve family nutrition.
- Health
infrastructure and personnel in hazard-prone areas will be
better protected. This may also promote better maintenance
of infrastructure.
|
6.
Combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other diseases |
- Public
health risks, e.g. from flood waters, will be reduced, and
nutrition and health status improved, boosting resistance to
epidemic disease.
- Fewer disasters
will free up social sector budgets for human development.
- Livelihood
security will reduce the need to resort to work in the sex
industry.
- Community
organisations and networks working in disaster risk reduction
are a
resource for family and community health promotion, and visa versa.
|
7.
Ensure
environmental
sustainability |
- Reduced
disaster-related migration into urban slums and reduced damage
to urban infrastructure will improve urban environments.
- An emphasis
on governance for risk reduction and more secure livelihoods
will help curb rural and urban environmental degradation.
- Risk reduction
partnerships that include community level actors and concerns
will offer more sustainable infrastructure planning, and enable
expansion of private sector
contributions to reducing disasters.
- Housing
is a key livelihood asset for the urban poor. Disaster risk
reduction
programmes that prioritise housing will also help preserve livelihoods.
|
8.
Develop a global
partnership for development |
- Creating
an international governance regime to reduce risk from climate
change and other disasters will help overcome disparities in
national negotiating weight.
- Efforts
to build equal global partnerships for risk reduction will
have particular relevance for small island developing states
and HIPCs.
- Disaster
risk reduction initiatives could promote better public-private
partnerships.
|
ALL
MDGS |
- Reducing
disaster impacts will free up resources, including ODA, to
meet MDGs.
|
|