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.
|
|