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[Music] [Music] hello hi everyone this series we are talking on disaster recovery and build back better and you are welcome this lecture we will talk on disaster vulnerability some concepts I am Shuba Duty some other from the PRI disaster prevention research institute kyoto university japan let us look here for very very long time disaster was thought considered that is only a physical event if this physical event is bigger disaster is also big if this physical event is small disaster is also more if this physical event is not there nobody could expect a disaster so as simple the bigger the physical event there bigger the disaster and the disaster we are facing because of natural and physical events or acts so it was the focus was much on engineering or technocratic solutions to manage disaster but we already know that even this stone coming from this mountain to these four hills nothing will happen and we are not worried about it why the simple reason is this is just simply a hazard which is potential to cause some effect okay it's just a physical this stone is just a physical event or phenomena it could be some human activity also it may cause some effect like injury human loss property damage damage social and economic disruptions or environmental degradation right and it is latent it depends on probability it also depends on from where it is coming from so it is latent so we do not care about this physical event phenomena until there is a human being like we discussed before in other lectures that if we have avalanches in Himalayas we don't care if we have earthquake in deep sea we don't care unless and until the tsunami comes on mainland so if this human being is not working there in the down at the foothills then this stone is not considered to be disaster or risky right so if there is a rain if this human being is working then there is a possibility that this stone will hit this person then we only are concerned so this person is exposed to that kind of hazard and that's why we have concern to manage that particular disaster or particular disaster risk right if it is like that where he is not here he is not working no human being only forest then we do not care about it we do not consider it as risky it cannot cause any human loss or human effect that is as simple as now it is not that how many people are exposed but it also depends that who are they what are their characteristics are the young are the old at the kid are the poor are they rich so their human characteristics also matter when we are talking about disaster risk right if they are poor than rich they are more vulnerable than rich if their old senior citizen they are more vulnerable than young people if their kids they are also vulnerable than other common people so the characteristics of these people that matter right also it matters that what kind of settlements who are how they are buildings are there it is a catcher house baka house wooden house still house concrete house so these characteristics are the buildings and population they do matter that how and who are extents this stone can actually affect this place this could be him a loss it could be other socio-economic loss or property damage right so vulnerability is that a condition that determined by physical social economic environmental factors or process which increases there that what extent this particular object that is exposed to a particular hazard will be impacted okay if I kick someone then somebody can resist it somebody cannot resist it because he is weak so even though I have I can force someone I can just kick someone but it impact depends not only on my capacity but also whom I am kicking somebody can resist that one somebody cannot register one it depends on their characteristics also so if I am hit by an earthquake okay it depends on my capacity on my conditions my characteristics that how I can resist the shock okay so disaster risk is we already know is already a great decisions that it is there are three critical components one is the hazard of course that should be there a legend physical even that may cause some potential damage also the exposure some people and settlements should be exposed to that hazard and the vulnerability the conditions and the characteristics of the people are the settlements they are exposed to that hazard okay so disaster in general is considered to be the function of these three components okay as it's very clear now when we are talking about disaster vulnerability this is nothing a new concept for last two decades it has been discussed at a length but the problem is to put this idea into practice or to improve disaster risk management strategies or disaster risk reduction strategies and policies we need to know clearly what is the meaning of disaster vulnerability what kind of characteristics would define disaster vulnerability so far we have so many definitions are there we have very rarely agreed to reach any consensus decisions so scientist practitioners planners they have different opinion about the definition of disaster vulnerability is its indicators its parameters so therefore it is critical to look into some of the critical theoretical aspect conceptual aspect of disaster vulnerability that how they are defining disaster vulnerability here in this lecture we will focus on these two such prominent early theories our concept on disaster vulnerability the first one is the double structure of vulnerability okay it's by bully in 2001 so they are looking a disaster vulnerability from two aspects they are saying the nasty not disaster vulnerability only but vulnerability is there is a two component two important component they are their components are there well one is internal component another one is the external component when we are talking about someone's vulnerability what is the internal component in the internal component is the coping component okay and then what is the coping component it is actually my capacity that how I can resist okay bounce back or can absorb the shock of a particular event so my capacity to anticipate that something will come something will happen okay and to cope with if something will happen what extent I can overcome that problem that risk or that danger and how I can absorb the shock resist if something happened I can resist what extent okay like poor people they cannot resist financially but maybe rich people can resist if someone's shop every rich person has a business it is affected by disaster he can easily recover from that because he has greater capital that a person who depends on agriculture or maybe a landless labor if after the disaster he's not affected but also it's very difficult for him to bounce back because he has no money or maybe a small shop owner once his house or his shop is affected by a disaster it takes a long time for him to run the business again because he has very little money so how I can resist that one also or recover that one also man so these my capacity to anticipate cope with resist and recover from the impact of Hazard is the defining idea of copening coping and this is my internal this is depends on individual internal characteristics or community's own characteristics it is not an exogenous variable but there is also so these these these components are much in someone's hands in a groups hands or communities they can control this one on the other hand we have external one which we cannot less control this an exogenous variable what are they external variables is considered in this double structure of vulnerability as exposing okay so expose that to what some shock or some events like it depends on what kind of shocks is it natural phenomena or some epidemics okay or not merely a kind of special exposure but how defenseless like I am to do to further than one it also defined the social and institutional structure features of that one that also bring individuals or in a particular exposure of threat okay and like if I am an outcast I have less networks it actually increase my exposure to a hazard to a threat to a risk okay so so double structure of vulnerability two components one is the exposure one and this exposure one according to bully that we can understand this exposure context from three different dimensions one is human ecological perspective population dynamics okay capacity to manage the environment population growth and how human ecology is looking at population growth and the capacity to manage the environment and also the Enlightenment theory the capacity theory and that the people have for control and to get to secure the means of their economic needs okay and also the political economic approach like the question of inequalities or disparities of the power structures so these issues these approaches should be considered when we are talking about exposure well to understand people's coping we can also borrow the ideas from crisis and conflict kind of idea mmm kind of studies okay who have the access to assets and resources how and how it matter of conflict between individuals and groups or maybe sometimes action theory approaches okay how people act react frequently as a result of social economic and governmental constraints and model access to assets like a mitigation of vulnerability through access so these approaches can help us to understand the coping characteristics or internal characteristics of people to respond or ability there is another more prominent and very popular conceptual idea of vulnerability is the sustainable livelihood framework it's not really on vulnerability but they are one of the pioneering approach that define and quoted the vulnerability and which was now really regularly used in disaster risk and other risk management okay so this idea came originally developed by famous person Robert chambers and Conway in 1992 quite long back on well we are talking about preventing issues and livelihood issues and which was this model was later on adopted by the DFID department for international development their focus is like one for people and their livelihood okay they were when they are talking about vulnerability it did not came from did not come from the disaster perspective but they are talking defining poor people and their livelihood in case of development and people at the center of their model okay people should be put into the center of the development and vulnerability is considered as a kind of shock or kind of crane or seasonality that influence the capacity of the of the people to maintain their livelihood so vulnerability is directly connected with people's livelihood and their capacity to to manage their livelihood basically and two major components here one is the sustainability and livelihood so a livelihood becomes sustainable in different conditions or a livelihood should be considered as sustainable when when let us look when it is resilient to face any kind of external shocks like natural disasters or epidemics okay that they can absorb the shock they can bounce back okay they will not finish then one can say that okay this livelihood or these people are not at risk they are not vulnerable also their lab someone's livelihood should not depend on external agencies external support if we are talking about a village community there should be self dependent okay not independent not depend to external people then we call it as sustainable also we should not consider from very short-term but we would see that how resilient is livelihood in long term basis long term perspective okay and not undermine that in order to maintain my own livelihood I am not wasting I am not harming others livelihood options okay are choices so according to this model people are actually operating you know they're working in him in a context of vulnerability look what is the context of vulnerability so vulnerability context is defined with three characteristics that people are at vulnerable because shock trends and seasonality okay so these what is what are the shocks one is the natural shocks like flood drought and cyclone and health shocks like epidemic like cholera or even Bengal let's say our economic shocks like some financial recessions okay or maybe debt in the family for a household or maybe violence like civil war in case of Syria or in many other countries in case of Salonika when they were in civil war or in case of Bosnia okay so people who are at Sibley were that really put the individuals as a vulnerable and violence and civil honest there is these are all considered to be shocks that are increasing that under which people are living in a vulnerable context another one is the seasonality okay and seasonal shift in price like the price of the crops of the food for the agricultural labor are the production's because of production is low or high because of climate change maybe the production is not so high this year or maybe the food a validity okay our employment opportunity what how many days I have employment opportunity in a particular season maybe in winter I don't have any job in as agricultural labor because nobody's harvesting this time we have better job during rainy days okay and trends and changes like the population if the population is increasing rapidly then also it could be a threat or putting people into vulnerable context also in case of some countries like in case of Japan or in case of many European countries it's a question of D populations there are only few people young people in any community so it can also increase the vulnerability of that community environmental change or some technological changes and market and trades globalization's and government and policies like some governments are stable some governments are not stable so if the political situation is is in a turmoil that will of course increase people's vulnerability so three conditions are important to define people's incorrect vulnerable context one is the shock trend and seasonality now this vulnerability context actually this is the poor people and it's affecting their household capacity or their own individual capacity so they have actually different kind of capitals or capacities okay one is a human capital social capital financial capital and physical capital so now they both are interlinked vulnerability and capital and also capital define that how and what extent they are vulnerable to particular shock so how one look into these livelihood assets or capitals livelihood assets we say that there are five capitals human capital social capital physical capital financial capital and natural capital okay and human capital and knowledge and skill like education or good health I'm capable person nutritions I'm getting enough food nutritionists food okay ability to labor I can work I can give my labor capacity to adapt in any situation I can adapt culturally okay and social capital of course my network network works very well my human networks connections with each other our membership in a group formal and informal like I can go to some club or maybe in any puja or in so any kind of formal and informal of relationship defines my social capital if I am outcasted I am not included in any particular group then I feel that I am isolated I have less capacity to to absorb the shocks or absorb the threat okay and trust and mutual support during emergency situations or any situations we need to cooperate with each other and we need to trust each other because trust minimize the uncertainty so trust and mutual support between individuals in a group it's very important and this is one of the costal capital and also it depends on the social capital the rules and sanctions social norms are there some people whether the people have open access to get all the opportunities to maintain their livelihood or not in case of very hierarchical societies the low caste people are low class people are restricted generally their achievements are it's not a chip based society so they cannot they are not given enough opportunity socially to compete with other so their movements social and economic movements are restricted so because of various kind of social norms which actually increase their vulnerability and also the leadership a good leader is very important so what kind of leadership quality one carries it depends on their level of vulnerability and participations participation in decision-making if I have the ownership I have the right to participate in the village decision-making process in the town neighbourhood decision-making process I can influence the decisions that is a gate capacity it has a direct impact on my vulnerability okay and then after social capital we have physical capital like basic infrastructures in basically it is the infrastructure of a community like a transport system or shelter all buildings adequate water supply sanitation access to information so this defines one village if you can compare easily from one village to another village basic based on physical capital okay or affordable energy and the production producer goods like basically tools and technologies like tools and equipments for production fertilizers seeds pesticides this should be considered as a producer goods or local technology and then we have a financial capital so what are the financial capital like affordable stocks like some bank deposit or savings credits livestock's jewelry all should be considered as affordable stocks a regular inflow of money like pensions remittance wages these are the regular inflow of money what are the natural capitals land forests marine environmental services so all are considered to be natural capital now these like for example the rich people they have greater financial capital also get a human capital whereas the poor they are very poor at a financial capital human capital and physical capital we can quickly we can say so less here is greater example of landless labour he had human capital like labour but he is he or she is illiterate or no education and poor health unskilled okay and social capital generally is not but outcasts it considered to be no network network within own community no outside comp and cannot influence the village decision a labor class people also low status she enjoys and poor external networks a physical capital maybe no irrigation facility it depends on rain-fed agriculture poor housing and organic fertilizers only local farming technology traditional agricultural knowledge financial capital also like low wages no savings and - no remittance and no access to bank loans and natural capitals null is a land lists ok leave on flood prone areas and router areas so these all define vulnerability context and then the vulnerability context also his livelihood assets or him the various kind of capital and this capital also is redefining the vulnerability so but this - also is influencing the policy institution and process how the determine the five access to five different type of capitals and terms of exchange between different types of capitals and economic and other returns from livelihood strategies okay so what are the transformations texture and process one is institutional organization policies and legislations and what are the shaping livelihoods and how they are operating at levels okay so transformation structure and process we call the policies policies of the government it could be local regional or central government that has a great impact on human capital and vulnerabilities like policies of the NGOs they will come here or not international like United Nations or institutions like what are the institutions there there what are the conditions of that structure political administrative sectors representative executive agencies civil societies and NGOs political parties and law commercial enterprise the process it depends on who are the decision-makers and how the decision is it very democratic or not law customs norms they're strict or not they're formal or informal explicit or implicit these all matter and language what language are the oil document at what language is used social stratification like gas system class system the status that all actually define this process so we have our ability context then it is impacting human capital vice versa and then it is influencing the policy institutions and process okay and these framework also influencing the vulnerability and also then it leads to the livelihood strategy people dick and this livelihood strategy ultimately went to livelihood outcomes so what is and that again actually affects people's capitals and vulnerability here are the livelihood strategies people can take one is vulnerability context and using and combining livelihood assets and capital under the influence of dance forming structure and process so what kind of CAP what vulnerability I am exposed to and then what kind of capitals and what kind of governance or transforming structures I have that actually defined livelihood strategies and so vulnerability context actually influencing the Capitals and capital then also influencing the vulnerability context which are shock cranes and seasonality and then these two combined are vice versa influenced by influenced by the policies institutions and the process okay so policies institutions and process also directly influence the vulnerability and the capital of people and based on this framework people take livelihood strategy or they can take livelihood strategy and that livelihood generally have some outcome which also impacted their capitals and also again the vulnerability so these concept is this way and thank you very much for listening thank you [Music]