Focus AreasTrust Funds and CentresCross-Cutting Areas and InitiativesSearch |
Drought, Climate Variability and CrisisDrought and the relationship between relief and development In spite of all the progress made over the last five decades of development work, disasters still occur and the familiar crisis management is still observed and vitally important in saving and protecting people's lives in the short-term. But beyond the crisis, increasingly people are looking to tackle issues of vulnerability in an attempt to reduce losses from disasters and to establish a greater degree of security for exposed populations. There were attempts to encourage governments and donors to invest in disaster preparedness, with projects aimed at reducing the potential for disaster impacts. 'Disaster management' became a common approach to dealing with disasters, becoming an 'add-on' component to protect the investment made in development programmes. Increasingly, however, it is realized that the development process itself can be a cause of vulnerability to disasters such as those often triggered by a drought. According to this new line of thinking, levels of vulnerability have much more to do with the degree to which development has been successful, has devised and implemented appropriate policies, than simply the level of exposure to climate variability. In short, wealthier, more diversified and more globally inter-linked economies have more options to respond to the impacts of climate variability. However this does not mean that for a given economic situation that a country is stuck in a particular level of variability. Addressing climate variability and exposure to drought requires multiple approaches at multiple scales and over the short, medium and long term. It is precisely this integration, all in the context of sensible development policies, which together help an economy and a society to buffer the forces of nature. -> Vulnerability and development
In fact the problem is even more complex because at times it is not a question of lack of food itself in the granaries or shops but rather 'food entitlement' which needs to be addressed. In other words, the lack of capabilities, such as income, which allow one to produce or acquire available food. There are many factors that affect capabilities, for example a deterioration in the quantity and/or quality of potential labour due to HIV/AIDS. However, even if labour is available it may not be allocated to food production as it may be more attractive at the household level to exit the rural economy in the hope of better opportunities elsewhere. This could be due to artificially low food prices caused by the importation of subsidized staples from developed countries. This process selectively removes the most capable people from the rural economy but may improve social safety nets through remittances and income diversification. There is no straightforward impact of drought, but it is clear that those populations at whatever scale who, for whatever reasons, are more vulnerable to the impacts of drought will be disproportionately affected by them. A drought mitigation strategy, therefore, must start by identifying the most vulnerable groups, determining the reasons for their vulnerability, distinguishing between those factors that can be addressed in the short, medium and long term, and integrating these actions into the broader development agenda. One possible vision of a drought resilient society, a diversified and complex economy, is represented in this diagram (click here to view the diagram) . |
Land Management Topics
|
