Does ‘Manna from Heaven’ help? The role of cash transfers in disaster recovery—lessons from Fiji after Tropical Cyclone Winston

This paper contributes to the evidence on the effectiveness of shock-responsive social protection systems in helping affected households recover from the negative consequences of disasters. It evaluates the influence of the top-up cash transfers provided by the Government of Fiji to poor households in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Winston, which struck the Pacific Island country on 20 February 2016. The impact evaluation strategy incorporates a sharp regression discontinuity design to define treatment and control groups, based on the eligibility threshold of the poverty benefit scheme. The results indicate that treatment households—that is, those that received cash transfers—are significantly more likely to report quicker recovery from various shocks. Female-headed households are more likely to recover from the ramifications, whereas households with older heads are less likely to do so. The presence of a functioning market appears to be a major factor aiding the speed of recovery. Finally, the evidence points towards strong district effects on recovery.     

Establishing public accountability,speaking truth to power and inducing political will for disaster risk reduction: ‘Ocho Rios + 25’

The problem is that disaster risk reduction (DRR) is still more a zone of political darkness than of light. Therefore, the purpose of our contribution to this theme issue is to illuminate at least some of that zone of political darkness and to suggest a more proactive, but for many career professionals a personally problematic, way forward for DRR. The career problematic derives from the fact that the way forward would involve moving from applauding the emergence of elected and/or appointed champions (from mayors to cabinet ministers to presidents/prime ministers) for action to raising the political costs of inaction by leaders not otherwise disposed. The essential element of this way forward would be greatly enhanced public accountability. We will draw preliminary accountability lessons from the Haiti earthquake catastrophe and the Chile earthquake disaster 2010 events towards the conclusion of this paper as we outline a possible future paradigm.     

Then and now: A 30-year journey from the ‘leading edge’

A fledgling disaster management organization in 1984, Jamaica's Office of Disaster Preparedness (ODP) hosted the pioneering international disaster mitigation conference to share information and to contemplate how vulnerability to disasters from natural hazards could be reduced. Over the period 1979–2009, the overall focus of the agency was response, given the plethora of extreme events, and the priority of the Government of Jamaica. The organization was associated with several efforts at disaster mitigation, but the need for building the agency's capacity to lead national efforts to integrate mitigation planning into development did not seem to gain traction among the policy makers. Growing losses since 2004, the evidence of climate change and the need for adaptation, and the regional and international disaster risk management agenda have brought attention to the need for review and development of Jamaica's disaster risk management capacity. This paper examines highlights of the 30-year journey of disaster management in Jamaica, and highlights proposals for strengthening the national framework and the organizational structure of ODPEM.     

‘Natural disasters’ and newspapers: Post-tsunami environmental discourse

In this paper we explore the concept of ‘natural disasters’ as opportunities for influencing public perceptions of the environment through the media. We provide a critical analysis of the discourse in a selection of newspaper articles and identify the way in which various actors have utilised UK national newspaper coverage of the Asian tsunami to promote particular agendas and to legitimise policies and actions. A systematic and iterative sampling approach was developed that allowed us to combine quantitative and qualitative methods to search for articles that contained content directly related to the environmental aspects of the tsunami. Three main themes emerged; coastal ecosystems, the fisheries sector, and redevelopment. The discourse within these areas was markedly different. While the coastal ecosystems discourse was hegemonic in terms of narratives and actor coalitions, the fisheries and redevelopment discourse incorporated a more diverse set of actors and storylines that perhaps reflects the lack of consensus on the best way of achieving sustainable solutions. We also contrast the limited discussion and representation of tsunami-related environmental issues within UK national newspapers with the more detailed discussion within the peer-reviewed literature and the grey literature. We argue that ‘natural disasters’ provide both opportunities and risks for raising awareness of environmental issues, mobilising funding and directing action to environmentally and socially vulnerable areas of the world, and that consequently NGOs, intergovernmental bodies and government departments should be mindful of the long-term consequences of global media attention.     

Resilience from the ground up: how are local resilience perceptions and global frameworks aligned?

Numerous resilience measurement frameworks for climate programmes have emerged over the past decade to operationalise the concept and aggregate results within and between programmes. Proxies of resilience, including subjective measures using perception data, have been proposed to measure resilience, but there is limited evidence on their validity and use for policy and practice. This article draws on research on the Decentralising Climate Funds project of the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters programme, which supports communities in Mali and Senegal to improve climate resilience through locally controlled adaptation funds. It explores attributes of resilience from this bottom‐up perspective to assess its predictors and alignment with food security, as a proxy of well‐being. We find different patterns when comparing resilience and the well‐being proxy, illustrating that the interplay between the two is still unclear. Results also point to the importance of contextualising resilience, raising implications for aggregating results.     

Rights,Standards and Quality in a Complex Humanitarian Space: Is Sphere the Right Tool?

The Sphere Project (consisting of both the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards for Disaster Response) has made prominent contributions to the debates, thinking and work on the quality of assistance and accountability of aid agencies. However, since its inception in 1997, several agencies expressed concerns regarding Sphere's approach, many of which were confirmed by the Sphere evaluation (2002/3). The present article restates these concerns, and addresses more fundamental issues regarding Sphere's cornerstone. It questions the validity of Sphere's rights-based approach, which consists of a tenuous link between the rights of affected populations and standards for technical interventions. Sphere is founded on "the right to assistance", although this right does not exist in international law. Its elaboration would entail solving several complex legal and political issues, which Sphere fails to address. This article also questions the validity and usefulness of universal standards for technical performance in helping relief agencies provide adapted assistance to disaster-affected populations, in line with their mandates and principles. It suggests that Sphere's approach and content largely reflect the concerns, priorities and values of technical professionals in Northern agencies, leaving limited space to genuine "participation" by affected populations and partners from the South.     

Humanitarian Crises: What Determines the Level of Emergency Assistance? Media Coverage,Donor Interests and the Aid Business

This paper proposes a basic hypothesis that the volume of emergency assistance any humanitarian crisis attracts is determined by three main factors working either in conjunction or individually. First, it depends on the intensity of media coverage. Second, it depends on the degree of political interest, particularly related to security, that donor governments have in a particular region. Third, the volume of emergency aid depends on strength of humanitarian NGOs and international organisations present in a specific country experiencing a humanitarian emergency. The empirical analysis of a number of emergency situations is carried out based on material that has never been published before. The paper concludes that only occasionally do the media play a decisive role in influencing donors. Rather, the security interests of Western donors are important together with the presence and strength of humanitarian stakeholders, such as NGOs and international organisations lobbying donor governments.     

The Risks from Flooding: Which Risks and Whose Perception?

Four main groups are considered in relation to the risk from flooding: the engineers involved in the design of flood alleviation schemes, emergency planners, the public, including both the population at risk from flooding and the rest of the population who will bear all or most of the cost of flood alleviation schemes and the researchers, such as geographers and economists concerned with flood hazards and scheme appraisal. It is argued that these different groups vary significantly in their selection and definition of risks from flooding as a focus of concern and that their definition of risk influences their expectations about future events and the appropriate response to those events. But the different groups share two tendencies: the expectation that the future will be a replication of the past; and the neglect of "uncertain uncertainties" in favour of known uncertainties of risk.     

Flooding and the ‘new normal’: what is the role of gender in experiences of post-disaster ontological security?

Disaster researchers have long analysed disruption to affected residents' ontological security, often represented by routines and familiar landmarks. Surprisingly little of this work, though, assesses who is most likely to experience feelings of disruption. Using a representative set of survey data, complemented by follow-up interview data from 40 residents affected by the Southern Alberta Flood of June 2013, this paper explores how demographic characteristics, such as gender and place attachment, impact on residents' sense of disruption and loss. The findings indicate that women and people with stronger emotional and social ties to their neighbourhoods are most likely to experience disrupted ontological security; home flooding and evacuation orders are also significant predictors. The qualitative interview data reveal that many participants felt unsettled and disrupted by myriad factors, such as ongoing construction, which prevented them from establishing a ‘new normal’. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for policymakers and service providers.     

Mountain inhabitants’ perspectives on climate change,and its impacts and adaptation based on temporal and spatial characteristics analysis: a case study of Mt. Yulong Snow,Southeastern Tibetan Plateau

Based on the results of questionnaires issued to 202 local residents in the Mount Yulong Snow region, southeastern Tibetan Plateau, this study analyzes mountain residents’ perspectives on climate change and its impacts, their strategies to adapt to climate change impacts, including their willingness or otherwise to become ecological migrants, and some of the factors that influence their perceptions. Overall, local perception of climate change and its impacts corresponds to the patterns of observed climate change revealed by climate records. The intensity of climate change perception shows a highly significant correlation with residents’ age and villages’ elevation gradient. Most respondents did not believe that climate change affected crop growing and their yields, but the number of crop insect pests was thought to be increasing slightly and the crop growth period to be extending. Nearly all respondents believed that climate change seriously affects the mountain tourism economy, and their way of life and spiritual world. Persistent drought in recent years has forced mountain dwellers to adjust industrial structure, save water in the agricultural economy, participate in mountain tourism and work outside the home in order to adapt to climate change impacts and supplement their meager farm incomes. Additionally, residents expect to receive government compensation and relief to mitigate natural disaster damage.