IPCC_Managing Risks of Extreme Events.pdf - Climate Access

Determinants of Risk: Exposure and VulnerabilityChapter 2Box 2-2 | Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Adaptation, and Resilience-Building:the Garifuna Women of HondurasThe Garifuna women of Honduras could be said to show multiple vulnerability characteristics (Brondo, 2007). They are women, the genderoften made vulnerable by patriarchal structures worldwide; they come from Honduras, a developing country exposed to many hazards;they belong to an ethnic group descended from African slaves, which is socially, economically, and politically marginalized; and theydepend largely upon a subsistence economy, with a lack of education, health, and other resources. However, despite these markers ofvulnerability, the Garifuna women have organized to reduce their communities’ exposure to hazards and vulnerability to disastersthrough the protection and development of their livelihood opportunities (Fordham et al., 2011).The women lead the Comité de Emergencia Garifuna de Honduras, which is a grassroots, community-based group of the Afro-IndigenousGarifuna that was developed in the wake of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. After Mitch, there was a lack of external support and so the Comitéwomen organized themselves and repaired hundreds of houses, businesses, and public buildings, in the process of which women wereempowered and trained in non-traditional work. They campaigned to buy land for relocating housing to safer areas, in which the poorestfamilies participated in the reconstruction process. Since being trained themselves in vulnerability and capacity mapping by grassrootswomen in Jamaica, they have in turn trained 60 trainers in five Garifuna communities to carry out mapping exercises in their communities.The Garifuna women have focused on livelihood-based activities to ensure food security by reviving and improving the production oftraditional root crops, building up traditional methods of soil conservation, carrying out training in organic composting and pesticide use,and creating the first Garifuna farmers’ market. In collaborative efforts, 16 towns now have established tool banks, and five have seedbanks. Through reforestation, the cultivation of medicinal and artisanal plants, and the planting of wild fruit trees along the coast, theyare helping to prevent erosion and reducing community vulnerability to hazards and the vagaries of climate.The Garifuna women’s approach, which combines livelihood-based recovery, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation, hashad wide-ranging benefits. They have built up their asset base (human, social, physical, natural, financial, and political), and improvedtheir communities’ nutrition, incomes, natural resources, and risk management. They continue to partner with local, regional, andinternational networks for advocacy and knowledge exchange. The women and communities are still at risk (Drusine, 2005) but thesestrategies help reduce their socioeconomic vulnerability and dependence on external aid (Fordham et al., 2011).marginally vulnerable, and 12% were not vulnerable; the vulnerabilitystatus was attributed to a lack of funds, poor building standards, localtopography, soil types and inadequate drainage (Ochola et al., 2010).Improving education infrastructure safety can have multiple benefits.For example, the Malagasy Government initiated the DevelopmentIntervention Fund IV project to reduce cyclone risk, including safer schoolconstruction and retrofitting. In doing so, awareness and understandingof disaster issues were increased within the community (MadagascarDevelopment Intervention Fund, 2007).The impact of extreme events can limit the ability of parents to affordto educate their children or require them (especially girl children, whoseaccess to education is typically prioritized less than that of boy children)to work to meet basic needs (UNDP, 2004; UNICEF, 2009).Access to information related to early warnings, response strategies,coping and adaptation mechanisms, science and technology, and human,social, and financial capital is critical for reduction of vulnerability andincreasing resilience. A range of factors may control or influence theaccess to information, including economic status, race (Spence et al.,2007), trust (Longstaff and Yang, 2008), and belonging to a socialnetwork (Peguero, 2006). However, the mode of information transfer orexchange must be considered because there is emerging evidence of agrowing digital inequality (Rideout, 2003) that may influence trends invulnerability as an increasing amount of information about extreme eventpreparedness and response is often made available via the internet (seeChapter 9). Evidence has existed for some time that people who haveexperienced natural hazards (and thus may have information andknowledge gained directly through that experience) are, in general,better prepared than those who have not (Kates, 1971). However, thisdoes not necessarily translate into protective behavior because of whathas been called the ‘prison of experience’ (Kates, 1962), in which people’sresponse behavior is determined by the previous experience and is notbased on an objective assessment of current risk. In the uncertaincontext of climate-related extremes, this may mean people are notappropriately educated regarding the risk.2.5.2.3. Health and Well-BeingThe health dimension of vulnerability includes differential physical,physiological, and mental health effects of extreme events in differentregions and on different social groups (McMichael et al., 2003; vanLieshout et al., 2004; Haines et al., 2006; Few, 2007; Costello et al.,82