People, Power and Rights: the ingredients for integrating resilience
Disasters and climate change impacts are reversing development gains
like never before. In the last 20 years alone, disasters have led to
more than 1.3 million deaths, affected more than 4.4 billion people, and
resulted in economic losses and damages of close to
US$ 2 trillion (UNISDR, 2012). Based in Delhi, I witness the impacts
of these global statistics in India and in the neighbouring countries.
In 2010, Pakistan lost
1985 lives to the floods, and saw 5.8 % of its Global Domestic
Product (GDP) eroded. The very next year Thailand lost 813 people to the
devastating floods and their
GDP growth rate for 2011 declined from 4.1% expected to 2.9% (World
Bank, 2012). Apart from the huge immediate social and economic
impact, disasters increase inequality in the society and affect
invaluable ecosystems and socio-cultural fabric of communities.
The science is already predicting worse times to come. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change explains that the world
should brace itself for increased flooding, storm surges, droughts and
heatwaves. With clear evidence in tow, environment protection can no
longer be ignored by our development strategies, if we are to avert the
potential climate catastrophe.
Australia has taken the initiative to integrate disaster risk
reduction, environment and climate change adaptation and mitigation
(DEC) into its aid projects, programs and investments. Its efforts to
integrate
DEC beyond sectors and also into all four phases of the project
management cycle – inception, design, implementation and evaluation – is
a laudable step in a long arduous global journey. The integration of DEC
is fundamental to achieving resilience by protecting development
investments and addressing inequality.
At
ActionAid, we look at the
underlying causes that make a person vulnerable, which in turn impacts
the ability to bounce back. Our analysis shows that vulnerability is
primarily caused by three factors, i) social exclusion, ii) lack of
skills, access to basic services and economic opportunities, and iii)
lack of asset and secured access to natural resources. At the base of
all three, we see unequal and unjust power in the society, which leads
to unjust governance and unfair social attitudes. As the three factors
mutually reinforce each other, individually or together, they deepen the
institutional perpetuation of inequality and injustice.
While
Australia aims to integrate resilience both in sectors such as health,
education, water, sanitation as well as into the project management
cycle, it is still a very technical approach. Integration, however, goes
well beyond these technicalities and I would argue it is more of a
‘political’ process. A
human rights based approach to resilience provides sustainable long
term solutions for people and communities who are the most vulnerable,
and whose lives and livelihoods are under the constant threat of
destruction. The strategy to address the causes of vulnerability,
therefore, needs to bring together social, economic, political and
environmental aspects of a community and nation. People, power and
rights must be at the heart of theory of change.
What does this
mean in practice for practitioners and policy makers? The project
management cycle must analyse the unequal power that exist in the
society, the target area of the project in particular; between community
and the implementing partner; and also between partner and the donor.
All sectoral and management processes eventually converge at the people
level, therefore people need to be at the centre in order to achieve
integration successfully. For us,
DEC integration may be a new concept that needs to be part of ‘our’
development projects, whereas people, particularly in the rural areas,
have been living with these challenges for so long and have found their
own way of living in harmony with their local environment. Once the
community and the local authorities are aware of the factors that make
them vulnerable, with little support, they can develop strategies to
challenge power imbalances and address the underlying causes.
I
strongly believe that only through empowerment of local communities and
authorities, we can deal with the uncertainty and unpredictability
climate change is posing. I also contend that empowerment should not
just be seen as a process but also an indicator of success of our
projects and programmes. Management processes therefore need to help
facilitate rather than prescribe ‘solutions’ to allow and enable people
to analyse their situation and develop solutions that change local
conditions and the larger policy environment.
At this juncture,
we cannot afford to miss the opportunity of integrating DEC into the new
set of post 2015 goals: the renewed Millennium /
Sustainable Development Goals, successor to the Hyogo Framework for
Action and a new climate agreement. The implications are real and are
felt at the local level. All schools must be disaster safe and
environment friendly; lives of children, women and men should not be
lost to due to weak infrastructure and disaster response systems and
healthcare system must be able to withstand disasters and respond to the
affected.
Australian Government should promote policies and practices that
empower people and decision makers who are at the forefront of tackling
the impacts of disasters and climate change. If poor people have the
power and capacity to develop as well as influence the planning, the
integration from local to global level will be a seamless process that
will eventually help harmonize goals, strategies and success indicators
for resilience building.