This essay is about how the concepts of resilience and vulnerability are expressed in local vulnerability analyses. The essay also highlights underlying structures and driving forces to risk and vulnerability in the selected risk- and vulnerability analyses. The purpose is to examine and analyze how resilience and vulnerability in society is reflected in local risk- and crisis management with a selection of municipal risk- and vulnerability assesments as an exempel. The chosen method in this work is qualitative text analysis. The result indicates that the general focus in the analyzed material is on municipal activties and events of chock or crisis. The perspectives on risk and vulnerability that is being used equates risks with events and vulnerability as the effect of those events. In regards of resilience and the 3D Resilience framework from Bené et al.(2012) the risk- and vulnerability analyses are therefore at most related to the first two dimensions: absorption and adaption. Above all the municipalities wants to attain stability and robustness while resisting the effects of chock or crisis events to be able to revert to pre-chock state. Vulnerability is being reflected as a contrast to the abilities the municipalities aim for with their crisis response. That sort of understanding and assessment of risk and vulnerability pays barely no attention at all to underlying driving forces to risk and crisis. Even if in some cases there seems to be a will to try and include issuess like social vulnerability and social inequalities.

The thesis contributes to the policy transfer literature through the examination of narratives presented by policy actors engaged in policy transfer. The actors’ policy narratives are analysed through the application of the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF). With the use of the NPF, the research investigates the portrayal of narrative elements, including, setting, character, plot, and moral, by the transfer actors, in depicting their perception of the transfer process and object, and of the other actors involved in the policy transfer. The investigation is aimed at having a better understanding of factors that facilitate the occurrence of policy transfer i.e. transfer mechanisms, such as, conditionality, obligation, and persuasion, and how they manifest and drive the transfer process. To examine how policy narratives may inform the manifestation of transfer mechanisms, the research studies two cases of policy transfer involving international governmental organisations (IGOs) as transfer agents. These are i) the transfer of renewable energy policy by the European Union to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and ii) the transfer of disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy by the United Nations International Strategy for DRR (UNISDR) to ECOWAS. The thesis argues that the mechanisms of conditionality and persuasion were involved in the transfer of renewable energy policy, while the mechanism of obligation can be observed in the transfer of DRR policy. It further argues that the portrayals of the narrative setting, character, plot and moral, in the policy narratives of the transfer agents and recipient, shaped the manifestation of these transfer mechanisms. The application of the NPF to the two case studies enabled the identification and association of different policy narrative elements that will likely characterise specific transfer mechanisms. In addition, the study highlights the opportunity of broadening policy transfer research beyond a limited geographical reach, through covering two instances of policy transfer to a region in sub-Sahara Africa. It also broadens the group of actors that are often studied in the literature by considering policy transfers initiated and led by IGOs.

Extreme weather events have become a common occurrence and coastal communities are adversely affected by it. Studies have shown that the changing climate has increased the frequency and severity of storms, surging sea levels, and floods, as was seen with Hurricane Sandy (2012) and Typhoon Haiyan (2013). The need to be proactive in preparing for these events, as a means of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, is evident. This study focuses on the formal definition, measurement and simulation of coastal community preparedness and response to severe storm events. Preparedness and response requires resources, emergency plans, informed decision making and the ability to cope with unexpected events. A suite of preparedness indicators is developed using a three level hierarchical framework in the construction of a coastal community preparedness index to evaluate resources and plans. Informed decision making for emergency management personnel in the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) is evaluated through a table-top exercise using a five-phase approach. Lastly, decision making with risk is introduced with a storm decision making simulation model. This study is applied to the case of the breakwater failure in the coastal community of Little Anse, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

This paper argues for the utilisation of Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse the Australian governments disaster risk frameworks and plans to find if their depiction, or lack thereof, of indigenous knowledge and people can be traced parallel to their historical treatment of indigenous Australians. Focusing on matters of inequality which plague the indigenous people of Australia, I discuss how indigenous people and their knowledge have been disregarded within the drafting of Australia’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management plans and frameworks, resulting in a lack of inclusion and consideration of the benefit of their indigenous communities and their knowledge. The need for this study lies in the fact that the field of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management is focused upon an epistemologically scientific form of study, often subsuming other avenues of knowledge attainment which can prove helpful in reducing and managing disaster risk. To do this, the study considers the historical treatment of indigenous Australians to contextualise the meanings of words, sentences, and statements within the documents, focusing on matters of ethnic inequality, to answer the question: How can the Australian governmental discourse surrounding indigenous people and their knowledge within Australia’s disaster preparation frameworks exemplify the ongoing issue of indigenous inequality globally?

No description available.

The frequency and severity of floods have increased due to climate change and achieving successful disaster risk reduction is deemed crucial to attain preparedness and sustainability. The responsibility for society’s preparedness mainly resides with local public actors. However, several Swedish municipalities have insufficient flood risk management. Research within disaster risk reduction suggests that risk can be understood as socially constructed and produced, highlighting the relevance of exploring risk perceptions. Yet, previous research has mostly been concerned with objective dimensions of risk and largely neglected social dimensions, such as decision-makers’ risk perceptions. Ridolfi and colleagues’ theoretical contribution to Cultural Theory of Risk suggests four types of ideal societies, or perceptions, which ultimately affect flood risk management: risk neglecting, risk monitoring, risk downplaying, and risk controlling perceptions. Yet, the theoretical work has not been applied empirically. This study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of local public actors’ perceptions of flood risk and how this in turn may be connected to different flood risk management strategies. This thesis adopts a comparative case study design and explores the topic by applying Ridolfi and colleagues’ theoretical contribution to the municipalities of Karlstad and Kristinehamn. While Kristinehamn has been criticized for insufficient flood risk management, Karlstad has been put forward as a front runner in disaster risk reduction. Surprisingly, the results show that the municipalities reason in similar ways about flood risk, suggesting that the proposed differences between the two may be overestimated. Both municipalities believe in the capacity of technical hard-adaptive measures manipulating the environment and thus largely correspond to the risk controlling perception. However, the municipalities differ in some respects, as it can be argued that Karlstad shows signs of a risk monitoring perception whereas Kristinehamn shows signs of a risk neglecting or downplaying perception, potentially shedding light on the slightly varying approaches. In essence, the study’s utilization of the theory indicates that decision-makers’ subjective risk perceptions are important to explore in order to understand flood risk management approaches and subsequently important processes to achieve overall preparedness and sustainability. By exploring municipal actors’ perceptions of flood risk, the study not only contributes empirically by applying mentioned theoretical contribution for the first time, but also adds to the wider body of the theoretical knowledge on the significance of decision-makers’ risk perception for risk reduction, and thus contributes to a better understanding of the social dimensions of risk.

This thesis w attempts to contribute to the identified gap in the disaster-conflict literature and posits the following research question: How does armed conflict affect DRR and disaster response, and what explains within conflict variations? Past research revealed that there is significant variation in types of rebel groups, which has significant consequences for disaster management. More nuanced approaches are needed in studying wartime political orders to scrutinize the dynamics of armed conflict and to assess the feasibility of DRR and relief interventions in different contexts. Studies suggest how militarily strong rebel organizations are less likely to inflict violence on civilians and are more likely to engage in wartime state-building; this thesis builds on that and examines how variations in wartime political orders, conditioned by the level of rebel territorial control, formal, informal institutions and relationships with the civilians and organizations affect the observed outcome, i.e. execution of disaster risk reduction and disaster relief programming. This theory is tested using the structured focused comparison method and takes an in depth look into two regions in Nepal during the 1996-2006 civil war across two distinct periods. Primary and secondary sources are used to collect and analyze data on the selected cases. Findings suggest that WPOs may  have a considerable impact on how DRR and relief are delivered during conflict; stronger rebel territorial control is positively correlated with DRR and relief, while lower levels of rebel territorial control were found to be  negatively correlated; these findings are  limited due to a number of data  constraints.

Incorporating gender into disasters and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is important given women’s and men’s different needs, vulnerabilities, capacities and roles in the context of disasters. Male engagement or ‘men-streaming’ has gained increased attention in research on gender and development, yet it has been overlooked in the field of DRR. This thesis aims to transfer the discussion on male engagement from development to disasters by studying how ‘men-streaming’ is described in the context of DRR. The analysis will build upon a case-study of the Gender Equality Toolkit by The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB). A qualitative content analysis will be the main method for the thesis. The Toolkit will be analyzed using an open analytical framework, consisting of three themes: Men as Vulnerable, Men as Capable and Men as Allies. The results illustrate that all three themes of male engagement are described in gender policy for DRR, with a main focus on men’s vulnerabilities. The contribution of this thesis is the recognition that while men are increasingly seen as vulnerable rather than obstacles in the context of DRR, men’s capacities and allyship to women are not fully included in gender policy.

No description available.

South Africa, like many other developing countries, faces a growing problem of informal settlements which are mushrooming in and around the major urban centres. Living conditions within these settlements are typically poor with residents facing a range of basic livelihoods challenges, exacerbated by poverty, inequality and social exclusion. Unplanned and rapid urbanisation, from which informal settlements originate, and existing conditions in these areas, heighten risk to disaster and provide the conditions that turn natural and man-made events into major livelihoods disruptions. The most devastating of these disruptions are disasters brought on by uncontrolled fires, extreme wet weather and associated flooding. To forestall disaster, minimise livelihoods disruptions and debilitating loss of assets, and safeguard developmental progress, local governments have increasingly adopted risk reduction approaches to their development planning and implementation. Among some of the critical risk reduction measures adopted is the deployment of communication interventions meant to cultivate a culture of risk avoidance among at-risk communities. While it is largely accepted that developmental losses can be considerably reduced if people are properly educated and well-prepared for a disaster, it is also widely recognised that current tools and guidelines for communication of disaster risk in developing communities have largely proved inadequate. Among leading criticisms is that the communication interventions implemented neither fully cater for the contemporary proactive and pre-emptive (risk minimising) approach to disaster risk management nor the developmental imperatives of the disaster risk reduction paradigm. This study, therefore, sought to propose a conceptual framework for the reorientation of thinking and improvement of the on-the-ground practice of disaster risk communication in South African municipalities, and to ensure, among other things, that the practice of disaster risk communication in South Africa places participation of at-risk communities at the centre of communication interventions for disaster risk reduction. A literature study was conducted to explore what principles of the participatory approach to development communication could be applicable to a framework for disaster risk communication interventions. Following the literature study, an empirical study into the contemporary disaster risk communication practice in the three study sites of Cape Town, George and uThungulu District was carried out. The field study comprised semi-structured interviews with disaster risk communication managers and other key informants, and focus group discussions with members of informally settled communities in the study areas. Using a hybrid thematic analytic approach, the data gathered empirically were analysed against the salient themes derived from the literature study and those emerging as the empirical study progressed, and from that process a conceptual framework for disaster risk participatory communication for at-risk communities in South African municipalities was developed and proposed. In conclusion, guidance was also given for translation of the conceptual framework into actual practice by disaster risk managers and other disaster risk reduction role-players in South Africa. / PhD (Communication Studies), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014