This thesis examines the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Somalia at the turn of the 21st Century. Humanitarian assistance is considered as an ideal and the key question is, can it be effective in a chronic emergency? Humanitarian assistance itself is examined in detail and placed in a broader context of ideas of vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity in response to disasters. The thesis is grounded on evidence based evaluation to generate conclusions for programme and project management. The method taken is one of using conventional social science methods to come to evaluative judgement. The nature of evaluative judgement requires an understanding of the purpose and content of evaluation itself, which is extensively discussed in the methods chapter. The ethics of work in disaster situations is also addressed. The case material comes from two evaluations namely for Action by Churches Together and Norwegian Church Aid conducted in Somalia in 2006-07. The key findings from the case material is that humanitarian projects in chronic emergencies must be delivered within the cultural context i.e. religion supported delivery. The reasons for this are that such delivery pays attention to the critical role of beneficiaries in ensuring effective and sustainable project implementation. This raises key issues about the validity of the top down delivery of humanitarian assistance as well as an understanding of chronic emergency as development rather than disaster projects. The thesis concludes with observations on the limitations of evaluation in the context of humanitarian assistance. It reinforces the central directive of humanitarian delivery as ‘do no harm’ and shows that there are opportunities to ‘do some good’.

This thesis is structured around a central overriding question: to what extent can the practice of landscape photography be used to make visible the politics of landscape in borderland territories? Introduced by architect Teddy Cruz, the ‘political equator’ suggests an alternative politics of space through which to critically consider socio-economic and geopolitical processes associated with globalisation under neoliberal capitalism. This equator is based on a revised geography of the post-9/11 world, whereby a line drawn across a world map intersects at three contested desert territories: 1) the Mexico USA frontier; 2) southern Spain and northern Morocco; and 3) Palestine/Israel. This concept and its implications for human mobility, porous frontiers and material readings of landscape are explored through my photographic practice. In this work I challenge the idea of ‘hard borders’ between sovereign nation-states and make new political and symbolic associations between the territories along the political equator. Landscape can be seen as a cultural construct imbued with social uses and a more abstract set of desires. Photography as both a material and imaginative medium is able to simultaneously narrate and re-shape landscape. Through my three projects, Imported Landscapes (2010), Badlands (2011) and Gardening the Suburbs (2013) I examine and translate borderland territories. I produce photographs that suggest how these landscapes embody the contradictions of globalisation and carry the traces of past empires and geographies. I analyse the creation of a built environment and the construction of a post-natural landscape to suggest that our understanding of landscape – in ‘real-life’ and as it is aesthetically configured in images – is something materially arranged and a product of the imagination. My practice facilitates an imaginative engagement with potential future political sustainability or modification of these landscapes. Visuality plays a pivotal role in the production of contemporary geo-politics. By exploring three of my art projects in relation to historical and contemporary visual representations of desert borderlands, political and symbolic readings of the desert emerge as inherently connected. This thesis creates an innovative connection between early photographic practices in landscape and their later critical and conceptual versions. The thesis considers the ways in which my work translates, critiques and revises these conventions. I approach landscape phenomenologically, understanding it not as a static entity but as a process. This process is composed of and shaped by human and animal life, material object and place. Through an analysis of my own embodied engagement with landscape and my material and imaginative experience of landscape photographs, this thesis opens new ways of narrating the thresholds of the political equator.

The aim of this research thesis was to understand how the urban built environment interacts with utility cycling behaviours in space and time. Using mixed methods entrenched in the philosophy of pragmatism, the research contributed to an as yet under-developed research evidence-base within the British context by addressing the gap in knowledge relating to: the usability of spacetime and action space theories within visual analytics context in facilitating the knowledge discovery process from spatio-temporal datasets; empirical evidence on perceived and actual movement behaviour of urban utility cyclists; methodological advancement in collecting, refining, analysing and visualising detailed utility cycling behaviours in a British urban environment. Findings suggest that 57.4% of cyclists’ bike trips were found on the cycle network and with 42.6% of cyclists still cycling outside the designated cycle network; it is therefore imperative that policy initiatives aimed towards strategic investment in cycling behavioural research and infrastructure. The findings also showed a higher concentration of cycling uptake around the south-eastern part of Newcastle upon Tyne suggesting this area may need more investment than other areas in Tyne and Wear. Systematic comparison of GPS data and travel diary data suggest 8.4% under reporting of the former. The null hypothesis that urban transport network restrictions do not have any significant influence on movement of commuter cyclists was rejected upon examination and it was found that observed routes tend to be significantly longer than their shortest path counterparts. Profiling activity spaces of utility cyclists utilising different geographies was found to be useful in the examination of cycling behaviours for the purpose of providing visual aid for planners and policy makers to identify areas for improvement and informed investment in support of sustainable transport. Several efforts were being made to enhance data availability to inform policy strategies, and facilitation of feasible solutions for improving the urban cycling infrastructure and encouraging more people to cycle as part of their daily commute, for which this research aimed to contribute by providing evidence on the use of the area’s cycling infrastructure by utility cyclists and spatial variability of cycling in space and time.

This thesis investigates the psychosocial issues and lived experiences of adolescent girls and young women after the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. It explores the coping strategies they adopted during the disaster and in the long recovery phase, presenting their psychosocial issues, disaster lived experiences, and personal transformations. The context of study is the growth of interest in mental health and disasters but the gap and lack of any major focus on gender and adolescent girls’ knowledge and experience provides a particular impetus for the study. The research study adopted an interpretive phenomenological methodology (IPA) that quickly expanded beyond the individual scale of internalized self to encompass the wider social domain. This study deployed mixed research methods to explore adolescent girls’ life-world such as semi- structured interviews, narrative interviews, field notes, researcher’s journal, participant observations and timeline drawing. The techniques of data collection included interviews through different sources of media such as skype, emails, WhatsApp. These methods also aided as a therapeutic tool for the participants by allowing them an opportunity to know and understand their existence and life-world through in-depth interviews. The data of this thesis is based on 70 qualitative interviews conducted largely in the rural areas of Chipa village and Muzzaffarabad city. The interviews were largely conducted in rural areas, but a series of interviews were done in urban areas to allow understanding and clarity of the rural culture. While not a meaningful sample in a statistical sense, the qualitative urban analysis allows for conclusion about the non-cultural movements of rural areas. The methodological approach was to draw on clinical experience, as a psychologist and frame that discussion in the human hermeneutics of lifeworld analysis. This considered the individual in their own setting including the constraints provided by family regulations and community norms under Islamic culture. The study provides a new understanding of the unmet needs, lived experiences and psychosocial issues of adolescent girls and young women over the seven years between the earthquake and the field research. It highlights the strategies adopted, which in some cases have led to post-traumatic growth and in others to a continuing anxiety about the hazardous and socially constraining environment they inhabit. It presents life-world snapshots in the form of holistic narratives. The study also provides a theoretical and conceptual framework for adolescent people in disasters particularly in context of age and gender. It is crucial to have an adequate balance amongst the four components of life-world to ensure psychosocial wellbeing. The study offers recommendations for local agencies, NGOs and INGOs to inform their policy and practice by recommending greater levels of assistance and revision in their policies concerning adolescent girls and young women. The conclusion of this research study is that suffering through the disaster trauma and uncertainty is mainly part of an individual’s life-world; considering their living standards and wellbeing. Mainly these components are; Psychological Self, Home-Family, Community and Beyond Community. Having a better understanding and awareness of self and self-care leads to better psychosocial wellbeing. At the same time, adequate amount of support, care and love from family members including parents, siblings and relatives is therapeutic in wake of trauma. Community and Beyond Community plays a vital role in psychosocial wellbeing of adolescents and young women in particular. Provided enough socializing opportunities, regular participation post disaster activities and home reconstruction only leads to psychosocial resilience. This is evident from the finding chapters discussed and analysed thoroughly above, that all of these four components are crucial to draw upon the psychosocial resilience resulting in wellbeing and self-awareness of young women. The study offers recommendations for local agencies, NGOs and INGOs to inform their policy and practice by recommending greater levels of assistance and revision in their policies concerning adolescent girls and young women. This could only be possible by listening to their voices, their issues, and lived experiences. It can always develop new opportunities to deal with the issues of the adolescent girls and young women by being mindful of various ways to deal with their uncertainties.

This research evaluates how cultural factors impact the response to adverse events. Vulnerability is a function of socio-economic conditions which may be accentuated by adverse conditions. Population growth, socio-economic structures, culture, scientific and local knowledge, and the approach to climate change are some of the factors which influence vulnerability to hazards in local communities. These factors shape the perceptions of individuals in communities towards hazards and disasters, perceptions which could lead to increased vulnerability or efficient adaptation and mitigation initiatives. This research takes an interdisciplinary approach to assess the perceptions of the Nsukka people of Enugu state, Nigeria, towards hazards and disasters, and to understand how government influence, local knowledge and livelihood assets determine the vulnerability of households to hazards and disasters in local communities. The objectives of the research are to ascertain how the combination of local perceptions, local culture and livelihood assets influence hazards and disasters in Nsukka communities. The research also reviews the role of government in Nsukka communities’ hazards management. To attain these objectives, mixed methods encompassing qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to gather data. An initial pilot study was undertaken to ascertain the hazards and disasters affecting communities in different states in South-East Nigeria. During the main study, purposive sampling method was used to select the communities in Nsukka where semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from respondents. Questionnaires were also distributed to a group of respondents in the communities involved with disaster risk reduction at the local level. The findings from the study show that communities are continually affected by different hazards and although local communities are aware of these hazards, their perceptions to what constitute local hazards differ, from perceptions in terms of existing environmental conditions to perceptions in terms of general conditions which increase vulnerability. Corruption in government, lack of trust in the political system and non-commitment of relevant stakeholders increase vulnerable conditions in local communities. Findings suggest that the perceptions of people from other regions of the country towards Nsukka for its role during the Nigerian Civil War (The Biafran War) has led to lack of trust and ignorance from relevant stakeholders, which has increased the vulnerability of the communities to hazards. Nsukka is located at the border between South-East and Middle-Belt Nigeria. The combined effects of desertification in Northern Nigeria and migration of herdsmen to farming communities are creating new conflict hazards. The study also found that ignored communities develop reliance on each other over time, making use of few available assets to tackle vulnerability due to decades of unsustainable development. The research found that self-reliance has helped local households survive the impacts of hazards for generations. Individuals and households in local communities usually deal with hazards and disasters using personal ideas and local knowledge of their environment, together with the help of livelihood assets, especially social assets. Findings suggest that local culture and tradition has also influenced the impacts of hazards and livelihoods in communities. While local knowledge and local culture has helped with adaptation to the hazards which exist in local communities, some aspects of local culture could increase the vulnerability of some groups such as women, to hazards in local communities. While there are some initiatives by government and some stakeholder agencies to mitigate the impact of hazards in some Nsukka communities, the research shows that some of these initiatives have not been very effective due to diminished resources, education, information and coordination. Other findings from the research show that local people have limited understanding on the concept of climate change. Respondents in local communities highlight traditional, cultural and religious factors as the reasons for the changing climate, despite increasing heatwaves and variable rainfall patterns which have led to unpredictable planting seasons and has also contributed to floods and expansion of erosion in local communities. This research further suggests that communities continue to carry out their daily activities in the presence of hazards and households are more interested in resources essential for daily survival than in resources necessary to reduce vulnerability to hazards. The findings from the research point to the need for improved social protection for local communities, while using knowledge from the communities to develop disaster risk reduction strategies suited for different communities. The study is limited to Nsukka communities and Enugu state of Nigeria; however, findings from the research lead to recommendations for efficient disaster management and risk reduction strategies for stakeholders in developing countries context. Vulnerability assessment in local communities is essential in the development of hazards and disaster management plans for communities. Hazards information shared through credible channels between local communities and governments at all levels creates a platform for effective disaster management policies from a bottom-up approach.

Twenty five years since the introduction of the European Union (EU) environmental impact assessment (EIA) Directive in 1985 this thesis reflects on how environmental assessment (EA) legislation in the EU has evolved, how it has responded to changing policy contexts (paradigms) and whether the experience of implementing EIA and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in the EU provides useful insights into the nature and role of environmental assessment (EA) instruments. Paralleling this development of EU legislation has been the continuing and slowly maturing debates around EA theory. Surprisingly ‐ in the context of legal mandates for EA ‐ there is little reference in the EA literature explicitly to the literature on accountability and the role EA may play in this increasingly important aspect of governance. This thesis examines how the legislation has changed over the 25 year period in response to the changing policy context, and – through drawing on empirical action and policy‐oriented research reported in the selected papers – seeks to answer the core research question “To what extent have EA processes, over the course of their evolution in the EU, provided a platform for enhancing accountability and sustainability?”. The thesis examines EA implementation principally from an environmentalist perspective and particularly the way in which NGOs and other advocates for the environment in the UK and EU have used the EA legislation as a lever for increasing democratic, corporate and professional accountability of proponents and decision‐makers alike. Accountability is implicit as a theme underlying the selected papers, but it is the collecting together and synthesis that provides a new lens through which to view EA. The thesis seeks to fill a significant policy and practice gap between the theoretical discussion in the EA community – the role and purpose of EA – and the practical and legal discussions around implementation. From this historical analysis it is clear that EA has had an important role to play – at the legislative level in providing the requirements for accountability, and at the implementation level as the lever that can be used to hold individuals, organisations and authorities to account for their actions. The relationship with the shift to sustainability is shown to be a close one, since sustainable development demands greater public involvement in decision‐making and greater accountability of executive decisions to the public. The lessons from the body of work presented here allow the development of a nascent policy‐oriented theory and research agenda regarding EA’s role in accountability, which provides a framework for a distinctive new area of EA research and policy analysis. Moreover, an accountability perspective on EA could help re‐frame EA for policy makers from being purely an informational and procedural instrument to one which promotes better accountability and sustainability simultaneously.

This thesis examines the traditional knowledge and capabilities that disaster, conflict and unplanned development affected communities utilise to deal with uncertainties and dangers inherent in their lives. The key question is whether a model of individual care, core to the tradition of western disciplines, is appropriate for humanitarian assistance largely delivered to ‘non-western’ countries. The methodology uses both quantitative and qualitative techniques, and moves beyond a conventional science approach. Guided by a broader ontology and epistemology, it engages an evaluative judgement of three project based case studies in Sri Lanka, Sudan and Malawi. These evaluative judgements build on the adapted OECD/DAC criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and impact. The “lived experiences” of mental health and wellbeing for individuals amongst these communities are then further examined through their personal stories. The outcomes of this process are used to inform a discussion on mainstream interventions and to provide a basis for exploring improved practice in this field. The scope of the study presented here was limited to Sri Lanka, Sudan and Malawi. These countries were selected based on their geographical locations, nature of the disaster, conflict or development problem and most importantly access to communities through Disaster and Development Centre’s (DDC) research work with United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and Green Movement of Sri Lanka (GMSL). The researcher trained one colleague each from Sudan, Malawi and Sri Lanka to assist in the translation of Arabic, Swahili, Tamil and tribal dialects. This process was conducted by explaining the objectives of the research, refreshing basic interviewing skills, concepts of translation and addressing the research ethical framework. The findings of the study indicate that most disaster, development and conflict-affected communities are positively dealing with uncertainties and dangers in life without outside‘expert’ help. Although there are evident levels of mental health and wellbeing related issues that are visible to the outside view of a community, the inside view is that there are traditional knowledge systems, religions, cultures, attitudes and values that address uncertainty and dangers in a sophisticated though pragmatic manner. The conclusion of this research process is that suffering through danger and uncertainty is part of human experience; it is an attribute of the human condition. However, disaster and development experts, psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists are occupied in documenting, describing, analysing and diagnosing risks, vulnerabilities, coping strategies, and post-traumatic stress. Along with the costs of murder, rape, torture, and other forms of human malice, a deeper understanding of mental health and wellbeing in adversity is little understood. This is complicated by the varying nature of events that take place and the variable ways they are experienced by individuals and communities. The onset of uncertainty and danger are sometimes sudden, like the brutal attacks in Western Darfur. At other times they take the form of a continuous reign of suffering like the failed development, disaster reduction and conflict mitigation strategies witnessed in Sri Lanka. Even when suffering is not present in such striking forms, there can be slow deterioration of communities through policies that severely disrupt the lives of people, such as experienced by refugees in Malawi. However, in the middle of the worst circumstances, communities continue to carry on with their livelihood regimes, to celebrate, and to enjoy. This is an achievement beyond everyday life. The thesis findings and conclusions point to the need for collaboration with disaster, conflict and unplanned development affected communities to retrieve their knowledge systems to improve their mental health and wellbeing. This can create new processes to deal with suffering.

The World over, people are forced to move because of natural and human induced disasters. The constant growth in the number of displaced people has made forced migration a major issue of our time. Many factors account for displacement in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, conflicts, political repression and economic marginalisation have through the years forced millions to settle out of their countries of birth. This study examines the link between displacement, livelihoods and sustainable development. Stated differently, it probes into how the displacement process influences post-displacement livelihood reconstruction, as well as the impact of displacement on the communities of origin and the areas where resettlement is sought. Drawing on data collected in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo and Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, the study argues that individual experiences in displacement influence the group displaced people identify with as well as their post-displacement livelihood reconstruction strategies. The research questions originate from the findings of my field work in Brazzaville, and Newcastle, existing literature on displacement and livelihoods, and theories rooted in the political economy of impoverishment. The research questions seek to understand the impact of pre- displacement skills and capabilities on post displacement livelihoods, as well as factors which guide migrants in their experiences in displacement. They further seek to know the effect of the displacement process on migrants' sending and receiving communities, as well as the impact of institutions and policies in countries where resettlement is sought, on post-displacement livelihoods. The findings of the study assert that self-view in displacement and the subsequent livelihoods strategies are influenced by access to socio-economic participation in the location where resettlement is sought, as well as the range of rights and entitlements conferred to various categories of displaced people. This selective process is influenced by the pre-displacement status, the displacement track and individual experiences in displacement. The findings of this study further depict the complexity of the causes of displacement in Africa South of the Sahara in that, most migrants of African decent are in reality flushed out of their home countries by political persecution, armed conflict, economic marginalisation and livelihood insecurity, and not absolute poverty as commonly misconstrued. Livelihoods insecurity is a major factor which does not only force these people to move away from their communities of origin in a variety of settings, but equally prompts their re-displacement along the way.

The connections between disaster recovery and the resilience of affected communities have become common features of disaster risk reduction programmes since the adoption of The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005–2015. Increasing attention is paid to the capacity of disaster-affected communities to recover with little or no external assistance following a disaster. This highlights the need for a change in the disaster risk reduction work culture, with stronger emphasis being put on resilience rather than just needs or vulnerability. The aim of this thesis is to determine the extent to which development and humanitarian interventions promote resilience in disaster-prone areas. Three case studies with elements of resilience building were examined in 2002, 2004 and 2005 using an evaluation framework. Survey and participatory interviewing methods involving more than 1200 participants were employed to gain insights from the implementation of: The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe; The Institutional Support Project in Ethiopia; and The Agricultural Rehabilitation Project in East Timor. There are no easy answers for enhancing disaster resilience through development and humanitarian interventions. However, four conclusions emerging from this study contribute to the emerging disaster resilience body of knowledge, spanning social science disciplines such as geography, environmental management and sociology. Firstly, disaster resilience is the ability to ‘bounce forward’ rather than ‘bounce back’ following a disaster. The notion of ‘bounce back’ implies the capacity to return to a pre- disaster state, which fails to capture the ‘new’ reality created by the disaster. ‘Bounce forward’ encapsulates community continuity within the context of changed realities brought about by the disaster. Secondly, resilience and vulnerability are confirmed as discrete constructs, the one not being the ‘flip side’ of the other. Thirdly, local resilience to disasters is about agency, albeit in a political and economic context. Community agency continuously creates and re-creates, and owns and controls the disaster institutional structures. Fourthly, resilience building resonates with the contiguum approach - it can occur at any phase or multiple phases of the disaster cycle. Thus, the process of resilience building does not necessarily need to adopt a ‘linear’ or continuum approach. The contiguum approach offers opportunities for linking (existing) resilience, relief, rehabilitation and development (LRRRD). Finally, on the basis of the author’s broader experience with similar evaluations elsewhere, the findings of this thesis are robust and generalisable and would not have been significantly different, if different case studies were used. Similarly, the focus of this thesis has been on structures and evaluation processes and outcomes; a different approach might have given rise to different findings.

Despite a shift in the practice of international NGOs to a rights-based approach to disasters there is a dearth of substantial theoretical reflections on this linkage within academia. Given this knowledge gap, this research studies the linkages between disaster and rights using the case study of Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, India. The main contribution that this thesis makes to new knowledge is that of deepening the understanding of the way in which rights are produced in disasters. The thesis proposes a theoretical framework to enable such a critical assessment. The main assertion of the theoretical framework is that the social vulnerability approach to disasters can reduce vulnerability and promote social resilience only through a critical assessment of rights that includes subaltern constructs of rights and moral economy structures, their critique or collusion with the governmental framing and institutionalization of rights. The thesis grounds this claim made in the theoretical framework through its empirical chapters. The thesis has four empirical chapters; the first inquires into the colonial history of modern disaster rights; the second interrogates disaster rights in post-colonial India; the third analyses the implications of a subaltern perspective of rights for disaster risk reduction strategy; and the fourth analyses social change processes through the contestation of rights, partly attributed to the disaster. The concluding chapter of the thesis makes recommendations for a rights based social vulnerability analysis and for action in disasters in Uttar Pradesh, India. These recommendations can act as new directions for rights based disaster risk reduction and recovery work. The thesis uses an interdisciplinary approach to investigate this subject area. In particular, it uses disaster theory, human rights and political theory, subaltern theory and feminist theory. The thesis uses a hermeneutic approach as its dominant research methodology, and ethnographic research methods. It also makes a limited use of archival data and quantitative survey methods.