Lect 3

Facilitated By:
Muhammad Qadeer
Vulnerability Assessment
Date: 17 October 2009
Courtesy:
FalakNawaz (ADPC)

"O my Lord! Open for me my chest (grant me self-confidence, contentment, and boldness).
"And ease my task for me;
"And make loose the knot (the defect) from my tongue, (i.e. remove the incorrectness from my speech)
That they may understand my speech.

Vulnerability
A set of prevailing or consequent conditions which adversely affect the community’s ability to prevent, mitigate, prepare for or respond to hazard event

Vulnerability
Vulnerability "is insecurity, the reverse of security";
It reflects "the characteristics of a person or group in terms of their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from the impact of a natural hazard. It involves a combination of factors that determine the degree to which someone's life and livelihood is put at risk by a discrete and identifiable event in nature or in society" (Blaikie et al).

Vulnerability has two components:
Exposure to hazard
Difficulty (through lack of resources) to cope with, and recover from them
The two components reflect:
an 'external' side of risks, shocks and stress to which a structure, individual, household, community or nation is subject, and
an 'internal' side of lack of resources to cope without damaging loss (from Robert Chambers).
Vulnerability

Source: Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment Toolbox, October 1996, Page 5

A process to identify what elements are at risk per hazard type, and to analyze the root causes of why these elements are at risk

Categories of Vulnerability

Physical / Material
Social / Organizational
Motivation / Attitudinal

Physical / Material Vulnerability

Hazard-prone location of community houses, farmlands, infrastructure, basic services
Design and construction materials of houses and buildings
Insecure and risky sources of livelihood

Lack of access and control over means of production (land, farm inputs, animals, capital)
Inadequate economic fall-back mechanisms
Dependence on money-lenders
Occurrence of acute or chronic food shortage
Lack of adequate skills and educational background
High mortality rates, malnutrition, occurrence of diseases, insufficient caring capacity
Over exploitation of natural resources

Lack of basic services: education, health, safe drinking water, shelter, sanitation, roads, electricity, communication
Exposed to violence (domestic, community conflicts ,civil conflicts or war)

Social / Organizational Vulnerability

Weak family / kinship structures
Lack of leadership and initiative to solve problems or conflicts
Exclusion of certain groups from decision-making about community life or unequal participation in community affairs
Absence or weak community organizations (in formal, governmental, indigenous)

Social/Organizational Vulnerability