Voices from the field

Disasters and climate change affect us all differently. Poor and excluded people are the most vulnerable to their impact. Women’s vulnerability to disasters and climate change is exacerbated by long-standing discrimination, their limited power in decision-making processes - and their poor access to resources.

I was invited to the seventh Annual Community Based Adaptation Conference (CBA7) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to share ActionAid’s experience of working with excluded communities. My key message here is that we need to analyse and address the underlying causes of their vulnerability – and empower communities through skills and resources - to enhance the resilience of poor and excluded communities.

ActionAid’s analysis shows that vulnerability to disasters and climate change is primarily caused by three factors: social exclusion; a lack of access to - and control over – natural resources; and a lack of assets and economic opportunities.

Women in Bangladesh work on collective analysis of risk

Social exclusion is an outcome of multiple human rights violations. In society, people face discrimination on the basis of their gender, class, ethnicity, religion, race, caste, age or sexual orientation. Within these communities, children and women; and people who are displaced, disabled, elderly or living with HIV or AIDS are further marginalised.

This limits their participation and excludes them from the economic, social and political life of their communities and societies, making them more vulnerable to the impacts of disasters and climate change.

Poor communities who lack access to - and control over - natural resources such as land, forest, water and biodiversity, have limited capacity to withstand the impact of disasters and climate change.

Lack of assets and economic opportunities such as a safe house; sustainable and diversified livelihoods; appropriate skills, finance and information; and fair and stable markets also makes them vulnerable and stops them escaping the vicious cycle of poverty.

These three underlying causes of vulnerability arise from unequal and unjust power in society. The family, patriarchal community, local and national government authorities, traditional institutions, local elites, corporations and international institutions all maintain or increase this inequality.

ActionAid’s approach
We firmly believe that the Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) towards community-based adaptation and enhancing resilience provides long-term solutions for people and communities, whose lives and livelihoods are under the constant threat of destruction.

For example, a woman who owns her own home, agricultural land and livelihood assets is more resilient to the impact of disasters and climate change. Poor and excluded communities who are aware of their rights – and have strong leaders and organisations - are more likely to claim their entitlements to reduce risks and recover from the impacts of disasters.

Our work centres on supporting people living in poverty to learn about their rights – and organise and claim their rights and hold duty bearers to account. We side with people living in poverty, challenging power abuse at the local, national or international level. We do this by empowering vulnerable people, in solidarity with others and through campaigning for change.

We support people to identify the underlying causes of their vulnerabilities – which stem from rights violation. We help individuals, households and communities to identify current and future risks that they might face - and feel empowered to deal with them. Communities are able to participate in and influence decision-making for risk reduction – and build resilient systems at all levels.  

We work with citizens, partners, organisations, networks, coalitions and alliances to create a wide support base that stands in solidarity with people who live in poverty and are vulnerable

By recognising vulnerable people as rights-holders, our campaigning aims to enhance and harness people’s power to achieve social and political changes to bring about long-term systemic change that reduces their vulnerabilities.  

Unless poor and excluded communities are empowered to deal with and demand changes that help tackle the underlying causes of their vulnerability, they will continue to be the worst affected by disasters and climate change. 

But as I walk into the living room I am reminded that this is no ordinary family. The room is packed with children - two families, a total of 14 people, live here.

In the background there is a news report on Syria playing on an old TV. The volume is off but the screen shows row upon row of bodies, the latest to fall in the war in Syria. Yara explains that she left her parents and brother behind in Syria.  She can’t afford to call them so watching the news is the only way to hear what is happening in the area they are from.
 
Yara fled the crisis in Syria with her husband and six children. They have come to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon where they live with her husband’s brother and his family. Yara’s husband cannot find work so they can’t afford a place of their own.
 
I ask Yara what life was like in Syria. “It was disastrous. There were no services, no work.  We were locked in all the time, we couldn’t go out. The bombing was less than 100 metres away from our home.  I was scared every time my husband went out to find work or to go the mosque. I never knew if he would come back.” 

Yara’s brother and sister in law came to Lebanon in March 2011, as soon as the conflict started. Yara and her husband joined them just a few months ago.  I ask them what made them leave the moment they did.
 
“The last four months we were in Syria my husband couldn’t find work.  I lost over two stone. I got so sick and depressed from the fear that we decided we needed to leave. I could handle the poverty, but it was the stress – the fear we lived in was indescribable.”
 
Yara’s face is pale and withdrawn. She looks like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders as she remembers what she experienced in Syria. She is only 30 but has suffered more pain in the last two years than most do in a lifetime.
 
I try to turn our conversation to the future but when I ask her what she hopes for she still speaks of the past; “I want things to go back to normal, to erase the horrors from people’s minds.  We have been facing horrors for two years and now we are facing a third year of war. I am desperately trying to close the wounds in my heart. I hope I will find calm.”
 
Meeting Yara is a reminder that in addition to the material support needed to help Syrian refugees rebuild their lives in Lebanon, there is an urgent need for emotional support to help them process their experiences of the conflict.  People have lived in a country ravaged by war; many have lost people close to them and witnessed unthinkable horrors.  
 
ActionAid will be providing group support sessions to refugees. 

>> Please, donate to our Syria Crisis Appeal

*names have been changed

ActionAid responded to the emergency based on our approach of 'giving power to people'. In Pakistan, we met the immediate needs of people affected by giving food, fresh drinking water, clothing and shelter. At the same time, our approach did not lose sight of our longer term goals to build up families and communities’ resilience in dealing with floods better.  This helps reduce the risk of floods destroying lives and property in the future.

Activities included forming community networks and volunteers groups, making them aware of safe places to run to when floods hit and developing early warning systems that they could use.  We also provided livelihood assistance to flood-hit families in the form of 'Cash for Work' grants.  Women used the grants to start small businesses and buy goats and other livestock. 

As part of the activities carried out, people realised that floods, to a large extent, are manmade disasters and they identified the need for better understanding of government responsibilities and structures so that they could hold them to account.

But, don’t just take our word for it. Here are some quotes from people who were directly affected by the floods:

"I am thankful to ActionAid and its partners for helping me to own a small shop. I wish my shop expands like a big business. This shop has changed my life. Now I want my children to get a good education and I devote my energies to running the shop.

"I have already added a few items like cooking oil, sugar and flour. It makes me hope that I can be a successful businesswoman. I have also learnt how to read and write. I can write my name and read dates on medicine as well."

Naseem aged 32, resident of village Langah, Kot Adu, Punjab, Pakistan.

"Thanks to ActionAid I have shelter and two goats that provide milk for my children and I know what it is to own something of my own. Now if there’s a flood at least I’ll feel more confident to ask for what my children and I need."

Sakeena aged 40, from Sindh in Pakistan.

"ActionAid was the first and only organisation to visit us during floods and they provided us with food and non-food items. I like the blanket provided by them.

They also gave my mother a sewing machine. She earns a little money from sewing the neighbour's clothes."

Sawera, an 8 year old girl from BastiBabarwala, Kot Adu, Punjab, Pakistan.

The other week I had the privilege of talking with Harjeet Singh, the International Coordinator for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Adaptation.

Harjeet spoke about the trends we are seeing with disasters today, the importance of disaster preparedness and how communities can become resilient to disaster.

Throughout this appeal we have been talking about how we can't stop disasters happening but we can help to prevent tragedies. Talking with him really opened my eyes to what it means to make a community resilient and about how some of the mechanisms for making communities prepare for the next disaster are very simple.

Harjeet spoke about teaching children to put their school bags on their heads when an earthquake hits and getting floodprone areas to farm ducks instead of chickens (ducks can survive when the water hits). He also mentioned measures such as raising houses on plynths. All of these are examples of how valuable ActionAid's disaster preparedness work is.

Watch what Harjeet has to say for yourself.

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