Social dimensions of disaster impact: tracing the parallels between extreme climatic events and the pandemic crisis.
Roger Few
Professorial Research Fellow
School of International Development, UEA
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SEMINAR PRESENTATION:
The impacts of COVID-19 have reached across the globe, directly affecting many millions of people and intensifying existing development challenges in many countries. But, while in many places the pandemic has brought a level of societal disruption seldom experienced before, in others the situation has broad parallels with the losses and disruptions experienced in recent major disasters. Every crisis is different, of course, and this one is certainly like no other contemporary event. Nevertheless, it would be unwise not to recognise the insights that can be gained from other disaster and post-disaster contexts. In July, DEV researchers brought together insights from recent research across multiple countries on disaster risk and recovery to produce a briefing document for the British Academy. This talk by the lead author presents some of the ideas and case study examples from that work.
Central in our arguments is the importance of supporting people to recover their livelihoods and wellbeing, equitably and sustainably. As in all disasters, there are much greater numbers of people affected by the coronavirus pandemic than physically harmed by the hazard (in this case a biological hazard - the outbreak of a virus). And, as in all disasters, these impacts do not fall evenly. Hence, the lessons we report on are oriented to the needs and concerns of those most vulnerable to long-term impacts, as shaped by differential exposure to hazards and barriers to recovery associated with poverty, marginalisation and exclusion.
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