Research Partnership with Developing Countries
A Programme funded by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Towards sustainable disaster preparedness. The role of local, national and global responses in enhancing societal resilience to natural hazards in India and Nicaragua

Swiss Coordinator : Dr. Jennifer Duyne Barenstein
Main Foreign partners: M.A. José Luis Rocha, M.A. Sushma Iyengar
Cooperation with : Nicaragua, India
Disciplines : Sociology, social anthropology

Abstract
Over the last decades the frequency and severity of natural disasters has significantly increased, with dramatic consequences in particular for developing countries. Disasters have profound immediate and long-term impacts on society. The immense human and material losses associated with disasters often slow-down economic growth and lead to increased poverty and inequality. There is a close link between disasters and sustainable development. Natural hazards undermine the achievement of sustainable development goals, but sometimes are also the tragic evidence of unsustainable development patterns. However, disasters may also offer an opportunity for change. They may raise awareness about a society’s adaptive failures and thereby contribute to reconsider technological, institutional and resource management choices. Accordingly, they may enhance society’s preparedness to face future natural hazards. Depending on communities’ own coping capacity and on the contextual adequacy of national and international disaster responses, the long-term negative consequences may be mitigated and people’s future resilience to natural hazards may be enhanced. The impact of disaster responses on future disaster preparedness cannot be analysed immediately after a hazardous event. Yet, much research focuses on the social impact of natural hazards immediately or only a short period after a specific disaster occurrence. There is a paucity of comparative research on medium and long-term disaster responses and on their impact of disasters on future disaster preparedness.
The project proposes to analyse the impact of hazards experiences on a society’s future disaster preparedness by focusing on two extremely hazard-prone countries: India and Nicaragua. Our research will focus on the social and institutional responses to two natural hazards in India (the Gujarat earthquake of 2001 and the Tsunami that hit coastal South India in December 2004) and one hazard in Nicaragua (the Hurricane Mitch in 1998).
With a comparative analysis of overall societal disaster responses, the proposed research partnership aims to contribute to understanding how socio-cultural, institutional and political variables influence the content and outcome of local, national and global responses to natural hazards, and how those responses affect future disaster preparedness. More specifically, we will address the following research questions:

• What socio-economic, cultural and institutional adaptive failures led to turning a natural hazard into a disaster?
• What social and institutional responses were triggered by the disasters?
• What was the influence of previous disaster experiences on the responses of communities, government, NGOs and civil society?
• What long-term socio-economic, cultural and institutional changes were set in motion by the disasters?
• What is the likely impact of specific disaster responses on people’s coping capacity and disaster preparedness?

Mapping livelihood resources in Gujarat

The research project will involve junior and senior social scientists from India, Nicaragua and Switzerland. By means of an analysis of policy documents, global disaster mitigation strategies, and other secondary data we will investigate the relation between global disaster responses and national disaster management policies and practices. Through semi-structured interviews with key actors (e.g. government officials, NGO representatives, representatives of civil society organisations and members of locally elected bodies) we will analyse the relation between government, NGOs and civil society and its impact on disaster responses. Finally, by means of multi-sited micro-level anthropological case studies and household surveys we will analyse the impact of disasters and related responses on people’s coping strategies and resilience to natural hazards. A common analytical framework and research instruments will be jointly developed during the first phase of the project and will ensure comparability of the two countries.
This project, as much social science disaster research, has academic as well as applied objectives. We will share our findings with the academic, humanitarian and development community through workshops, seminars and publications in India, Nicaragua and Switzerland. The team’s excellent contacts, previous and on-going academic and professional commitments in the field of disaster research and management may be taken as an assurance that the project will indeed achieve both objectives.

Contact Addresses:

a) In Switzerland:
Dr. Jennifer Duyne Barenstein
Institute for Applied Sustainability to the Built Environment
University for Applied Science (SUPSI) (Switzerland)
Via Trevano
CH - 6952 CANOBBIO
Email: jennifer.duyne(at)supsi.ch

Dr. Esther Leemann
Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology
University of Lucerne (Switzerland)
Kasernenplatz 3
CH-6003 Luzern
Email: esther.leemann(at)unilu.ch

b) In India:
Ms. Sushma Iyengar
Kutch Nav Nirman Abhiyan
Rajaram Plot, Near Xaviers School, Bhuj
370001, Kutch District, Gujarat
Email: sushma_iyengar(at)rediffmail.com

c) In Nicaragua
José-Luis Rocha
Instituto de Investigación y Desarrollo de Nitlapán
Universidad Centroamericana (UCA)
Managua, Nicaragua
Email: jlrochag(at)ns.uca.edu.ni