The role of humanitarian aid in the restoration of livelihoods in post-earthquake Gujarat

Background and objectives

On January 26^th 2001 the Indian state of Gujarat suffered a devastating earthquake.  About 25,000 people lost their lives and 167,000 were injured.  Nearly one million homes were damaged or destroyed.  Swiss civil society expressed its solidarity with the victims of the Gujarat earthquake with significant financial donations.  The foundation “Swiss Solidarity” launched a fund-raising campaign immediately after the earthquake and in a few weeks was able to collect over 14,4 millions Swiss Francs.  With this fund Swiss Solidarity –through projects implemented by 12 Indian NGOs in collaboration with 6 Swiss NGOs– provided relief and rehabilitation aid to thousands of earthquake victims.  This research project aims at promoting a reflection among NGOs in India and Switzerland about the role of international humanitarian aid in post-disaster livelihood restoration.  The project focuses on how the victims of the Gujarat earthquake themselves perceive their situation three years after the earthquake.  How did this tragic event affect their lives? What was the role of local individual and collective initiatives and of informal social security systems in their livelihood restoration?  What was the role of external aid?  Which approaches responded most adequately to their needs?  What was the impact of initiatives aiming at triggering empowerment and behavioural changes?  How did local power structures affect the implementation of relief and rehabilitation projects?  We intend to throw some light on how disasters and related international aid affect people’s individual and collective livelihood strategies. 

Methodology

The study is carried out in 3 phases. The first phase involves two distinct activities. We prepare geo-referenced maps of the rehabilitated settlements, key infrastructure and natural resources by using GIS. These are instrumental to assess whether humanitarian aid succeeded in matching or improving the pre-earthquake social and physical infrastructure.  We further apply participatory research methods to capture the specific local socio-economic and cultural context and to reconstruct together with different categories of stakeholders their perceptions of the pre-earthquake situation, the immediate impact of the earthquake and the local responses to that tragic event.  The second phase builds upon the findings of the first phase by focusing on the households’ perspectives.  We will carry out a survey with a random sample of approx. 150 households in each research site. During the third phase we will conduct a number of micro case studies on specific issues that emerged from the analysis of the survey by means of in-depth interviews with key informants.

Institutional framework

This action research project is carried out jointly by the Department of Administrative and Social Sciences of the University of Applied Sciences of Lugano (DSAS-SUPSI), Ecosmart India, and the Department for Social Anthropology of the University of Zurich.  The DSAS is the project initiator and leading institution.  The project is funded the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and by Swiss Solidarity.

Expected output

The findings of this research project will provide the basis for a collective reflection about best practices in disaster relief and humanitarian aid.  They will be shared with key Indian and international stakeholders within the framework of a number of seminars and workshops.  The findings of the study will be documented through reports and publications in India and Switzerland.

Timeframe

September 2004 - August 2005

Further information

Please contact Dr. Jennifer Duyne Barenstein (jennifer.duyne@supsi.ch) or

Dr. Vijay Joshi (vijay.joshi@ecosmartindia.com)