The 9th AuthorAID Climate Science Journal Club Discussion on the Relationship between Disasters and Sustainability, Resilience, and Poverty

Introduction

The 9th session of the AuthorAID Climate Science Journal club was held on 24th October 2024 to discuss a journal article entitled "Understanding the Association between Disasters and Sustainability, Resilience, and Poverty: An empirical study of the last two decades."  Dean Kyne and Dominic Kyei of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in the United States of America co-authored the article. The article was presented by Dominic Kyei during the 9th session of the journal club's meeting.The 9th session of the AuthorAID Climate Science Journal club meeting was organized in collaboration with the Ghana Climate Change and Green Economy Week. It was a week dedicated by the government of Ghana and the Environmental Protection Agency to educate the public on climate change issues through blog posts, television, and other communication channels and train basic school pupils on climate change issues. The blog post here presents the highlights, key takeaways, and call-to-action endorsed by the participants of the 9th session meeting of the journal club.

Background of the study

Climate change relates to sustainability. Sustainability boils down to how human life will be able to continue and flourish despite the adverse effects of environmental issues such as floods, drought, storms, changes in weather patterns and increases in temperatures that emerge from climate change. These ecological issues cause nations to tap into resources initially meant for a particular project to combat these emerging problems from climate change. The author emphasized on the quote from the GAR Special Report 2023, “Disasters are reversing global development. Urgent action is needed to build resilience into every decision we make.”   He noted that we are lagging behind in our quest to achieve the SDGs targets as only 17% of the targets are currently on track. However, frameworks like the Sendai Framework (2015-2030) and the Paris Climate Agreement (COP 21) have taken steps in meeting these targets.

... “Disasters are reversing global development. Urgent action is needed to build resilience into every decision we make.”

Findings of the study

Over two decades of data was analysed from 166 countries focusing on disaster impacts on sustainability, resilience, and poverty. Key findings highlighted SDGs scores and total disasters recorded for high-income (A), Middle-income (B), lower-middle-income (C), and low-income countries (D) for each respective year as shown in the figure below. High-income countries recorded a SDG score of 78.16, followed by 71.73, 63.40, and 50.70 for Middle-income, lower-middle-income, and low-income countries respectively. The discussant noted that the result for low-income countries was due to vulnerabilities and scarce means. 

In relation to disasters, he noted that high-income countries recorded 3,175 disasters. Economic losses of USD 35.7 billion to USD 3.01 trillion was also recorded for the various income-groups. Oceania recorded a minimal share in disaster impacts whereas East and South Asia recorded 31% of the global disasters. On the global level, 15,360 disasters were recorded with 1.7 million deaths and USD 4.45 trillion in economic damages, which is very worrying and disturbing.

Discussions

The author presented that there is a negative relationship between the impacts of disasters and the progress towards reaching the SDGs targets like resilience and poverty reduction. Thus when a disaster such as flood hits poor homes or one that is financially handicapped, the resilience or the bouncing back from the shock is very low. This depicts that when disasters hit harder or are very high the resilience to recover is very very low. Nevertheless, according to the discussant it was realized that as nations drain their funds to mitigate these problems, they start to put down measures to recover by strengthening their health, economic, and infrastructural systems through reinvestment and rebuilding. In recovering from disasters, regions like the Middle East and Northern Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa showed lower resilience as compared to Oceania and wealthier regions the discussant noted. A participant asked if the discussant has interest in doing a special or location-based analysis on how disaster affects the people in that region. The discussant replied that he and his co-author are working on a project considering vulnerable communities like the Colonial in the United States.

... when a disaster such as flood hits poor homes or one that is financially handicapped, the resilience or the bouncing back from the shock is very low. Which depicts that when disasters hit harder or are very high the resilience to recover is very very low.

Key takeaways

• Disasters increase poverty but effective recovery measures such as economic aid implemented could help mitigate its adverse effects.
•  Injuries to the affected population showed minimal long-term effects.

 

Recommendations and call-to-action

•  More focus should be on vulnerable regions and marginalised groups in times of disaster.
•    There should be earlier warning systems that will help people to strategize and migrate to safe habitations. These warning systems could have mitigated the impact of the unexpected cocoa virus shock two years ago in Ghana.
•   Stakeholders should go down to the grassroot level or family unit and observe the bond that exists between families especially when an important person in the family dies to be informed on how disaster affects relationships. The discussant noted that the Western North area in Ghana is a typical example of the high bond that exists between families.
• Support should be provided to low-income areas to improve resilience and combat poverty.
• Local governments should be strengthened to manage disaster and climate efforts effectively.  

The participants called on all climate change experts, practitioners and all stakeholders to add their voice in helping to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and its related impacts and join their WhatsApp platform to share their work for collaboration to drive and promote a friendly environment for all.

 

 

About the authors of the article discussed

Dean Kyne is a Professor and Director of Disaster Studies Program in the Sociology Department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA. His scholarly work includes topics like disaster and emergency management, environmental social science, sustainability, resilience, social capital, and preparedness for and evacuation during disaster and emergency events.

Dominic Kyei is a Research fellow and Assistant Instructor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA. His field of interest includes Financial sustainability, Economic Analysis of Environmental Policies and Sustainability.

Meeting Recordings

Authors (9th): Dean Kyne and Dominic Kyei

Editorial team (9th): Zerubbabel Addy Selby

IT Support: Wise Delight Duho

To join the club kindly use the link below to join our WhatsApp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/E1hhLTlM2XV7TGFUxjyEI