Vulnerability Assessment

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Vulnerability Assessment

• Desmond McNeill (Siri Eriksen)

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The dynamics of vulnerability locating coping
strategies in Kenya and Tanzania, The
Geographical Journal, Dec 2005 Siri Eriksen,
Katrina Brown and P Mick Kelly

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• Vulnerability various definitions
• the potential to be adversely affected by an
  event or change.
• Physical or social vulnerability.

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• IPCC three components of vulnerability
• Exposure
• Sensitivity
• Capacity to adapt.

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• Coping not same as adaptation coping is within
  existing structures, adaptation changes the
  framework in which coping takes place.
• Double exposure (OBrien and Leichenko, 2000)
  those members of society most vulnerable to
  global economic change may also be most
  vulnerable to climate change.

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• Comparative case study how small scale farmers
  in dryland East Africa cope with climate stress,
  and the implications for reducing their
  vulnerability
• Mbiti in Kenya, in Kitui District
• Saweni in Tanzania, Same District.

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• Limits to human responses faced with several
  environmental stresses. Factors exclude sections
  of population from adopting particular coping
  strategies, e.g.
• Gendered access to labour power, capital and
  natural resources and skills, and restricted
  mobility exclude many women from successfully
  adopting specialised coping strategies.

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Vulnerability Assessments in the Developing
World Mozambique and South Africa

•  Siri Eriksen, Coleen Vogel, Gina Ziervogel,
  Franziska Steinbruch and Florence Nazare

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• Different institutional starting points lead to
  assessments investigating very different
  dimensions of vulnerability
• Time scale short / long
• Stressors, e.g. natural disasters, economic
  liberalization
• Focus e.g. food security, health, economic
  activity.

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• Trends towards linking data to longer term policy
  processes.
• To identify longer term policies that target the
  causes of vulnerability, a different set of
  methods is needed than those tailored to
  emergency responses

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• Vulnerability cannot be assessed using a single
  stressor technique.
• Link assessment efforts by government sectors and
  institutions with those that are academic driven.
• Southern African Vulnerability Initiative
  www.savi.org.za

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 Why different interpretations of vulnerability
matter in climate change discourse.

• Karen OBrien, Siri Eriksen, Lynn Nygaard, Ane
  Schjolden.
• Climate Policy , 2007 (73-88).
• Synthesis Article.

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• Vulnerability is widely seen as an integrative
  concept that can link the social and biophysical
  dimensions of environmental change.
• But vulnerability means different things to
  different researchers.
• These different definitions are manifestations of
  different discourses that not only represent
  different approaches to science, but also
  different political responses to climate change.
• Can they be integrated?

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• Discourses and framings do matter. They influence
  the questions asked, the knowledge produced, and
  the policies and responses that are prioritized.
• Contrast
• Outcome vulnerability
• Contextual vulnerability.

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• Outcome vulnerability a linear result of the
  projected impacts of climate change on a
  particular exposure unit (biophysical or social),
  offset by adaptation measures.
• Contextual vulnerability both climate
  variability and change are considered to occur in
  the context of political, institutional, economic
  and social structures and changes which interact
  dynamically.

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• Climate change modifies biophysical conditions,
  which alter the context for responding to other
  processes of change e.g. economic
  liberalization, political decentralization, the
  spread of epidemics.
• Reducing vulnerability (then) involves altering
  the context in which climate change occurs.

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• These are two fundamentally different ways of
  framing the climate change problem.
• The first is depoliticised/technical.

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• Scientific framings. Firm boundaries are drawn
  between nature and society, and focus is mainly
  on nature as part of the earth system.
• Vulnerability is the negative outcome of
  climate change on any unit, that can be
  quantified and measured, and reduced through
  technical measures as well as reducing greenhouse
  gases emissions.

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• Human-security framings may refer to more than
  food security or economic performance, and
  include e.g. a sense of belonging, respect,
  social and cultural heritage, equality and
  distribution of wealth, etc.

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• Identifying conceptualisations of vulnerability.
  Each tends to lead to similar types of diagnoses
  and recommendations
• Ref two studies in Mozambique, one of each kind
  outcome, contextual

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• It is not explicit which conceptualization is
  used, but this can be identified.
• Prioritized questions
• Focal points
• Methods
• Identified results
• Policy responses

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Conclusion

• Vulnerability reduction may be rhetorically
  non-controversial, but what this means in
  practice depends on the interpretation of
  vulnerability.
• The definition of vulnerability affects the type
  of adaptation that is promoted, hence decisions
  on what, how and who to fund.
• Is it possible to reconcile these?

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• Quote Newell et al
• If the knowledge that we seek to integrate
  consists of disparate models of causality, then
  the integration process cannot be simply a matter
  of building a shared language. Single words
  take multiple meanings when different speakers
  have different models and examples in mind. We
  must be particularly wary of superficial
  approaches to developing better communication
  that only appear to remove conceptual
  confusiona common language may still hide
  divergent assumptions

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• There have been many attempts to integrate the
  two, but without much success.
• Two cultures?
• Not exactly natural sciences vs. social sciences,
  but rather reductionist vs. holist approaches.
• Economics is an example of the former, ecology of
  the latter.

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• The dominance of the scientific framing of
  climate change has meant that the scope of
  adaptation policies has been interpreted quite
  narrowly.
• Increased attention to the human-security framing
  of climate change may raise the relevance of
  climate change to broader communities and create
  a greater urgency for understanding the
  complexities of the system.

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• Thank you!