The inequality of risk
Disasters are life-shattering, but their effects are not the same for everyone. They are true breaking points for people with low incomes and high levels of vulnerability.
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by Janice Ian Manlutac, Oxfam America
Who you are (your ideology, gender, age, income, health) or where you live (remote rural area or island, conflict zone or hazard-prone city) determine how precarious your life is. The Asia-Pacific Action Plan 2024-2027 for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), a global agreement, recognizes that inequality and discrimination compound each other, creating a new type or level of disadvantage and risk.
Disasters are life-shattering, but their effects are not the same for everyone. They are true breaking points for people with low incomes and high levels of vulnerability. Recent research from the Malala Foundation finds that by 2025 climate change will be a contributing factor in preventing at least 12.5 million girls from completing their education each year. According to Researching Internal Displacement, if our development pathways do not change, Bangladesh, for example, will witness 13.3 million internal climate migrants due to climate-induced impacts on agriculture production, water scarcity, and rising sea levels by 2050. Research by the Asian Development Bank Institute shows that in Indonesia, 27% of the population who have income marginally higher than the poverty line can slide back into poverty if food prices surge, or if farm incomes decline due to droughts from El Niño.
But it’s not all grim; there are solutions to avoid these dark scenarios. One is to shift away from the current economic system that is geared toward amassing ever-greater wealth and profit, leading to extraction and overconsumption for a few, and scarcity and misery for many.
In 2017 a World Bank economic model showed that if all countries targeted the poorest 20% of their populations and designed disaster management programs specific to them, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, we would see $7 billion a year in avoided asset losses, and $40 billion in global gains in wellbeing.
An Asian Disaster Risk Reduction and Response Network survey revealed the importance of context-specific targeting of vulnerabilities and distribution of disaster risk reduction (DRR) resources. Although most disaster management offices in Asia Pacific now collect data, these need to be further disaggregated for more effective planning and DRR investment targeting.
We also need to use data to reduce the risk that development decisions or actions trigger, which should include public-private partnerships. We should encourage the integration of accessible and locally relevant technologies such as artificial intelligence and other mobile applications, with clear data protection measures, to address community needs, providing real-time data and risk assessments.
I live in Metro Manila where inequality is stark. One of our issues of late is air pollution. Some of the solutions that have been proposed—air purifiers or multi-million “forest communities” that are often cordoned off from the public—are designed with the rich in mind. Imagine a forest enclave for the ultra-rich as millions suffer in surrounding communities. Instead of purifiers, why not reduce car production and improve mass transport, or even plant more trees and launch a green program that benefits all?
As solutions are being offered to protect and repair some marine and terrestrial ecosystems and their services, those most responsible should acknowledge their role in this long-term and often irreversible degradation and provide reparations, including innovative technical and financial support. The new Loss and Damage Fund can shift power and decision-making to people and communities worst affected by climate change.
The Philippines, the host of the 2024 Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR), has topped the World Risk Index report for three straight years. The ministers, civil society members, academics, and other stakeholders comprising the 3500-strong participants to the 10th APMCDRR happening on October 14 to 18 in Manila have their work cut out for them to craft a regional blueprint for safeguarding Asia Pacific’s future.
Inequality has disastrous consequences, and it is high time to plug economic justice into plans for reducing risk and ensuring societies thrive amid disasters.
Janice Ian Manlutac is senior local humanitarian and disaster risk reduction advisor at international non-profit Oxfam.
