Effective Communication for Disaster Management and Livelihood Vulnerability Options: A Systematic Review

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic review of relevant secondary materials on effective communication for disaster management. The paper undertook a copious review of secondary information on the concept of disaster risk communication and its ramifications on livelihood vulnerability, obtained from Google and other search engines data bases. Using the risk perception and planned behaviour theories, we espoused that the drivers of disasters and associated risks can be categorized into anthropogenic (human) and geogenic (natural) in nature. The discourse also revealed that individual's ability to secure sustainable livelihood, determines their affinity to devote some time and resources towards the compliance of disaster risk information communicated. Since some of the measures of protecting investments and livelihoods could be capital intensive, respondents would, usually want to be gainful in their occupations, or upgrading in their existing jobs, before they could develop the resilient capabilities for disaster management. It can therefore be deduced that people's vulnerability to risk is influenced largely by both gender and livelihood strategies. A stakeholder integration of efforts, based on the utility of the two theories espoused, should be the guiding framework in generating and disseminating risk communication among disaster risk stake-actors, in their scheme of affairs.