Revisiting the ‘disaster and development’ debate – Toward a broader understanding of macroeconomic risk and resilience

Abstract

Debate regarding the relationship between socioeconomic development and natural disasters remains at the fore of global discussions, as the potential risk from climate extremes and uncertainty pose an increasing threat to developmental prospects. This study reviews statistical investigations of disaster and development linkages, across topics of macroeconomic growth, public governance and others to identify key challenges to the current approach to macro-level statistical investigation. Both theoretically and qualitatively, disaster is known to affect development through a number of channels: haphazard development, weak institutions, lack of social safety nets and short-termism of our decision-making practices are some of the factors that drive natural disaster risk. Developmental potentials, including the prospects for sustainable and equitable growth, are in turn threatened by such accumulation of disaster risks. However, quantitative evidence regarding these complex causality chains remains contested due to several reasons. A number of theoretical and methodological limitations have been identified, including the use of GDP as a proxy measurement of welfare, issues with natural disaster damage reporting and the adoption of ad hoc model specifications and variables, which render interpretation and cross-comparison of statistical analysis difficult. Additionally, while greater attention is paid to economic and institutional parameters such as GDP, remittance, corruption and public expenditure as opposed to hard-to-quantify yet critical factors such as environmental conditions and social vulnerabilities. These are gaps in our approach that hamper our comprehensive understanding of the disaster-development nexus. Important areas for further research are identified, including recognizing and addressing the data constraints, incorporating sustainability and equity concerns through alternatives to GDP, and finding novel approaches to examining the complex and dynamic relationships between risk, vulnerability, resilience, adaptive capacity and development.

The Good, the Bad, and the Uncertain: Contributions of Volunteered Geographic Information to Community Disaster Resilience

“…SER considers the amount of disturbance the system can absorb, the system's ability for self-organization, and the degree to which the system can build and increase capacity for learning and adaptation (transformability) (Carpenter and Gunderson, 2001;Folke, 2006). Rather than focusing on ecosystems or societies as separated entities, recognition of the dynamic interplay between the social and ecological components is critical in understanding system resilience (Gallopín, 2006).…”

Segmentation Based on Attitudes Toward Corporate Social Responsibility in Relation to Demographical Variables and Personal Values – Quantitative and Qualitative Study of Polish Consumers

“…Furthermore, there was no relationship found between reaction to CSR advertisement and education level. Other authors suggest that studies exploring the relationships between demographical variables such as age or income and perception of CSR or proecological attitudes often give insignificant or opposite results due to the fact that the actual relationship is curvilinear (Tian et al, 2011;Park et al, 2012).…”

Reflecting Disaster Risk in Development Indicators

“…Displacement of population and disruption of services, such as potable water and waste treatment facilities, could lead to outbreaks of infectious diseases. Commonly observed health impacts of disasters include enteric diseases, respiratory illnesses, mental health issues, and vector borne diseases such as malaria [24][25][26]. Higher levels of vaccination, the safe disposal of dead bodies, better nutrition, and good hygiene practices can reduce the risk of such follow-on impacts.…”